Cincinnati Stuns No. 8 Texas Tech 37-24, Handing the Red Raiders Their First Loss
A 21-point second quarter flipped the game at Nippert Stadium: JC French IV threw four touchdown passes and Cole Tabb ran for a career-high 173 yards as Cincinnati dealt Texas Tech its first loss of the season.
Texas Tech's unbeaten run is over. Cincinnati beat the No. 8 Red Raiders 37-24 at Nippert Stadium on Saturday, handing Texas Tech its first loss of the season, according to game reports published Saturday by USA Today, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and Cincinnati.com. Texas Tech fell to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big 12 play, while Cincinnati improved to 5-2 and 2-2 in the conference before a sold-out crowd of 38,008.
The game flipped in the second quarter. Texas Tech led 6-3 late in the first, but Cincinnati scored 21 points in the second — quarterback JC French IV threw three of his four touchdown passes in the closing minutes of the half, to Cole Tabb for 4 yards, Malachi Henry for 5 yards and Lyviel Waters for 2 yards — to take a 24-6 lead into the locker room. French finished 19-for-30 for 172 yards and a career-best four touchdowns, and his fourth scoring pass, to Larenzo Fenner for 17 yards, stretched the lead to 31-15 in the third quarter.
Tabb did the rest of the damage on the ground, finishing with a career-high 173 yards on 16 carries and three total touchdowns, including a long touchdown run that pushed the lead to 37-18 late. Texas Tech's only offensive touchdown came on a Quinten Joyner 3-yard run with 59 seconds left. It was Cincinnati's first home victory over a top-10 opponent since 2006, USA Today reported, and the loss means Texas Tech no longer controls its own path in the Big 12 race: the Red Raiders do not face BYU or Utah in the regular season, and both now sit ahead of them in the standings.
