Ahead of their season opener against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, the Cincinnati Bearcats have made a rather surprising decision at quarterback.

The team announced they're planning to start redshirt senior Ben Bryant over sophomore Evan Prater, one of the most highly regarded prospects in program history.

Via Pete Thamel:

Bryant has an interesting story, too. He was Desmond Ridder's backup and then actually transferred to Eastern Michigan last season to get more playing time, throwing for over 3,000 yards. He came back to the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2022 to make a run at QB1. Needless to say, it's worked so far.

As for Prater, he was a top-300 recruit in 2020 according to ESPN's rankings. This group clearly has a solid choice behind Bryant if he doesn't live up to expectations. The 6 foot 3, 220 lbs signal-caller is more of a pocket-passer than anything but that evidently fits into offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli's plans in his second year with the school.

The Cincinnati Bearcats of course have high expectations after a tremendous 2021. They finished 13-1 including an 8-0 record in the AAC and ultimately lost a 24-21 heartbreaker to the Georgia Bulldogs. Cincy had a program-best nine players drafted to the NFL, headlined by Ridder and Ahmad Gardner.

Ben Bryant has big shoes to fill, but with lots of experience under his belt and no shortage of confidence after last season, he should have no problem living up to expectations. We'll see if he can get the Cincinnati Bearcats started off on the right foot against Arkansas. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:30 PM ET.