Iowa State Breakdown: More of the Same
4 comments so far
August 12, 2008 by
The Iowa State Cyclones are a team that I sometime forget about. It's just easy to overlook them on the schedule or mark them an automatic win. I hope that Bo Pelini does not make my mistake. In this AAS (After Appalachian State) world that we live in, no coach should forget about any team, even if their record was 3-9 the year before. In the past six years, the Cyclones have averaged around 5-7 with about 2 or 3 wins in conference. If one conference win in 2008 is Baylor, that means someone is going to get the surprise of their season against Iowa State.
The Cyclones averaged 326 yards/game and allowed 390. Their offense was one of the lowest in the country, but the defense was comparable to Missouri or Colorado in terms of yardage numbers. Unfortunately, their 31.8 points/game allowed was disappointing when only scoring 18.17 points/game.
It's somewhat interesting to look at their 32:50 time of possession and wonder how they didn't score more points or stop more people. You have to break it down and look at a couple other stats. The turnover margin doesn't explain the whole issue. They had 25 turnovers and forced 18. That ranks them near the bottom (but nowhere as awful as Nebraska). I dug a little deeper and found this little gem: Iowa State only had 12 punt returns for a total of 39 yards. Not good. This means that people can score quickly and at will, giving the Cyclones lots of time holding onto the ball while their opponents rest on the sideline.
Oklahoma State or Colorado could be one of the surprised, but the Huskers will not be surprised by ISU this season. Nebraska should face Iowa State in Ames this year with little pressure. After facing Texas Tech on the road, they may be looking to beat up on someone. It's not a trap game since they play Baylor a week later. Their quarterback job is still in up in the air, and that won't help settle this team down. The tumultuous JJ Bass is a bright spot, but the behind the scenes “stuff” could be a distraction for the Cyclones this year. I say that the Huskers show an impressive outing with a 40-13 win. Pelini's Huskers will return to the tradition of showing Iowa State what the Blackshirts are all about.
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Ian Aug 12 08
Nice analysis. I like Chizek and the confidence he is trying to instill in ISU. I've gotten ribbed a little for saying this, but if ISU can keep him and not pull a McCartney they will do well in the B12 North ala Mangino.
Mike Aug 13 08
In order to "pull a McCartney" they would have to give [u]Chizik[/u] 12 years. That is if you are talking about Dan [u]McCarney[/u]. McCarney was in the Big 12 longer than any other coach during his final year. He was asked to resign because he had taken the program as far as he could. They were no longer improving. Iowa State will give Chizik at least enough time to get his own recruits into the system.
Also, this article fails to mention that last year was Chizik's first year as coach and he has a completely different system than the team was used to. I'm pretty sure that there will be improvement over last year's 2 conference wins.
tom Aug 13 08
I've had a lot of people tell me that THEIR team was going to show big improvements this year in the Big 12. There's not room for everyone to improve unless some team like Kansas or Missouri really bombs this year. If Kansas lost ALL of their Big 12 north games, that means everyone else would only improve one game. I can't imagine that happening. To tell you the truth, the Big 12 north this year is going to look pretty similar to last year at the end of the season.
Ian Aug 13 08
Yes, McCartney got 12 years and it was the best 12 years of the last 25 for ISU. The football program had stability, a clean rep and was doing better for in-state kids against Iowa than anyone since Earle Bruce.
If you are representative of what the ISU AD thinks, God help Chizik if he doesn't get a string of winning seasons. Even tho he will get his own recruits into the program, things happen......players get hurt, quit or don't pan out. That happens to every program and I hope it does not work that way for Chizik. But if it does--even if it's not his fault--ISU will have a hard time finding anyone who will risk a revolving door for head coaches.
You may not like McCartney. I did, and I'm a NU fan. I like Chizik, which--until you posted--I thought was clear.