By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com PublisherFollow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams
Cleaning out my notebook from yesterday’s Paul Rhoads press conference/spring football media session…Here are a few more nuggets.
NEW COACH: It always takes time to work the kinks out when a new position coach is added to a program. Senior wide receiver Josh Lenz called his new coach Todd Sturdy an "energetic guy" on Tuesday, but the wide outs are still figuring out Sturdy’s language of the game.
“The way that he calls routes and stuff," explained Lenz. "We call it a dig and he calls it….Something crazy. I don’t even remember. Just little stuff like that. Nothing crazy.”
Paul Rhoads added that the one major thing he’s seen from his team so far is the fact that they are taking coaching well.
"As you look at it, we have three new coaches on the field so it is paramount to our success and how far we come in these 15 practices with the third being Courtney (Messingham) coaching the quarterbacks," said Rhoads.
STRONG SAFETY: I asked Rhoads about what he’s seen from the three men competing for the starting spot at strong safety.
“Jared Brackens I think made good progress on Friday and Saturday as we put pads on. Durrell Givens I think has made a nice transition from free to strong. He played both at times last year but now his focus is at strong. T.J. Mutcherson is a football player."
NEALY: Paul Rhoads on the play of redshirt freshman running back DeVondrick Nealy so far this spring…
“DeVondrick Nealy has been what he was to our scout team. He’s been flashy. He’s a guy who can truly make you miss and hasn’t disappointed in four workouts. We’ll really look forward to seeing him scrimmage on Thursday afternoon and on Saturday in what will be a full blown scrimmage.”
TILLER AT WR: Rhoads comments on former quarterback Jerome Tiller as a wide receiver…
“He’s catching the ball well. He’s running quality routes. He doesn’t quite have the speed and athleticism as some of the guys in front of him. It’s still new enough this spring to where he is at competing in the depth chart. Nowhere to position him yet as far as the two-deep goes.”
TCU & WEST VIRGINIA: A little insight from Rhoads as to how his program will prepare for the Big 12’s newest members, TCU and West Virginia.
“Film has already been exchanged in regards to that. Because of placement on the schedule, you don’t need to get too far ahead on putting together a game plan or anything like that. We’ll have plenty of 2012 film, which is most important. What we’ll look at this time of year in what we call our summer scouting report, is there any thing truly unique and different that they do that during training camp when you have some extra time and you devote some extra periods to things like that, that you want to expose your team to."
CLINIC: The Iowa State football program will host its annual spring clinic this weekend. One of the speakers at the event will be Joe Cannan, the head football coach at Manatee High School in Florida, a district that has recently become a recruiting hotbed for Iowa State.
The keynote speaker will be former Iowa State defensive coordinator (1979-82, 1995-96) and most recently, former Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Larry Coyer.
