Scott Satterfield discusses how Cincinnati will compete in Big 12 for 2023 season

New Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield has a big challenge with the Bearcats as the team moves to the Big 12 for the 2023 season. With a Power Five conference on tap, the competition is different and arguably more difficult compared to some in the AAC. But on National Signing Day, Satterfield was confident in his changing roster amid commits and the transfer portal.

“Yeah, I mean, you know, we certainly want to be able to compete in the Big 12 and we want to compete for championships,” Satterfield said on ESPN. “It’s certainly going to take players. We have to continue to recruit at a high level here to bring the kind of players that will help us compete in that conference. 

“We know it’s a tremendous conference. I mean, you know, from top to bottom, there’s teams that are outstanding, they have a lot of talent … we’re gonna have to go in to the portal. That’s one thing that we are doing, for sure. And I think every team in the country is doing that.”

Satterfield and Cincinnati certainly took advantage. Emory Jones was one of the big gets in the transfer portal as the veteran quarterback came over from Arizona State. He started his college career with the Florida Gators.

“You know, we’re seeing more and more players in the portal than ever before,” Satterfield said. “You know, it starts with a quarterback. You know, we’ve been able to find us a quarterback out in the portal. Emory Jones is that player that just signed up today for us and he’s played at Florida, played at Arizona State last season. We’re excited to have him on board. And hopefully we’ll be able to get a few more skill players on the offensive side to be able to compete as well.

“We’re excited about the high school players that we signed today. Obviously a lot of those will be coming into January to help us compete as well. So there’s a lot of things going on right now. But recruiting is the first thing we have to be able to do.”

Jones played in eight games with the Sun Devils this season, completing 62.8% of his throws for 1,533 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions.

In his career with Florida and Arizona State, Jones had 4,880 yards, 33 touchdowns, 18 interceptions, a 64% completion percentage, 1,304 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns.

Jones played high school football at Franklin (G.A) Heard County, where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 97 overall recruit in the 2018 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Cincinnati, along with UCF, Houston and BYU, will all join the Big 12 starting in the 2023 college football season.