The Cincinnati Bearcats flexed it collective muscle in man handling the FCS Eastern Kentucky Colonels in a 66-13 blowout to open the 2023 season.
New Bearcat quarterback Emory Jones threw for more than 300 yards for the second time in his career with 345. He had played at Arizona State and Florida before landing in the UC backfield.
Four of his tosses were for touchdowns of 49 yards to Xzavier Henderson, 39 yards to Dee Wiggins, one yard to Payton Singletary and 48 yards to Braden Smith.
Jones ran for two touchdowns of one and 12 yards.
Korey Kiner rushed for 105 yards,
EKU QB Parker McKinney found Hunter Brown in the end zone with a 17-yard score to make the score 35-7 heading into halftime.
Jones added a fifth touchdown pass for six yards to Aaron Turner to tie a Bearcat record of seven total touchdowns.
The Colonels managed 301 yards of offense, 124 rushing.
"They exposed us," Eastern Kentucky coach Walt Wells said. "We have to play better. We have to coach better. Those two things go hand-in-hand. We have a talented team but we have to get lined up on defense. We can't stop them on two plays then let them throw a touchdown pass over us."
Many of Eastern players are from the Cincinnati area. It was a unique experience for them to play in their home town.
"It will help us to recruit when we decide to recruit in Ohio," Wells said. "We had a lot of former players here for the game. Vincent Munford from Princeton players on UC's Dline and its linebackers. It was fun for them to play in their hometown."
Munford, an offensive lineman played at Princeton. Linebacker Elijah Ford played at Colerain.
The UC Dline had Colerain's Dontay Coreleone, Eric Phillips and linebackers Deshaun Pace and Kenny Willis. Defensive end Malik Van played for Fairfield.
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