ASU football will look to continue its hot start into the second half of the season when they travel to Ohio and face Cincinnati on Saturday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Arizona State is 5-1 on the year and 2-1 in the Big 12, but its only loss of the season was in a conference matchup against Texas Tech, 30-22. The Sun Devils are 2-0 at home in the Big 12 after defeating Utah 27-19 this past Friday.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati has enjoyed an impressive start of its own as the Bearcats are 4-2 this season and 2-1 in the conference. Like ASU, Cincinnati’s only Big 12 defeat was to Texas Tech 44-41. The program fell to No. 20 Pittsburgh 28-27 in non-conference play.
With the Bearcats being competitive in every game they have played thus far and losing by just a field goal or less, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham knows how dangerous Cincinnati is.
“Coach [Scott] Satterfield does a really good job offensively, always done a good job offensively. He does a phenomenal job,” Dillingham said at a press conference on Monday. “It’s not a wide-open, spread world. It’s not the, ‘We are not going to run directly at you with the same scheme.’ It’s that schemed-up, 12-personal run game stuff which is unique in college football. You see that more in the NFL in my opinion than you see it in college.”
Exemplifying why he is regarded as one of the better quarterbacks in the Big 12 this year, Brendan Sorsby has been a key piece to how the Bearcats operate. Transferring from Indiana, the Texas native has completed 133-of-201 passes for 1,722 yards, three interceptions and 13 touchdowns.
When speaking about Cincinnati’s starting quarterback, Dillingham praised Sorsby for what he has shown in his first season as a Bearcat.
“The quarterback is arguably playing as good as anybody in our league right now. His efficiency is through the roof, he is locating the ball, he is big so they can run him in the red zone and on third downs,” Dillingham said.
In the past, Dillingham competed against Cincinnati defensive coordinator Tyson Veidt when Dillingham was at Memphis and Veidt was at Iowa State. Veidt and the Cyclones narrowly beat the Tigers 21-20 in the 2017 Liberty Bowl after they shut out Memphis offense in the fourth quarter to preserve the one-point victory.
The two coaches then learned from each other before they were hired at their current programs.
Analyzing what Veidt has done since joining Cincinnati, Dillingham mentioned that the Bearcats defense runs under a certain scheme and is extremely physical, just a couple of the many things that ASU needs to be prepared for.
“Their defensive coordinator came from Iowa State. I actually studied with him about four years ago and studied with him specifically because we played him back when I was at Memphis in 2017. We played them in a bowl game and they whooped our butt,” Dillingham said. “We just talked back and forth when that defense started because he was the one who brought it over to Iowa State from the Division III or Division II school he was at. He brought that over and he was one of the originators of that.
“For him to become the defensive coordinator in Year 1, you can see a lot of the identity of his physicality and toughness with the monster fits. Everybody thinks the monster fit defense is about not giving up the run. In reality the way they play it, you better load up because they are going to fill the box with essentially seven or eight plus one on almost every fit. They may be from depth, but they are going to be violent and physical. Kudos to him, he’s got those guys playing hard.”
The significance of this game for Arizona State is astronomical if they manage to pull off a victory. The Sun Devils are on the outside looking in when it comes to being ranked in the AP Top 25 and could earn a spot on the list with a win in Ohio.
Kick-off between ASU and Cincinnati commences on Oct. 19 at 9 a.m. AZT.
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Phoenix Mercury, Suns and ASU Athletics for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
