2010 NCAA football preview: Iowa State
From 2000-05 the Iowa State Cyclones were a pretty decent football team. The best year was in 2000 when the team finished 9-3. They followed it up with four seven-win seasons in the next five, with a 2-10 season sandwiched in between.
Dan McCarney departed after a lackluster 4-8 season for South Florida in 2006. Gene Chizik came in and really did not have much luck in two seasons going 3-9 in 2007 and 2-10 in 2008; it was the worst pair of seasons since the first few years of McCarney’s tenure from 1995-98.
Then in 2009 Paul Rhoads took over. Before taking over for Chizik he had been the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Auburn. The former defensive back from Missouri Western had never been a head coach at the collegiate level before taking the job at Iowa State. In his first year, though, he made a good case for himself by leading a team that barely won nine games in the last three years to seven wins including a victory over Minnesota in the Insight Bowl.
The trick for Rhoads and the Cyclones will be in trying to keep the momentum going from last season’s thrilling bowl victory into 2010. In the Big XII winning never comes easy, but with the veterans that Rhoads has coming back, the Cyclones could be looking at another bowl game at the end of the season.
Offense
Playing in the Big XII, the Cyclones have some serious competition to deal with and scoring just more than 20 points a game is not nearly enough. McCarney will be hoping that a group of seniors at the skill positions will be able to change that.
The star of the group will be running back Alexander Robinson. He is small for a major college starting running back at just 186lb, but he was still second in the conference in rushing with just under 1200 yards. It was the quarterback Austen Arnaud that had the most rushing touchdowns with eight; Robinson had just six. Robinson will have the benefit of running behind a veteran line that returns four starters.
While Robinson may be the team’s star, the passing game is where they do most of their work. Austen Arnaud is a capable quarterback. Last season he threw for just over 2000 yards completing 59 percent of his passes. Whether it is him or Jerome Tiller, the mistakes will need to go down; Arnaud threw 13 interceptions and Tiller four. Jake Williams is a pretty good receiver to throw to, but he will need Darius Reynolds and Darius Ducks to be healthy so defenses don’t focus on him.
Defense
With offenses like Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Utah on the schedule, the defense has their work cut out for them. Sadly, the defense was not that good last season and needs to make some dramatic improvements if it is going to compete this season.
Last season’s pass defense was pretty poor; they ranked 10th in the conference and 102nd in the nation. David Sims did a good enough job in his first season as the starting strong safety to be named the Big XII Newcomer of the Year. If he can improve on his performance of 88 tackles, five interceptions, and three forced fumbles all-conference honors could be in his future. Corner back Leonard Johnson and Ter’ran Benton will need to step up their game though if the Cyclones will have a chance of stopping either Texas or Utah.
The unit will have to break in a whole new group of linebackers; not an enviable task. Matt Tau’fo’ou will be expected to contribute quickly as he transfers in from the College of San Mateo where he was a first team all-conference selection.
In the end, the Cyclones may not have enough firepower on either end of the ball to be a force in the Big XII. They may be able to surprise a few teams and sneak back into a bowl game though.
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