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

Bearcats are led on defense by former Cyclone coordinator Tyson Veidt while Scott Satterfield was on same staff at Toledo with ISU's Matt Campbell

Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Scott Satterfield speaks with quarterback Brendan Sorsby earlier this year. The Bearcats head to Iowa State this weekend. / Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Iowa State football team looks to bounce back when they host Cincinnati this Saturday night in Big 12 Conference play. Coming off two straight losses, the Cyclones (7-2, 4-2) know it will be a difficult task going against a defense led by a former ISU coordinator.

Tyson Veidt is in his first season as defensive coordinator of the Bearcats (5-4, 3-3), who are allowing 22 points per game. 

For Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield, having Veidt gives them an advantage going into the game.

“Obviously, we are playing Iowa State, a defense that we hired coach Tyson from, so it gives us more familiarity with their defense,” Satterfield said. “I think having gone against it in the spring and in the summer, so we’ll have a better idea about it, but there’s still a great defense at Iowa State, one of the best in the Big 12. I think one of the top pass defenses in the country and run defense.”

Satterfield noted that Cyclones have been put through the grind going against Texas Tech and Kansas, who both present tough run games.

“I think those stats are a little skewed,” he said. “Coach (Matt) Campbell and his staff do an outstanding job. They have tough-minded kids that play hard and expect to win, so it certainly will be a great challenge for us.”

Here is more of what Satterfield had to say:

On Coach Veidt’s transition to Cincinnati

“I think Coach Campbell has great respect for Coach Veidt. He was with him for two years at Toledo and then went with him over to Iowa State, so he was with him eight years there,” Satterfield said. “He knew Coach Veidt wanted to call the defense at some point, and their defensive coordinator has been there with Matt the whole time. If he’s ever going to leave, he has done such a great job, and it was an opportunity, and we were looking for a defensive coordinator. So, I talked to Matt, and Matt said he would do an outstanding job.”

On bowl eligibility

“We all know that last week was West Virginia and this week it’s Iowa State,” Satterfield said. “We know we have to go on the road the next couple weeks and we have one more home game. So, a lot of tough teams ahead. We know that you take it one game at a time. You try to figure out a way to where we can just try to win this game. It’s there, it’s dangling. It’s the elephant in the room right there.”

On the Cincinnati defense

“They know the defense too, right, when they come in this weekend,” Satterfield said. “They have a ton of respect for their quarterback, Rocco (Becht). If you look at him and (Brendan) Sorsby, their stats are almost identical. It’s amazing to me, if you look at their offense and our offensive stats, they’re identical. It looks like there’s like six-play difference out of nine games. We’re 30th in the country. They’re 29th. It is amazing, the parallels offensively and then obviously defensively, when you think about two of the similar defenses. It’s almost like you’re looking at a mirror.”

On Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell

“We were on the same staff at Toledo in 2009,” Satterfield said. “Matt’s a great friend of mine, even before that, he used to come down to visit when I was at Appalachian State. He was at Mount Union, they won many national championships there, and so we just got a friendship going there. Then I worked with him in 2009 on Tim Beckham’s staff at Toledo. I visited Iowa State when I was at Appalachian State, back probably six years ago, went up and visited in the spring, watched them practice and just a tremendous amount of respect for how they do things and how they coach their players.”

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