Q&A: Marquis Hamilton, 11-5

Marquis Hamilton has had a strong senior season for Paul Rhoads and the Iowa State football team. Hamilton leads the team with 36 receptions, 505 yards and three touchdowns.

Hamilton took some time to chat with CycloneFanatic.com earlier this week about his team’s upcoming game with Oklahoma State.

What does it mean to have the offense back to being healthy?

MH: It means a lot. You want to be at full strength going into these last three games, especially with what we have on the line. So I think it is great that he’s (Reggie Stephens) coming back. If he didn’t play this week, I would completely understand but he is going to tough it out.

Against Kansas it seemed like you guys had everything rolling. And then against Baylor, boom, Austen got hurt.

MH: That’s kind of how it works sometimes. It’s not always going to be perfect. Obviously we like having Austen and those guys healthy and at full strength. But injuries happen. It’s part of the game.

Did you feel like you guys had something rolling though?

MH: Even though those guys got hurt, I feel like we shouldn’t have digressed at all. We should have stayed constant if anything. That’s one of those things that we need to work on.

You guys have only scored one touchdown a game for the last two weeks. The offense is capable of more than that right?

MH: Oh yeah. We’re capable of a lot more. I don’t think that we’re holding up to our end of the bargain. Hopefully we can turn that around.

Is that all because of the quarterback situation?

MH: No. Jerome has played well these last two weeks. Considering that he’s a red-shirt freshman and he’s started the last two games, I feel like for the most part he’s done his thing. We haven’t had to shorten our offense or anything like that. He’s done well in that regard. It’d be great to have Austen back but Jerome is highly capable as well.