AMES, Iowa—New Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads didn’t have to look hard to see what the Cyclones need to do to survive in the Big 12.
It was written on scoreboards up and down the Plains.
There were the 59 points Oklahoma State hung on Iowa State in Stillwater, and the 52 points Missouri put up in Ames. Woeful Texas A&M scored 49 points against the Cyclones, and Kansas threw up a 35—in one half.
Though Rhoads has spent most of his coaching career working with defenses, even he realized that to contend in the Big 12, you gotta score. He asked Tom Herman, the 34-year-old whiz kid who engineered a nearly unstoppable attack at Rice, to bring the spread offense to Ames.
Iowa State is hoping the change will help turn around a program that finished 2-10 and 0-8 in the Big 12 last year.
“At Iowa State you’ve got to be unique in approach to a number of things. And one of those things is what we do schematically offensively, and that’s why we sought out Tom Herman and this type of offense,” said Rhoads, who spent last season as Auburn’s defensive coordinator before taking over for Gene Chizik, who bailed on the Cyclones for the Tigers.
Even Rhoads knows, however, that it’s going to take more than a newfangled offense to rebuild a program that’s again fallen on hard times.
Chizik came to Iowa State with much fanfare, having coordinated the Texas defense that took down Southern Cal to win the 2005 national title. A local bank even made a coin in Chizik’s honor.
Iowa State hasn’t won a road game since 2005—the longest such streak in the country—and the Cyclones were a near-unanimous pick to finish last in the six-team Big 12 North.
There is hope, though, that Iowa State is much closer to respectability than many realize.
The Cyclones bring back 15 starters. Nine of them are on offense, including redshirt junior quarterback Austen Arnaud.
In a league where the race for first-team All-Big 12 quarterback will likely mirror the race for the Heisman Trophy, Arnaud gets lost in the shuffle. But despite working under his third offensive coordinator in four seasons, Arnaud appears poised for a breakout season in Herman’s attack.
Arnaud threw for 2,792 yards in 2008 on a school-record 247 completions. He completed 61.6 percent of his passes, third-best in team history.
“What we’re trying to do is keep this train rolling, keep scoring and keep putting up big numbers as an offense,” Arnaud said. “That’s what you’ve got to do to win.”
Herman’s offense works best with a deep group of wideouts, and nowhere are the Cyclones deeper than at wide receiver. Seniors Marquis Hamilton and Houston Jones are steady targets, and sophomores Darius Darks and Sedrick Johnson could thrive in their second seasons in Ames.
Darks caught 49 passes last season, the most ever by an Iowa State freshman. The spindly, 6-foot-4 Johnson, one of Chizik’s most heralded recruits, will have a chance for a much larger role after catching three TD passes in 2008.
Junior Alexander Robinson will open the season as the starting running back, but Florida transfer Bo Williams will finally get his chance to show why he was one of the nation’s top recruits coming out of high school.
Iowa State’s offensive line gave up just 19 sacks in 2008.
The concern for the Cyclones is their defense, which was sliced and diced to the tune of 35.8 points per game and surrendered at least 28 points in every Big 12 contest.
Though six defensive starters return, there isn’t much to suggest that it’ll be markedly better this season.
But Rhoads knows that this season won’t necessarily be judged by wins and losses, but rather by how he reinvigorates a team wounded by Chizik’s departure and how quickly he lays the groundwork for success.
That said, a few more wins would certainly help everyone in Ames move on.
“This team is fresh and enthusiastic. There’s no turmoil in this program. They’re excited about 2009,” Rhoads said. “You gain confidence by doing things well, you gain confidence by winning. So we’ve got to go win football games.”
