Bearcats Leaders Dive Into Late-Night Plan to Handle Arizona Road Trip

A rare very-late affair for Cincinnati.

Sep 26, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats quarterback JC French IV (4) watches from the sideline during the game against the Kansas State Wildcats in the first half at Nippert Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Uncharted territory for Scott Satterfield and the Bearcats.

Cincinnati football is rolling into Week 5 with a 4-0 record for the first time in Satterfield's head-coaching career and first for the program since 2021.

We all know what happened that year en route to the only Group of Six College Football Playoff Semifinal appearance ever. That goal and more are still on the table for Cincinnati, but they face another unknown this week in a major body-clok test against Arizona.

They are kicking the game off at 11 p.m. ET, one of the latest starts in program history (started at 11:30 p.m. ET against Hawaiʻi on Dec. 6, 2008), and Satterfield and his staff have to set up a little differently than on other road trips.

"If we can control that line of scrimmage and create some holes for our running game, and then protect the quarterback, then it just gives you a great opportunity, a great chance. Yeah, I mean, certainly a challenge going out west. We've played four straight weeks in Cincinnati, and so now going out and playing a late-kick game in Arizona is something that we've talked about the whole offseason, like we anticipated playing late; it's what they do to us," Satterfield said. "So our guys have done a great job of figuring that out. How can we approach this week and give our guys the best possible chance to go out and play great?"

"We are going out a day early. That's something that we haven't done to get acclimated. We'll stay out a little bit later on Thursday. Let them sleep in Friday. Push everything back as we get into Saturday, and hopefully that gives us a great opportunity. It's kind of wild what they do to some of these teams. The East Coast teams having to play an 8 o'clock kick West Coast time is a little bit ridiculous, in my opinion. Same thing for a West Coast team coming East to play at noon, which I think Arizona has to do next week at West Virginia."

Cincinnati proved it can be as physical and competitive as most (if not all) teams in the Big 12 this past weekend, but the 31-26 win over KSU didn't keep them from being over-touchdown underdogs this week.

Arizona is ranked 37th on FEI, 50th on ESPN's FPI, and 33rd on SP+. Cincinnati is right in that range (ranked higher on FPI) with Arizona and should be able to pull off an upset if they handle their first road trip since last year the right way.

It'll be a fun QB battle between JC French IV (47th in ESPN QBR this season) and Arizona's Noah Fifita (23rd in ESPN QBR).

"I think we're just all in a rhythm. We're playing as a team right now. The offense plays off each other, so we just got to keep that going in conference play," French said.

The action kicks off at 11 p.m. ET on FOX Saturday night.

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