Bearcats head coach Scott Satterfield was quick to state his excitement that it's game week after nine months of hard work to get ready for the 2024 season.

"Our guys have worked extremely hard to come together as a football team, to be a connected football team, to be a disciplined football team," Satterfield said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. "So we're excited about playing somebody else and not hitting each other and getting out on the field and playing in Nippert."

Satterfield has been effusive when talking about the atmosphere at Nippert Stadium on game days, encouraging fans to show up and show out when the Bearcats host Towson on Saturday afternoon. The game will not only kick off the 2024 season for the Bearcats, but also kick off the 100th Anniversary of Nippert Stadium.

"It's such a tremendous home-field advantage for us to be able to play at Nippert," Satterfield said. "We got a lot of new guys that are exciting to watch, and we also got a lot of guys back that are exciting to watch."

When asked what constitutes success in his second season as the Bearcats head coach, Satterfield emphasized "defending the Nip" after Cincinnati went just 1-6 at home in 2023. The Bearcats are still searching for their first ever Big 12 home win.

The Bearcats first Big 12 game in 2024 is Sept. 21 against Houston at Nippert Stadium, and the Bearcats will play three non-conference games leading into Big 12 play. Just like the Bearcats did to open the 2023 season, the Bearcats will host an FCS school to open the 2024 season when they host Towson.

Every week in Frankie's Forensics, I'll take a look at Players to Watch at each position group on the opposition. With that, here are the Players to Watch on the Towson Tigers.

Head Coach: Pete Shinnick - Shinnick enters his second season as the Tigers head coach, coming off a 5-6 season in 2023. The Tigers, though, showed some mettle in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) by beating top 15-FCS teams No. 14 New Hampshire and No. 13 William & Mary both on the road.

Towson is returning four starting offensive linemen from a year ago, and they also bring back one of the players at the D-II level in tight end Carter Runyon.

Runyon became Towson's first ever D-II All-American in 2023, leading the CAA with 549 receiving yards on a Towson-leading 43 receptions with four touchdowns.

Shinnick is entering his 22nd season, overall, as a head coach with previous stints at West Florida, UNC Pembroke and Azusa Pacific. He is the son of former Baltimore Colts linebacker, Don Shinnick, who still holds the NFL career record for interceptions by a linebacker with 37 and played on the Colts 1958 and 1959 NFL Championship teams.

Quarterback: Nathan Kent, who started in 2023, is poised to begin his second season as Towson's starting quarterback. Kent is coming off a strong first season as the Tigers starting quarterback with over 2,100 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and just six interceptions. The highlight of his season was a 252-yard, five-touchdown performance in a win at New Hampshire that earned him the CAA's Offensive Player of the Week.

Running Back: Devin Matthews enters his fourth season with the Tigers and is the team's leading returning rusher from a year ago. Matthews is seventh in Towson program history with 23 rushing touchdowns.

Matthews played his best in Towson's two road wins over top-15 FCS teams, rushing for 116 and 117 yards in the wins over New Hampshire and William & Mary, respectively. He is Towson's primary running back, and the Bearcats are going to have to stop the run with Towson being strong in the passing game.

Wide Receivers: The player to watch here is Lukas Londono. He led Towson with 15 yards per catch in 2023 with a long of 69 yards. Londono is Towson's starting slot receiver, and he caught the game-tying touchdown with 24 seconds left in an eventual 54-51 overtime win at No. 14 New Hampshire.

Londono enters this season as Towson's leading returning wide receiver, and he will be a good test for the Bearcats new-look secondary.

Tight End: Carter Runyon is the obvious watch here. He is the face of Towson's skill group, and he is poised to build off his All-American season from a year ago.

"I think we clocked him at over 20 miles per hour the other day, just running him around," Shinnick said. "He's got a unique combination of size and speed, and he is one of the hardest working guys in our program without a shadow of a doubt. His work ethic is what separates himself."

