Cincinnati Rushing Attack Runs Over Kansas State 31-26 as Bearcats Start 4-0

Kansas State arrived at Nippert having allowed 288 rushing yards all season, and Cincinnati ran for 271 Saturday.

The Bearcats are 4-0 for the first time since 2021, and I still don’t trust the first halves.

The Cincinnati rushing attack handled the memorable part: 271 yards on 38 carries against the nation’s No. 2 total defense. Gi’Bran Payne ran for 126 and Cole Tabb ran for 124 with three touchdowns. Cincinnati beat Kansas State 31-26 in its Big 12 opener, per the official game book. For the second straight week, the Bearcats climbed out of a double-digit hole, a week after the Victory Bell comeback. UC’s postgame notes say the program last did that in back-to-back games in 2011. It was also Cincinnati’s first win over Kansas State since Oct. 22, 1966, per K-State’s series history. I’ll get to the part that bothers me. Start with the part that worked.

The Cincinnati Rushing Attack Ran Straight at Kansas State

Kansas State knew what was coming. Scott Satterfield spent the week saying this one would come down to the lines, and K-State’s own preview quoted him saying it. Satterfield said afterward the Wildcats brought their safeties into the box, as expected, and Cincinnati ran at them anyway. “We were a physical team tonight,” he told reporters. “Just trying to impose our will running the football.”

Payne needed 16 carries for his 126 yards, and his 53-yard run in the second quarter was the longest of his career. Tabb, by comparison, needed 11 for his 124. Cincinnati averaged 7.1 yards a carry and hit six plays of 30 or more yards. Per the notes, that is UC’s most in a game since the 2024 opener against Towson. The receivers earned a share of that. “You look out there and see our receivers flying in the box willing to get dirty,” Tabb said. “We get the fan engagement, but they are the ones that do the dirty work. We just get the profit.”

About That No. 2 Kansas State Defense

K-State fans will correctly point out that the Wildcats built that ranking against Nicholls, an FCS team, as well as Washington State and Tulane. The AP’s game story said as much. The No. 2 label also hides a split. K-State’s own game notes had the pass defense first in the country and the run defense 29th. Twenty-ninth means 96 yards a game, and three games at that average is where the 288 comes from. Nobody had thrown on them yet, and the run number against that schedule tells you less than the ranking implies. Cincinnati ran on them a lot, with the safeties down in the box, which is the part I care about. I’d still like to see this line do it to a front that has already stopped somebody, and the trip to Arizona is the first chance.

The Third Quarter Turned on Two Possessions

Kansas State led 10-0 in the second quarter and 17-10 at the break. Trailing at halftime is starting to feel like part of the Saturday routine around here. On Kansas State’s first snap of the second half, Avery Johnson hit Derrick Salley Jr. for 34 yards. Antwan Peek Jr. knocked the ball loose at the K-State 40, and MJ Cannon recovered at the Cincinnati 45. The forced fumble was the ninth of Peek’s career, and the notes say it moves him alone into second place in school history. The record, 17, belongs to his father, Antwan Sr., which has to make for interesting dinners.

Seven plays later, Tabb walked in from the 5. The key play was a 32-yard JC French IV throw to Larenzo Fenner on third-and-2. Kansas State then went three-and-out, and Malachi Henry returned the punt 36 yards to the Kansas State 36. Tabb went 30 yards up the middle on third-and-4. A tie game became a seven-point lead with 3:29 on the game clock. “The next thing you know we’re up 7 just like that in the third quarter,” Satterfield said. “It was a pivotal point in the game.”

Third-and-21 Before Halftime, Third-and-2 After

The book explains the swing better than any quote. Cincinnati’s first-half third downs came with 17, 21, 10 and 7 yards to go. The Bearcats converted none of them. Then, after halftime, the distances were 6, 2, 4, 13, 2, 1 and 11, and Cincinnati converted five of seven. The average starting field position moved from the Cincinnati 16 before the break to the Cincinnati 41 after the break. Six of Cincinnati’s eight penalties came in the first half. One was the offensive pass interference call that erased a 42-yard completion to Isaiah Johnson at the Kansas State 20. I’ve watched this program talk itself into third-and-21 for years. The difference Saturday was that it stopped after halftime.

