BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 13, 2023

Scott Satterfield

Cincinnati Bearcats

Press Conference

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: First of all, I want to thank the Big 12 for inviting University of Cincinnati football into their conference. We're very excited at Cincinnati to be joining what's such a great conference. Our players, our fans, our alumni, everybody associated with, we can't wait for this thing to get started.

We're excited to be here in Texas for this Big 12 media days, too. Thank you, guys.

Q. Your wide receiver room has been built from nothing after a lot of transfers went out. What's the status of that room and how are they acclimating to the offense you want to run and especially Emory Jones at quarterback?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Yeah, we have one scholarship player on our team right now that was with the team last fall. You mentioned we had a couple guys get drafted and several others that got in the portal before we got the transition before getting hired.

We have now added many guys to the room, guys that are going to come in and really help us. I think this summer has been huge for our wide receiver room when you think about some of the guys we brought in.

We brought in two players that was with me at University of Louisville that started for us over there. We brought in Xzavier Henderson that started at Florida, and we moved Evan Prater who was a quarterback, started last couple games, out to wide receiver this summer, as well. He's looked really, really good. A very athletic player, good hands, strong, competitive. That room is really, I think, now in a position to go out and compete in the Big 12, and I think with some guys that have played a lot of football.

That's the thing, too. We also added not only good players but guys that have experience playing in big contests, not just for Cincinnati. So this fall camp will be big for them to get acclimated with our offense.

Q. You added 21 transfers this off-season. What are the challenging of adding that many new faces to your system and how has their progression been?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: As a coach you're always looking at the transfer piece, how are the guys going to get into your team. Ultimately it's a team game and you have to play together and play as a team.

When we go out and we're looking for guys to bring in like that, that's what we're looking for. Obviously these guys are individuals and they want to do the best they can do for themselves, but I want guys to come in and play for Cincinnati football.

These guys have all done that, but I think that is the challenge. We brought several in this January and then obviously the rest this summer. The guys that come in this summer have some catching up to do. They've done a good job with that in the month of June to get acclimated to how we work in the weight room, how we do our things, and then also what we do offensively and defensively in the kicking game.

I like our mix of players that we've brought in. I feel like most all the guys that we've brought in will help us this year, will play, that will, if not start, they'll have extensive roles through our football team at a lot of different positions.

You don't normally like to have that many come through the portal, but in the transition we had a lot of players leave, and so you have to be able to fill those needs to be competitive.

Q. Scott, just kind of your overall impressions so far about Big 12 media days and your experience here and what you think you'll see from the conference this year.

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Yeah, I think it's been awesome. Last four years in the ACC we did it at a hotel venue. I love doing it at this venue here. This is where most of our players aspire to be playing on Sundays.

To be able to bring our players into this venue and now what a great turnout here with all the media presence, I think it's been tremendous for me to be a part of this, for our players to be a part of this.

I think it's a home run.

Part of that for us and our school to be able to come to this new conference, such a competitive conference, this is just kind of the start of it to kick things off for us, and man, very impressed so far about what's going on with this conference.

Now for us, our first Big 12 game, Oklahoma coming to Nippert and playing in Cincinnati, that's going to be an outstanding game, a great atmosphere. One of the best stadiums in the country to host a football game, and one of the harder places to come play. So yeah, we're very excited about it.

Q. The off-the-field transition to the Big 12, still take a couple years, right, in terms of revenue and becoming a full member? What about on the field? How do you view that timeline to being competitive in the conference, and is it fair to expect the four newcomers to be competitive before they're technically full revenue members?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Well, according to the media, not. Not going to be competitive. Most of us voted pretty low.

I think that's the interesting thing, right. We're bringing four schools in. I think all four schools are outstanding football programs. I do think all four schools will be competitive in this league.

I think one of the great things about this conference is the parity from top to bottom. From the teams that are last year, some of the teams that were at the bottom could beat the teams that are at the top. You've just got to show up and play on that particular day.

The thing that as a newcomer into the league, you don't know the makeup of the teams. We haven't played in this league. We haven't played the teams that are in this league, so you don't really understand the ins and outs of the teams that we're getting ready to play.

The travel piece is going to be different. We have teams all over the country in different time zones, so that's going to be different. If you have to play on a short week, those type things are going to be things that we're going to have to learn.

I think you mentioned in the revenue piece, that's going to take a few years. I also think that really understanding the league is going to take a few years.

For us now at the Power Five level in the Big 12, we're out telling and selling recruits, hey, this is where we're headed, this is where we're going.

