Bowling Green State University’s football team will travel to Cincinnati on Saturday, September 6, for a non-conference game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Nippert Stadium. The matchup is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
This meeting marks the fifth time Bowling Green and Cincinnati have faced each other in football, with only one previous contest held at Nippert Stadium. Bowling Green holds a 4-0 all-time record against the Bearcats, including a 38-0 win in their last encounter in 1994. The teams first met in 1990 at Riverfront Stadium.
Several key storylines are present ahead of this game. Running back Cameron Pettaway returned the season-opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown on his first career touch, making Bowling Green the first FBS team to open consecutive seasons with a kickoff return touchdown, according to research conducted with FBS Sports Information Directors.
Placekicker Jackson Kleather was named MAC Special Teams Player of the Week on September 1 after making four field goals against Lafayette, tying for the most in the nation during Week 1 and matching the second-longest field goal in school history with a 56-yarder.
A victory over Cincinnati would give Bowling Green its first 2-0 start since 2013. That year, current Special Teams Coordinator Alex Bayer played as a tight end on the team that won the MAC Championship.
Head coach Eddie George secured his debut win with Bowling Green’s 26-7 victory over Lafayette, becoming the program’s eleventh head coach to win his opening game. The Falcons have now started consecutive seasons with wins for the first time since 2008-09.
Quarterback Drew Pyne began his fourth straight season opener as a starter after previous stints at Notre Dame (2022), Arizona State (2023), and Missouri (2024). In Bowling Green’s win over Lafayette, he completed passes to ten different receivers.
Historically, Bowling Green has recorded seven wins and fourteen losses against current Big 12 Conference members. Four of those victories came against Cincinnati. Notably, two wins over Missouri occurred under then-head coach Urban Meyer in 2001 and 2002.
The series between Bowling Green and Cincinnati also includes historical significance from Gary Blackney’s tenure as head coach; his first season included a win over Cincinnati that sparked a ten-game winning streak for the Falcons.
Eleven players from Bowling Green hail from the greater Cincinnati area and will be returning home for this weekend’s game. These include DE Bam Booker (Winton Woods HS), CB Jay’Quan Bostic (Robert A. Taft HS), S Preston EstoEsta (Mason HS), OT Vincent Giordano (Lakota West HS), TE Eli Jacon-Duffy (Archbishop Moeller), WR Jared Merk (Archbishop Moeller HS), LB TJ Nelson (Anderson HS), DE Jaimion Olverson (Princeton HS), OT Nate Pabst (Archbishop Moeller), WR Reis Stocksdale (Little Miami HS) and James Thomas Jr. (Fairfield HS).
In recent years, Mid-American Conference teams have achieved several victories over Power Conference opponents; nearly half of these belong to Northern Illinois University, Bowling Green, and Toledo. Bowling Green’s last such win came in 2023 against Georgia Tech after overcoming an early deficit.
Connections between both programs include offensive guard Jake Burns’ previous stint at Cincinnati during their AAC championship seasons before transferring to Bowling Green. Coaching staff connections also exist between both schools through prior collaborations at other institutions.
Bowling Green faces an unusual schedule this year with only four repeat opponents from last season—Akron, Central Michigan, Kent State, and Toledo—the fewest carryover matchups since the late 1940s. Four teams on this year’s schedule have not played Bowling Green in at least ten years or ever before: Lafayette, Cincinnati, Louisville, and UMass.
Since 2021, no college football team has won more games as double-digit underdogs than Bowling Green—with five such victories—all but one occurring away from home.
Nine players made their first collegiate starts for Bowling Green in their opener against Lafayette—a figure tied for third-most nationally among FBS teams.
