Iowa State football decimated by injuries: Matt Campbell calls last four weeks 'really hard'

Cyclones hoping to ‘fight, scratch and claw’ this weekend against Cincinnati at home

Iowa State Cyclones football head coach Matt Campbell reacts after a targeting call against the Cyclones earlier this year. / Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Matt Campbell has been around college football long enough to know that you will go through things that you really have no control over.

The Iowa State head football coach is currently dealing with one of them, as his reeling Cyclones (7-2, 4-2) continue to battle the injury bug. 

Iowa State returns home this Saturday night to face Cincinnati, a team that features former Cyclone coach Tyson Veidt as its defensive coordinator. 

Following a loss on the road to Kansas last week, Campbell mentioned the amount of young players Iowa State is currently being forced to use. That number will remain higher than anticipated this week.

“I think it’s too soon to tell (if anyone will return),” Campbell said. “We’re going through it right now. The last four weeks have been really hard. College football, part of the journey, you have to find a way out of it. You have to fight, scratch and claw.

“You have some guys that are trying to get back. I don’t have an update of who will be back, who won’t be back. I think all those guys I said last week were really close. Just some of them, physically, it would have been wrong to put them on the football field. We are going to make sure it’s right.”

Here are some of the highlights from Campbell’s press conference Tuesday:

On the offense keeping more of a rhythm

“Team football is probably what you are after,” Campbell said. “It’s probably the same thing I’m after too. I think that’s the biggest thing. Whatever rhythm that is, 3-0 or 60-59, whatever we have to do to win the football game, we have to find that tempo. I think we’re searching for it.”

On taking the blame for the loss to Kansas

“I’ll be honest, I’m going to totally take (the Kansas loss) as the head football coach,” Campbell said. “My job is to dictate the rhythm of the football game to help us. I never felt like we were able to catch that.”

On former ISU coordinator Tyson Veidt, who is now at Cincinnati

“Tyson did such a great job here,” Campbell said. “He was such a key figure, not only to me as a person; our families are best friends. You are just so proud of what he earned to go be a defensive coordinator in the Big 12, let alone at a place with the history of Cincinnati football.”

More Iowa State & Big 12 Analysis

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* What Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield had to say about Iowa State