Iowa State football preps to face Cincinnati, former Cyclones assistant coach Tyson Veidt

Posted by Admin November 14, 2024 Football

AMES – Tyson Veidt and Matt Campbell didn’t know it then, but a chance encounter over a decade ago at a football camp held at Ohio’s Crestview High School and organized by NFL veteran Kory Lichtensteiger would be the start of a tight friendship.

At that time, Veidt was the head coach of Division III Bluffton University and had numerous players join his program from Crestview, which was only 45 minutes away.

Meanwhile, Campbell had just taken the reins as Toledo’s head coach. Lichtensteiger played for Campbell when he was still at Bowling Green, and that connection had brought him there that day.

“We’re very close friends,” Veidt said, looking back. “Over time, especially in coaching, you spend so much time with a certain group of people that those become your true friends. I view Matt Campbell as a true friend of mine. Our families are close, our children are close, our wives are close. We’re not co-workers anymore and he’s not my boss, but we’re still very good friends.”

A few years after that camp, Veidt joined Campbell’s staff for his final two seasons at Toledo. When Campbell left for Iowa State in 2016, Veidt followed.

Veidt spent eight years in Ames, serving as the Cyclones‘ associate head coach and linebackers coach. In January, he left Iowa State to become Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator.

After coaching alongside Campbell, Veidt is set to make his return to Jack Trice Stadium. This time, though, he’ll be on the opposing sideline, as the Bearcats make their way to Ames for Saturday night’s game against the Cyclones.

It will be the first time the two friends coach against one another.

“It’s a unique situation,” Veidt said. “After working with several of those guys for 10-plus years, I’ve got great relationships with them and still do, so this obviously being the week that we’re competing with one another is another unique part of it. Obviously, like you would imagine, we’re into another opponent, another game, taking things day by day and trying to prepare our team the best we can.”

Despite moving to another team within the Big 12 Conference, it hasn’t dampened the friendship between the Iowa State coaching staff and Veidt. Campbell doesn’t downplay the impact Veidt had when he was with the Cyclones, either.

“Tyson did such a great job here, he was such a key figure,” Campbell said. “Not only as a person – I mean, we’re great friends and our families are best friends – but you are just so proud of what he earned, the opportunity to go be a defensive coordinator in the Big 12, let alone go to a place that’s got the history of Cincinnati football.

“One of the things you can look at what they’ve done, even just the statistics, defensively. The jump that they’ve made from where they were to where they’re at is staggering. It’s such a credit to Tyson. You guys that know Tyson know what he stood for, what he was about here, and he was a key piece to our football program getting to where we’re at today.”

Last season, Cincinnati was ranked 12th out of 14 teams in the Big 12 for scoring defense, allowing 30.0 points per game. Cincinnati also gave up 46 touchdowns, the fourth-most in the conference.

Under Veidt, Cincinnati has shown immediate improvement. The Bearcats enter Saturday’s matchup right behind Iowa State for the fourth-fewest touchdowns allowed by a Big 12 team (23). They are also ranked sixth out of 16 conference teams in scoring defense, giving up just 22.2 points per game.

“He’s doing a great job with Cincinnati and their defense, so they’re going to come ready to play,” junior safety Jeremiah Cooper said. “He brought in a lot of energy and a lot of juice, so we’re expecting that as a Cincinnati team coming in here – a lot of energy, a lot of juice. Coach Veidt was very uplifting, and he got guys going, so that’s what we’re expecting from them.”

Both teams are entering Saturday’s game after back-to-back losses. Cincinnati (5-4, 3-3) lost to Colorado, 34-23, on Oct. 26. The Bearcats almost came back from a 17-point second-half deficit against West Virginia on Saturday, but a backward pass was scooped up and returned by the Mountaineers defense for the game-sealing touchdown in the 31-24 contest.

“We know a lot about the defense, so it’s about figuring out the ways he’s made it his own and made it different because it’s definitely not the same as what Coach (Jon) Heacock runs,” quarterback Rocco Becht said. “Coach Veidt has his own little twist on it. It’s watching the film back over and seeing ways he’s implemented that defense into his own.”

It will be interesting to see how both teams adjust. Veidt is familiar with the inner workings of the Cyclones and, in turn, Iowa State is familiar with his tendencies.

“Coach Veidt and me worked together for a long time, we’re really good friends,” offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser said. “That guy is such a really good football coach, and he’s going to be trying to murder me and murder us on Saturday – but in a good way – he’s an awesome guy, as competitive as anybody that you’ll find. We went against each other for a long time in practice, and I know how tenacious (he is) and how important football is for him. He’s such a good football coach. He’s done such a good time with the defense here and what he’s done with the defense there at Cincinnati.

“We’ll have to see what we’ve done best on offense and luckily enough for us, we got to go against that defense a lot between spring and fall, and when he was here. I know he’s going to be aggressive and probably eat us up a little bit, force our guys to make some plays and pick some things up, but just trying to stay ahead of the chains and be efficient on offense, sustain drives.”

Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.