| No. 4 – Cincinnati Bearcats | |
|---|---|
| Position | Quarterback |
| Class | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | December 4, 2003 |
Listed height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
Listed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Blessed Trinity (Roswell, Georgia) |
| College |
|
| Stats at ESPN | |
James Charles French IV (born December 4, 2003) is an American college football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bearcats. He previously played for the Memphis Tigers and Georgia Southern Eagles.
French attended Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, Georgia. A three-star recruit, he committed to play college football at the University of Memphis over offers from Arkansas State, Virginia Tech, and Tulane.
French redshirted as a freshman at Memphis, before entering the transfer portal.
He transferred to Georgia Southern University to play for the Georgia Southern Eagles. After playing sparingly his first season with the Eagles, French was named the team's starting quarterback entering the 2024 season. In his first career start against Boise State, he threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns in a 56–45 defeat. In his first year as a starter, French completed 269 of his passes for 2,831 yards and 17 touchdowns against 11 interceptions while adding 238 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground.
On January 6, 2026, French announced that he would transfer to the University of Cincinnati to play for the Cincinnati Bearcats.
| Season | Team | Games | Passing | Rushing | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Record | Cmp | Att | Pct | Yds | Avg | TD | Int | Rtg | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | |||
| 2022 | Memphis | DNP | |||||||||||||||
| 2023 | Georgia Southern | 10 | 0 | — | 13 | 16 | 81.3 | 122 | 7.6 | 1 | 1 | 153.4 | 14 | 48 | 3.4 | 0 | |
| 2024 | Georgia Southern | 13 | 13 | 8–5 | 269 | 410 | 65.6 | 2,831 | 6.9 | 17 | 11 | 131.9 | 118 | 238 | 2.0 | 2 | |
| 2025 | Georgia Southern | 13 | 13 | 7–6 | 248 | 389 | 63.8 | 2,929 | 7.5 | 20 | 8 | 139.9 | 133 | 315 | 2.4 | 6 | |
| 2026 | Cincinnati | 7 | 7 | 5–2 | 127 | 183 | 69.4 | 1,510 | 8.3 | 13 | 2 | 160.0 | 75 | 291 | 3.9 | 6 | |
| Career | 36 | 26 | 15−11 | 530 | 815 | 65.0 | 5,882 | 7.2 | 38 | 20 | 136.1 | 339 | 903 | 2.7 | 14 | ||