All Sooners

Oklahoma 2023 Schedule Preview: Cincinnati

The Sooners and Bearcats will meet for their first - and last- conference showdown in late September.

Randall Sweet

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As August closes in, AllSooners previews every game on the 2023 schedule.

Oklahoma’s 12-game regular season schedule features six home games, five road games and the annual neutral-site Red River Showdown.

Following a non-conference slate of Arkansas State, SMU and Tulsa, the Sooners meet Cincinnati in their first Big 12 contest of 2023.

After an impressive string of success over the past decade, the Cincinnati Bearcats begin their lives in the Big 12 this season. 

Bearcats' first-year head coach Scott Satterfield's team will be welcomed to their new conference by Brent Venables and Oklahoma, who are looking to have a bounce-back season.

"I looked at that and I was like, 'Oh, OK, they're going to send us one of the most recognizable teams in the country to play the first game,' " Satterfield said at Big 12 Media Days. "I thought, 'That's exciting.' To be your first game in the Big 12, to be able to play a team like that with so much history, Heisman Trophy winners in the past, have really done some exciting things in the game of football for a long time, to bring them to our stadium, we know it's going to be a hot ticket. We know it's going to be very electric."

Satterfield is in his first year as the Bearcats head coach, previously leading the Louisville Cardinals. Satterfield was brought to Cincinnati to replace Luke Fickell after the former Bearcats coach was hired at Wisconsin.

Last season, a year after becoming the first Group of 5 team to make the College Football Playoff, Cincinnati went 9-4, falling to Louisville 24-7 in the Fenway Bowl. In their first season since star quarterback Desmond Ridder left for the NFL Draft, the Bearcats ranked 59th nationally on offense and 20th on defense.

In 2021, Ridder and Fickell led Cincinnati to a remarkable 13-1 record, losing only to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP semifinal. That same year, the Bearcats were 11th in the nation on offense and fifth on defense.

Despite getting blown out by Alabama, Cincinnati still finished the 2021-22 season ranked in the top four of the final AP Poll.

Oklahoma's 2023 Schedule:

Despite a solid outing last season, Cincinnati brought in over 20 transfers this offseason, including new starting quarterback Emory Jones. Jones was a 4-star recruit in the 2018 class who began his career at Florida before spending the 2022 season at Arizona State. 

Last year with the Sun Devils, Jones threw for 1,533 yards and seven touchdowns in eight games. During his final season with the Gators, the Georgia native tallied 2,734 yards and 19 touchdowns through the air to go along with 759 yards and four touchdowns on the ground. Jones got substantial playing time and made an impact  against the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2020 season.

The Bearcats also added a new target for Jones in the transfer portal with former Connecticut wideout Aaron Turner joining the team over the offseason. Turner recorded 527 receiving yards and three touchdowns with the Huskies last season. 

Getting Turner on campus was huge for Satterfield and company, as the Bearcats lost both Tre Tucker and Tyler Scott, their two leading receivers from last year. Cincinnati also lost Charles McClelland, their leading rusher from the 2022-23 season.

Junior LSU transfer Corey Kiner, who ran for 386 yards and five touchdowns with the Bearcats last year, is slated to take over as the team's lead tailback. Kiner's production will be crucial in Satterfield's offense, as the former Louisville head coach loves to run the football. 

The 1-2 punch of Jones and Kiner could keep OU's run defense on their toes, but Cincinnati's largely unproven group of wide receivers and Jones' shaky history throwing the ball should give Venables and company a sigh of relief.

Get to Know Cincinnati

Sept. 23, Cincinnati, OH

  • Series: OU leads 2-0
  • Head coach: Scott Satterfield, 1st year, 11th overall (76-48)
  • 2022 record: 9-4 (6-2 American)
  • 2022 offense: 81st overall (94th rushing, 55th passing, 59th scoring)
  • 2022 defense: 29th overall (72nd rushing, 11th passing, 20th scoring)

Defensively, the Bearcats will likely be solid once again. 

Cincinnati brought back standout defensive linemen Dontay Corleone and Jowon Briggs while adding former Nevada and Utah State defensive lineman Daniel Grzesiak through the transfer portal.

Corleone was Cincinnati's only non-specialist representative on the 2023 Preseason All-Big 12 team after earning third team All-American honors for his efforts in 2022. Briggs was named first team All-AAC in 2022 after recording 61 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.

With Corleone and Briggs already fortifying the interior of the Bearcats defensive line, Satterfield and company brought in Grzesiak to bolster their edge rush group. Listed at 6-foot-1 and 250 pounds, the redshirt senior notched 13 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two pass breakups last year at Utah State. 

With the Sooners forced to replace both offensive tackle positions and at least one position on the interior after the departures of Chris Murray, Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris, the Bearcats' impressive trio of defensive lineman could cause trouble for OU's offense.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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