Avery Johnson Threw 50 Passes, Which Was the Plan

Johnson ran for 152 yards against Tulane a week earlier, per the AP, and arrived with 253 rushing yards on the season. Cincinnati instead held him to six carries for 38 yards. The trade was that he threw 50 times, completed 30, and finished with 292 yards without taking a sack. Kansas State outgained Cincinnati 447-436 and had 25 first downs to 16. The Wildcats also ran 80 plays to 51 and held the ball for 33:18. Satterfield said the trade was intentional. “We want him to attempt 50 passes and not run the football effectively,” he said, per Bearcats On SI.

The defense earned that trade in two places. Kansas State’s two longest drives went 16 plays for 88 yards and 17 plays for 65 yards. Together they ran 33 snaps and 15:48 of clock and produced six points. The Wildcats went 5-for-5 in the red zone but scored touchdowns on only three of those trips. The two field goals came from the 4 and the 18. By the book’s quarter totals, Kansas State averaged 6.3 yards a play before halftime and 4.9 after it. Still, here is the thing I said I’d get to: 292 passing yards and zero sacks. Arizona, of course, has a week to study that.

Cole Tabb Has Done This Two Weeks in a Row

At some point we need to stop treating Tabb like the other guy in Cincinnati’s backfield. His touchdowns came from 5, 30 and 14 yards, all after halftime. The notes say he is the first Bearcat since Demarco McCleskey in 1998 to score three touchdowns in consecutive games. His 124 yards made his first 100-yard game at Cincinnati and the second of his career. The other came against Florida State last November, when he was at Stanford. Payne also has three 100-yard games in four weeks. Corey Kiner and Ryan Montgomery were the last UC pair to clear 100 in one game, against UCF in 2023.

French, meanwhile, threw 13 passes. He missed his first three and completed eight of the last 10 for 165 yards. His one touchdown was a 39-yard strike to Henry in the second quarter. Per the notes, it was Cincinnati’s longest scoring pass of the season and Henry’s first as a Bearcat. The 64-yarder to JV Gibson in the third quarter should have produced more. Zion Johnson fumbled at the Kansas State 17 on the next snap, and that red-zone trip died there. On the clinching drive, French’s hard count drew Darien Whitaker offside on fourth-and-4 near midfield. Tabb finished it from 14 yards out with 3:28 left. So load the box against the Cincinnati rushing attack and you risk 39- and 64-yard passes. I’m not sure what a defense tries next.

Nippert at Night and the First Win Over K-State Since 1966

Nippert sounded like Nippert. The game book lists 37,562 in the building for a 7:05 kickoff. UC’s notes put the Bearcats at 41-16 in Nippert at Night games since 2006. Kenny Worthy said Tuesday the energy at those games “is unmatched.” He called it “like nothing I have ever been a part of before.” Saturday certainly backed him up.

The history took longer. Cincinnati had lost its last three meetings with Kansas State. The scores were 23-21 at Nippert in 1995, 35-0 in Manhattan in 1996 and 41-15 in Manhattan in 2024. UC’s own preview notes listed 1996 as Cincinnati’s last win in the series. There’s one problem: that’s the 35-0 game. K-State’s own records show the previous Bearcats win came 28-14 at Nippert on Oct. 22, 1966. The series now stands 5-3, Cincinnati, and the loss was the first for Kansas State under first-year coach Collin Klein. It is also Satterfield’s first 4-0 start as a head coach, and UC’s seventh since 2000. The notes point out that the previous six all ended in a bowl game.

What Has to Travel to Tucson

The Bearcats leave Cincinnati for the first time this season on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Arizona. Kickoff is 11 p.m. Eastern on FOX, according to UC’s recap. Cincinnati has outscored opponents 107-27 after halftime this season, which is impressive and also a description of a team that keeps needing to. The Bearcats, after all, trailed by 21 against Miami and by 10 against Kansas State. Eventually, playing from behind against Big 12 teams gets expensive. The AP noted Cincinnati closed 2025 with four straight Big 12 losses. The last 4-0 start, in 2021, ended in the College Football Playoff. I don’t know which of those teams this is yet.

The thing I’ll be watching in Tucson is simple: Cincinnati’s first four third downs. Saturday, none of the first four needed fewer than 7 yards, and one needed 21. The Bearcats were down 10 before any of that changed. If those stay in single digits in the desert, the Cincinnati rushing attack can handle the rest. If they don’t, we’ll find out whether the comeback routine travels.