Runyon started his college career as a 300-pound offensive lineman before transferring to Towson to play tight end. He didn't even start until Week 3 in 2023, and he finished the season with at least three receptions in his final eight games. He had two second-half touchdowns in the win at William & Mary and closed the season with 103 yards and a touchdown in a win over Rhode Island.

Offensive Line: As aforementioned, Towson is returning four starting offensive lineman. As much as the Bearcats secondary will be tested, their defensive line will be too. Towson can run the football, and they will lean on their offensive line to do that and protect Kent at quarterback.

Defensive Line: Dion Crews-Harris and Ernie Smith are my players to watch. Crews-Harris had five sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss in 2023. In addition, Crews-Harris had two fumble recoveries and 35 tackles.

Ernie Smith is also good at getting to the quarterback and stopping the run. Smith had 5.5 sacks and tackles for loss each in 2023.

Linebackers: Daniel Raymond, Evan Rutkowski, and Rodney Roane Jr. are my players to watch. Raymond is Towson's second-leading returning tackler at 66. He also added 3.5 tackles for loss with three pass breakups, a forced fumble and fumble recovery.

Rutkowski is coming off a season where he had 30 tackles, one tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, a forced fumble and fumble recovery.

Watch out for Roane Jr. He had four sacks and five quarterback hits in 2023. He also had seven tackles for loss and 36 total tackles.

Secondary: Xavier Terry is Towson's leading returning tackler with 76 in 2023. The fact that a member of the secondary led Towson in tackles actually plays into the Bearcats favor because it shows teams were able to run the ball on Towson a year ago. The Tigers allowed close to 200 yards rushing per game.

Shafeek Smith is the player to watch for in the passing game. He had four pas break-ups in 2023 in addition to 21 tackles.

Special Teams: Towson's kicker, Keegan Vaughan, is a really good kicker. He was 15/18 on field goals in 2023 with a long of 43. He never attempted a field goal of 50+ yards last year.

Vaughan enters this season on the Fred Mitchell Watch List, an award given to the best place-kicker in the FCS, DII, NAIA and NJCAA for excellence on the field and in the community. He is also on the CAA's Preseason All-Conference First Team.

Justin Ritter returns as Towson's punter. He averaged 36.3 yards per punt on 12 attempts with a long of 42, three punts inside the 20 and no touchbacks in 2023.

FRANKIE’S GAMEPLAN TO VICTORY

1) POUND THE ROCK - The Bearcats ran the football at a 217.1 yards-per-game clip in 2023, ranking sixth in the country. With Corey Kiner returning for his third season with the Bearcats, coming off a 1,000-yard season in 2023, the Bearcats are poised to be one of the country’s most successful running teams in the country again in 2024.

2) CASH IN IN THE RED ZONE - Sattefield and offensive coordinator Brad Glenn both emphasized scoring more points and being better in the red zone this season. The Bearcats were just 109th in the country in red zone scoring percentage in 2023 and averaged just 24.1 points per game to rank 86th in the country.

Here’s what’s more concerning to me, though. If you take away the Bearcats 66 points they scored in the season-opener, they only averaged 20.3 points per game in their last 11 games. Outside of that 66-point output in Week 1, the Bearcats didn’t score more than 29 points in any other game. And that 66-point game was enough to raise the Bearcats season scoring average by almost four points per game.

3) DON’T PLAY DOWN TO YOUR LEVEL OF COMPETITION - This game is about the Bearcats going out there and dominating an FCS school. After all that happened in the Bearcats first season in the Big 12, it is crucial for the Bearcats to earn a dominant win against Towson on Saturday. They can’t look ahead to Pitt and Miami or their Big 12 schedule until they take care of business in this game.

This game is supposed to be a tune-up game for the rest of the season. If the Bearcats let Towson hang around, that’s not going to cast much optimism going into the meat of the regular season.

A dominant win is a must, not something that would be nice for the Bearcats to have.

SCORE PREDICTION

Bearcats 52 — Towson 10