JC French locks down Bearcats' starting QB job
Fall camp settled the only real question left in Cincinnati — Georgia Southern grad transfer JC French is QB1 — while the roster gets a jolt from Jason Kelce and Bob Huggins joining the program's 50th anniversary Hall of Fame class.
JC French is QB1, and camp already trusts him
Cincinnati named Georgia Southern transfer JC French its starting quarterback, a source told On3's Pete Nakos, and by the end of fall camp that call had stopped being news and started being the plan. French arrives with 26 career starts and 5,760 passing yards over the last two seasons, and Scott Satterfield's read on him after the final scrimmage was blunt approval: "I think he's had a solid camp. Every scenario that we put him through, I think he learns from it." French described his own camp in similar terms, saying he "kept growing throughout fall camp on the offense, and established good chemistry as it went on," per SI's Bearcats beat coverage.
It has not been clean. Quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas acknowledged French threw interceptions in both scrimmages and called him inconsistent day to day, but praised how he answers a bad rep — French has "bounced back from those real well," Thomas said. That is the version of a quarterback battle Cincinnati actually wanted: not a competition still to be settled, but a proven grad transfer working out the kinks against his own defense before Boston College shows up with something different to prepare for. Satterfield's ask is simple — make good decisions, protect the ball — and that is the whole ballgame for a team that has not lost its starter to a mystery in months.
Kelce and Huggins headline the 50th anniversary Hall of Fame class
Before camp wrapped, the school handed out the best kind of distraction: Jason Kelce and Bob Huggins are going into Cincinnati's 50th Anniversary Hall of Fame Class of 2026, first reported by Brett McMurphy and confirmed by Pete Thamel. Kelce's path is the one Bearcats fans love telling — a walk-on linebacker who converted to the offensive line, became an All-Big East pick, and turned that into a Super Bowl ring and a Philadelphia legend's career. "From a walk-on at Cincinnati to a Super Bowl champion and NFL legend," as Bleacher Report's college football account put it.
Huggins goes in on the basketball side, which is a reminder that this induction class is bigger than one program's football moment — it is the whole athletic department claiming its most famous alum in either sport. For a fan base heading into a rebuild under a new-look quarterback room, getting to spend a week talking about Kelce instead of the depth chart is its own kind of good news.
Last season ended in the Military Bowl, and it wasn't close
Cincinnati's 2025 came apart in the final month — a 45-14 loss at Utah, a 30-24 defeat at home to Arizona, a 26-14 loss to BYU, and a 45-23 setback at TCU — before Navy closed the book with a 35-13 win on January 2 to finish the year. That finish is the last real form anybody has on this roster, and it is why the quarterback change matters as much as it does: last year's team could not protect leads or the football down the stretch, and protecting the football is precisely what Satterfield has spent camp asking French to do.
There is no 2026 record yet — Cincinnati opens at 0-0 — so that Navy loss in the bowl game is context for what comes next, not current form. It is the version of this team the new starting quarterback is being asked to replace.
Nippert opens against a Boston College team that rebuilt its trenches
Cincinnati opens on September 5 vs. Boston College at Nippert Stadium, and the Eagles arrive with almost as much turnover as the Bearcats do. Bill O'Brien handed the job to Mason McKenzie, a Division II transfer from Saginaw Valley State, after Dylan Lonergan left for Rutgers and Grayson James ran out of eligibility — an entirely rebuilt quarterback room, same as Cincinnati's. BC also went shopping in the portal to fix the worst-ranked ground game in the ACC, adding offensive linemen Kristian Phillips, Reggie Jackson and Trevon Humphrey along with running backs Evan Dickens and Nolan Ray, all pointed at a run game that was the Eagles' biggest problem a year ago.
New signage in Nippert 👀 t.co/mnyhMapGoF
Cincinnati opened as a 7.5-point favorite for the opener, with the total set at 51.5, and the crew that hung new signage inside Nippert this week clearly likes their chances of a show-up crowd for it. Two rebuilt quarterback rooms, two staffs still figuring out who they are — that is a genuinely interesting way to start a season, line or no line.