We haven't played a game there yet, so I do think that's going to take a few years for that to get engrained into high school players and coaches to say, now they're playing at the highest level of football in one of the best leagues in the country.

I think it will take time, there's no question about it. But we're also in a world, the football world where you don't have a lot of time. You've got to be good now.

For us trying to get the best players we can get to come play for us and be a part of our program, that is the challenge in itself.

But we are excited about it and can't wait to get this started.

Q. Your first conference road trip is at BYU; long trip from Cincinnati. How challenging will that trip be on a short week?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Very challenging. When I looked at our schedule, that's the first thing that stood out. Number one, I hate playing on short weeks. I don't like it. I don't think -- I don't know anybody that really likes it. The players don't like it. The coaches don't like it. It's tough to bounce back, win or lose, and play the next week, particularly on the road.

That's a long trip for us and that's going to be a night game. I think maybe 10:30 eastern time on that Friday night. We know that's a hostile environment, going out to BYU. They've got a great football team and a great fan support there.

That's going to be an extreme challenge, and to come out there right after you play Oklahoma and have to leave out on a Thursday to go and play them. But you know what, we're taking it one week at a time. After the Oklahoma game we'll have a plan in place to get as prepared as possible to go out there and be prepared to play BYU.

Q. You mentioned the transfers earlier. Just talk about the addition of Daniel Grzesiak and Jordan Young on that defense that returns so much experience in guys like Dontay Corleone, Jowon Briggs, Malik Vann?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: DG and Jordan Young, both of those guys, they're really good football players. DG is a guy, man, he's got a great attitude. Every single day he brings it with a smile on his face, working extremely hard. He's a big time leader for us even though he just got here in January.

He'll be an outside backer for us coming off the edge; very productive player at Utah State. I'm really excited about watching him play this fall.

And Jordan is a guy that come in from Florida. Didn't play a ton at Florida but has lot of talent, a lot of ability. Will be a really good corner for us and potentially playing a little bit in the nickel position.

Adding those two guys along with what we have at the defensive line, obviously our strength is the defensive line on our football team. A couple guys that are here with us today plug that middle up, allow our linebackers to run and make plays.

We're a 3-4 scheme, and they allow those linebackers to go make plays. Pace will be a great player. We've moved Pace down to the outside backer to the field size to be able to utilize his athleticism, be able to bring him off the edge, also to drop him in coverage, do a lot of different things with him.

He's a very versatile player. Excited to watch him. I think he could have a breakout year at that position, as well.

Really excited about our defense and what they're going to bring to the table this year.

Q. You mentioned the atmosphere you're expecting opening up conference play with Oklahoma, but what was your reaction from a football perspective of getting to open up Big 12 play with the Sooners?

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Well, I looked at that and I was like, oh, okay, they're going to send us one of the most recognizable teams in the country to play the first game. I thought that's exciting.

To be your first game in the Big 12, to be able to play a team like that with so much history, Heisman Trophy winners in the past, have really done some exciting things in the game of football for a long time, to bring them to our stadium, we know it's going to be a hot ticket. We know it's going to be very electric.

But as a coach also I'm thinking we've got three games before that. We've got to be ready for those three prior to play Oklahoma. But what a way to start the Big 12 play against a team like Oklahoma. We've just got to be competitive. We've got to go out there and put a team out there that's going to be very competitive and fight their butts off to go out there and try and get that win.

Q. You have a young man Dontay Corleone that's gotten some big time preseason accolades. He's only a sophomore. How does he handle that? And what do the guys say about coming back down here because a few of those guys were here at the end of 2021.

SCOTT SATTERFIELD: Yeah, Dontay, we call him the Godfather. He's just a great person, great spirit to be around. Has an infectious personality. He's a big team guy. He's a team player.

But he is as strong of a player as I've ever been around. He's extremely wide, a big body, exactly what you want to be on the inside over the top of a center. He's right around 325 pounds right now, and that's lean. He's trimmed down to get to that point. He's moving extremely well. He can run with some of our linebackers at that size, which is remarkable.

He's hungry. I think that's what I love most about him and our players and our team, is that they're hungry and they want to prove something every single day, and he really brings that.

I think coming back down to this building, obviously being able to get to that point in the program history to be able to play in the Final Four was a tremendous accolade for our program, but I think more than anything, our guys are looking toward the future. I think they're looking forward to playing in the Big 12 and competing for championships at the highest level.

I think that's probably more than anything is they want to come back and play in this building again at the end of the season.