The Cincinnati football team got some good news Saturday. Bearcats defensive lineman Dontay Corleone will play in the team's battle against Iowa State, per ESPN. Corleone is dealing with an ankle issue that has kept him out of recent games.
Cincinnati needs Corleone. The defensive star has been a mainstay on the team's line now for the last few years. Corleone has 9.5 career sacks, and is one of the most experienced defensive linemen in the Big 12 Conference. He has played for Cincinnati since the 2022 campaign.
Cincinnati is 1-0 on the season in the Big 12, with a 3-1 overall record. The Bearcats picked up a huge 37-34 victory over Kansas in their conference opener.
“Throughout the game, it just becomes frustrating when you make a play, and all of a sudden, here comes the flag,” Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield said after defeating Kansas, per the Associated Press. “I'm just really proud of the guys to be able to finish the game off like we did. We’ve come so close for the last couple of years in these types of type of games.”
Iowa State enters the Cincinnati game Saturday with a 5-0 overall record. The Cyclones are 2-0 in the Big 12.
Cincinnati needs Dontay Corleone to make a run for the league crown
Corleone has been very loyal to Cincinnati. He has never left the team via the transfer portal, even when the Bearcats struggled to make the transition to the Big 12 conference. Then, the defensive lineman had to battle health issues. In 2024, it was discovered he had blood clots in his lung.
Corleone kept fighting through all of that adversity.
“Never take it for granted,” Corleone said before the 2025 season, per ESPN. “That's the thing I'm telling the young guys all the time now. Because it can all be taken away in an instant.”
Cincinnati fans are certainly excited to see the veteran back on the field on Saturday. He joins a Cincinnati team hoping to make a 2-0 start in Big 12 conference play.
“I stayed [at UC] because the fan base is like a second family for me,” Corleone said. “But you also feel like the whole city's riding on you. As an athlete, you always want to be like a superhero to people.”
Cincinnati and Iowa State are playing at time of writing.
