'Look From The Bottom Up' - UC Defensive Coordinator Tyson Veidt Dives Into Recruit Evaluation Process

CINCINNATI —  UC football defensive coordinator Tyson Veidt sat down with Tony Pike for another episode of From The 513, breaking down how he evaluates prospects and transfers.

It's a timely assessment as Cincinnati approaches 20 commitments in the 2026 class. Over 10 of those have hit this month.

"I always look from the bottom up, as you're watching a guy on video, you're looking at their feet and all those things," Veidt told Pike. "You're trying to look at the effort throughout the play, from start to finish. So, as you know, you can watch video in many different ways. I think watching entire games of guys from the start to finish is really the way to do it. 

"And then let's say you're looking at a defensive lineman—you want to see how he is impacting the play at the end of it. If you're looking at a defensive back, you want to try to figure out, 'Man, can this guy do that skill set of covering a very fast human being down the field?' But I think still, it's the effort portion of it that you're really looking at when you watch guys. How hard do they play?"

Building it from the ground up is the mantra for Veidt as he implements his system for a second consecutive year. 

That continuity could be massive on both sides of the ball as Cincinnati pulled off the rare feat in college football of retaining its two coordinators and quarterbacks coach for multiple seasons.

"Naturally, the part that always sticks in my mind is to try to keep things as simple as possible," Veidt said about continuity. "We played eight true freshmen in varying degrees last year on defense. Those guys are back. So the part of keeping things simple and the teaching aspect of it hopefully allows some young guys to come along, because it's still the same tone. You're going to need every guy you got, it's a long football season."