Bill O'Brien's third season in Chestnut Hill opened the same way the last two ended — outmatched up front — as Cincinnati ran away from Boston College at Nippert Stadium.
Both sidelines opened the season with brand-new quarterbacks and zero track record against each other. Cincinnati handed the job to JC French IV, a transfer from Georgia Southern who won the gig after Brendan Sorsby left for the transfer portal, and he delivered right away — a touchdown pass to JV Gibson got the Bearcats on the board. Boston College countered with Mason McKenzie, a Division 2 transfer from Saginaw Valley State whom O'Brien had promised the job to since he recruited him, in O'Brien's first season calling his own plays.
+JC French IV scored 3 total touchdowns in his debut
+Home opener, 4 straight games at Nippert to open
−Only 5 total returning starters
−Breaking in a brand-new starting quarterback
Cincinnati built this thing from the trenches out. Only 5 returning starters dot the roster, but 3 of them anchor an offensive line that includes All-American guard-turned-center Taran, All-Big 12 left tackle Joe Cotton, and All-American left guard Evan Tengesdahl. That kind of continuity up front is worth more in a Week 1 game full of unproven quarterbacks than almost anything else on either depth chart, and it showed immediately — Cincinnati never trailed.
Boston College is on the other end of a roster teardown, still working through the fallout of a 2-10 finish that put O'Brien's seat on notice. Half the roster turned over through the portal, with 25 true freshmen mixed in, and it looked exactly like a team still learning each other through the first 30 minutes — nothing on the scoreboard before halftime.
French didn't stop at the one throw. He punched in 2 rushing touchdowns himself in the third quarter as Cincinnati's lead ballooned to 24-0, turning what was a competent 10-0 halftime edge into a laugher before Boston College ever got on the board. The Eagles finally scored on an 8-point third-quarter drive and added another touchdown in the fourth, but by then it was well out of reach.
For a Bearcats team replacing its quarterback and breaking in a new starter, getting scores out of both his arm and his legs in his debut is about as clean a start as it gets. For Boston College, the boxscore reads a lot like last season's did — competitive stretches bookending long scoreless ones — which is the exact problem O'Brien brought in 26 transfers to fix.
It's one Saturday in a long season for both. Cincinnati has 3 more home games at Nippert before it has to travel, while Boston College heads back to Chestnut Hill to try to find its footing with a roster that's still getting to know itself. But as an opening measuring stick, the trenches told the story they usually do.
