Iowa State will face ‘big challenge’ against Tyson Veidt's Cincinnati defense on Saturday

AMES — Iowa State’s first-year offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser harbors no illusions.

When his offense takes the field on Saturday night against Cincinnati, he’ll be trying to outmaneuver a longtime colleague, a great friend, and a first-year defensive coordinator in Tyson Veidt.

And?

“He’s gonna be trying to murder me on Saturday — and murder us,” Mouser said of Veidt, who was the Cyclones’ linebackers coach for eight seasons. “In a good way. He’s an awesome guy. (He’s) as competitive as anybody you’ll find, and we went against each other for a long time in practice, and I know how tenacious (he is) and how important football is (to him).

“He’s such a good football coach.”

Kickoff’s set for 7 p.m. (Fox). And Mouser’s and Veidt’s respective units will do battle again — but this time with much bigger stakes attached for the Cyclones (7-2, 4-2) and the Bearcats (5-4, 3-3).

“I know he’s gonna be aggressive and is probably gonna heat us up a little bit and force our guys to make some plays and pick some things up,” Mouser said. “(We’re) just trying to stay ahead of the chains, be efficient on offense, and sustain drives. That defense is made to make you drive the football.”

Mouser’s offense has generally moved up and down the field between the 30-yard lines successfully this season. The Cyclones rank eighth in the Big 12 in rushing offense (168.1 yards per game) and fifth in passing offense (271.4), but have struggled to turn opportunities inside the opponent’s 20-yard line into touchdowns, instead of field goals. ISU sits sixth in the league in red zone conversions (89.7 percent), but lags to 10th in touchdowns in those situations (64.1 percent). Veidt’s defense is allowing opposing teams to score touchdowns in the red zone just 50 percent of the time — an impressively low number that ranks third in the Big 12.

“(One) thing we need to work on is pre-snap penalties,” quarterback Rocco Becht said. “We saw that in the past two weeks and we’ve lost those games — and honestly, I don’t think we had a pre-snap penalty in the first seven weeks. So that’s something big we need to get better at, and it’s just the consistency to finish drives. We had a lot of three-and-outs (in Saturday’s 45-36 loss to Kansas), and that’s not like us.”

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The Cyclones committed four pre-snap penalties in last week’s loss and three in the previous week in a 23-22 setback to Texas Tech at home. Two of those infractions — one in each game — came in first-and-goal situations, which further hampers efforts to get touchdowns in the red zone.

Couple those recent shortcomings with the startling amount of injuries on defense, and Mouser’s forced to strike a delicate balance as an offensive play caller. ISU needs to possess the football for a significant portion of the game to allow the defense to collectively catch its breath, so there’s no easy answer when it comes to solving the Cyclones’ recent issues inside the 20.

“There’s a play here and a play there you’re gonna look back on, and either you made them or you didn’t,” Mouser said. “So I think within that, it’s sustaining the drive to help the defense, and then when you get down in the red zone, making those drives count, and not giving away points (that) put your defense under stress later.”

Veidt, of course, will do everything he can to apply immense stress to ISU’s offense. He may be friends with all of his former Cyclone coaching colleagues, but on Saturday they’ll be bitter foes. That’s football, as the cliche goes — and how that battle of wits shakes out will help determine if ISU can end its two-game losing streak.

“As a friend, and somebody who cares about (Veidt) deeply, you couldn’t be prouder of what that (Bearcats) defense looks like, and what (it’s) playing like,” Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell said. “It will be a great challenge for us. Those kids are playing really hard for him. They believe in coach Veidt. You can tell. They play with his energy and his effort, so I’m just happy for him.”

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