Cincinnati Bearcats football is back on August 31st at Nippert Stadium (2:30 pm ET on ESPN+) against the Towson Tigers. The Bearcats will look to start their season off on the right off after having a bad taste in their mouth coming off a 3-9 season.

Last season, Towson went 5-6, with both teams starting their season on the 31st, let's take a dive into the Bearcats will be facing.

Offense

The Tigers will be led by quarterback Nathan Kent. Kent played in all 11 games last season throwing for 2,123 yards on 58.3% completions, with 14 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Their leading returning rusher is running back Devin Matthews who rushed for 656 yards on 4.4 yards per carry and 10 touchdowns.

The star of the offense is tight end Carter Runyon. The 6'6" 235 pound tight end has racked up a ton of preseason awards and recently was put on the Reese's Senior Bowl Watch List. Last season, he had 43 catches for 549 yards and four touchdowns. I want to see how the Bearcats linebackers and safeties match up with Runyon on Saturday.

Defense

The Tigers defense is led by defensive lineman Dion Crews-Harris. Crews-Harris had 5.0 sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss and 35 tackles last season.

Their leading returning linebacker is Daniel Raymond who had 66 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.

In the secondary, defensive back Xavier Terry led the team in tackles as season with 76, he also had a forced fumble.

To note if a defensive back leads the team in tackles that is normally a bad thing, so hopefully that trend will continues against the Bearcats and UC can get a win to start the season.

Special Teams

Kicker Keegan Vaughan went 15-of-18 on field goal attempts with a long of 43 yards

Punter Justin Ritter shared time last season and will be the man this year. He had 12 punts for an average of 36.5 yards and three punts inside the 20.