Scott Satterfield led the Bearcats into the 2026 season, coming off a mediocre year in 2025. Georgia Southern QB JC French makes the jump from Georgia Southern, and it will be interesting to see how he does at the Power 4 conference level and if he can fill the shoes of disgraced, departed Brandan Sorsby. The Bearcats’ running back room has a new look to it as their top options from a year ago are no longer with the program. It will be a tough ask for injury-riddled Zion Johnson to fill the shoes of Tawee Walker. Louisiana transfer Zylan Perry missed time in the spring, so his status is in question. The Bearcats lost their top six receiving options from a year ago and currently have nobody on the roster who has over 20 career catches. The Bearcats will have a tough time replacing the services of Cyrus Allen, who led the BIG 12 in catches last year with 51 and 13 touchdown catches. The offensive line returns 3 starters and will need to do their part to protect their new QB and open up lanes for the running game. New co-offensive coordinators Nic Cardwell and Pete Thomas will be put to the test early and often.

Nate Woody takes over as defensive coordinator and will look to rebuild a defense that lost 4 of its top 5 tacklers from a year ago, including top tackler Jake Golday, who is now with the Vikings. Woody will deploy a 3-4 scheme that will focus more on pass rushing than the previous 3-3-5 scheme did. All of the transfers the Bearcats brought in this year are from lower conference schools, and it’s yet to be determined if they can compete at this level of football. The Bearcats’ 2-deep in the secondary has zero logged interceptions at the power conference level.

Stephen Rusnak returns as the placekicker along with punter Max Fletcher.  Kent State transfer Cade Wolford is projected to take over both the punt and kick return duties. The Bearcats have a lot of fresh faces on their roster, sandwiched in with two new coordinators. Trying to gain ground in the BIG 12 will be a tough task in 2026 and even more of an uphill battle if the running back room can’t stay healthy.