Three-Star 2027 Linebacker Joins Cincinnati's Class as first Addition at Position

Cincinnati is stacking commitments this month.

Sep 6, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; The Cincinnati logo is seen on a football before the game between the Bowling Green Falcons and the Cincinnati Bearcats at Nippert Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

The Bearcats are up to 15 commitments in the Class of 2027 after another football addition on Monday. Cincinnati just added its second-highest-rated player thus far in Sandy Creek (Georgia) linebacker JT Austin. UC also added its 16th commitment in unranked running back Preston Beckham out of Lennard (Florida).

According to 247Sports, Austin is the 628th-best player nationally and the 51st-ranked linebacker in the class. Meanwhile, Beckham is not ranked but held 13 offers from schools like Kansas and Pittsburgh before landing on Cincinnati at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds. He is the first running back to join the UC class.

Austin held offers from schools like Florida State, UNLV, and South Florida before committing to the Bearcats at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds.

Austin is the second-rated player in the UC class behind athlete Ronnie Gomiller. He is Cincinnati's first linebacker addition of this cycle and should help ring more thumping results for the Nate Woody defense if Scott Satterfield has anything to say about it.

UC's head coach described the new look 3-4 blitz scheme with ESPN1530's Mo Egger last week.

"It's going good. I think it's slow. When you think about spring practice, there are 15 opportunities there, and Coach Woody, the staff, they're learning the new players and trying to figure out what they can do, can't do," Satterfield said. "As we go through the summer, we're starting to install back over and really just kind of repeating that, and then when we get to the fall camp, we'll do the same thing, kind of start over, reinstall that as well to be able to do a lot of different things. I think there's a lot of variety. You're going to be able to see different coverages, a lot of different blitz packages mixing things up. 

"These Big 12 quarterbacks are so talented nowadays that you just can't fit the same defense. You've got to be able to mix it up against those guys, but one thing I think that stands out defensively is we did get a lot bigger at the back end with our DBs, both corners have great length and really good size, the safeties are very impressive with what they can do with their size."

The work continues inside the Sheakley Indoor Practice Facility this month and beyond.

Check out full highlights from Austin here and his commitment post for UC below:

JT Austin on IG | JT Austin on IG

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