AMES, Iowa—After spending four hectic months rebuilding a program stunned by Gene Chizik’s departure to Auburn, Paul Rhoads finally got a chance to roam the sidelines as Iowa State’s head coach.
Granted it was just Saturday’s spring game, which is usually forgotten by the time fall practice rolls around. But it was sweet nonetheless for Rhoads, who had never been a head coach before accepting the Iowa State job last December.
Perhaps the sweetest thing Rhoads witnessed was when his players went over to the stands after the game for an impromptu rendition of the school’s fight song.
That, Rhoads said, gave him goosebumps.
“It felt good, without question. What felt best was how they responded,” said Rhoads of his players, many of whom were hit hard by Chizik’s departure. “These kids, they love this university, they love wearing the cardinal and gold and they love coming to work everyday. As long as we can keep that mind-set, we’ll keep moving forward.”
As for Iowa State’s new spread offense, it was an up-and-down performance—but that’s typical in the spring. Cyclones quarterbacks Austen Arnaud and Jerome Tiller each shook off shaky starts with much stronger efforts in the second half.
Arnaud, the incumbent starter, threw a pair of first-half interceptions, including one that linebacker Jesse Smith brought back 39 yards for a touchdown. Tiller, the backup, also tossed a first-half pick and the Cyclone receivers dropped a number of passes, including a sure touchdown throw by Tiller that was mishandled by Wallace Franklin.
Arnaud finished 22-of-35 for 250 yards and a late touchdown. Tiller, playing against the second-team defense, was 14-of-24 for 210 yards, with one interception and two touchdowns.
“We’re in the second month learning this offense and we’re going to get better,” Arnaud said. “In the first half we were kind of in a funk … we had drops, I threw a couple picks and upfront we were good but we weren’t good enough. It seemed like we were, you know, just killing ourselves, basically. It’s something that we can, assessing the whole spring and all, we’re proud of what we did.”
Tiller and Arnaud finally got things going in the third quarter. Tiller, a redshirt freshman, ran the opening snap of the second half 65 yards for a touchdown. Arnaud led his unit down the field for a 20-yard field goal and later threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Joel Zitek.
Rhoads had strong praise for Tiller, who has yet to take a snap in a real game but will be asked to be ready in the fall should anything happen to Arnaud. Though some might look at Saturday’s performance and think Iowa State is headed for a quarterback controversy, Rhoads shot that down by affirming that Arnaud is Iowa State’s starter.
“Jerome’s had a very good spring,” Rhoads said. “There’s something about Jerome that, when the game is played, he slithers. He snakes through, and he’s got a means and a way of making people miss and he did that again today.”
Though Iowa State’s new offense would appear at first glance to be predicated on the pass, the Cyclones ran more than they threw Saturday. That’s a trend that could continue next fall.
Highly touted Florida transfer Bo Williams led the running backs with 68 yards, including a 34-yarder to get his unit inside the 10-yard line. Alexander Robinson, the projected starter, ran for 50 yards on 14 carries.
Wide receiver Sedrick Johnson caught nine passes for 100 yards to lead the wideouts, and Grant Mahoney booted field goals of 20, 22 and 38 yards. But Rhoads wasn’t looking for big statistics out of the spring game. He was looking to see strong efforts out of his players, and in that respect he was thrilled.
“Stats from the spring game. I can take those down to the spare bathroom in the house and put them to use down there,” Rhoads said.
