Iowa State offensive lineman Tyler Miller (66) waits for the snap against West Virginia during a NCAA football game at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
Matt Campbell knew it was time for a new voice in Iowa State’s offensive line room.
The group’s improvement had grown stagnant recently, and the program moved on from Jeff Myers after last season. Enter Ryan Clanton, formerly of Northern Iowa, and the architect of some of the FCS’ best offensive lines in recent seasons.
While it was time for a change in that sense, Campbell remained confident in the talent in the room. After all, he’s already seen some of them perform at a high level for the Cyclones.
“Well, I think even when you go back and you watch the video, there are individual successes from a year ago,” Campbell said on Thursday ahead of the start of Iowa State’s 2023 spring practices. “There are guys that are doing really good things. You look at 2020, 21, and even at times in 22, the offensive line… It’s hard because you judge the collective whole, right? There are a lot of individual pieces there that are having great success, and a lot of guys that have played a lot of football for us, and played it at a really high level at times.”
Iowa State’s inability to find cohesiveness as a unit up front played a significant role in the offense ranking only No. 114 out of 131 schools in scoring offense last year.
Despite finding some individual success, the five guys on the offensive line couldn’t find the rhythm together to put their best performance out there on Saturday afternoons.
Campbell feels he’s already seen progress from that group during the Cyclones’ winter workouts.
“The small reward that I’ve watched in eight weeks, the transformational physical change that has occurred in that group, and I think sometimes that’s hard when you have older guys to make such drastic physical changes, but you’re seeing that,” Campbell said. “I think for that group, there’s a lot of guys that have played a lot of football, and a lot of times, they played really well.”
Redshirt junior Tyler Miller is one player Campbell singled out as having a strong winter and said Miller has added 22 pounds of weight since last season to get up to 338 pounds. He also noted veterans Darrell Simmons and Jake Remsburg as looking good coming out of the spring.
To Campbell, though, the talent and ability of the players in the room have never been in question. They’re looking for the other things that go along with being a great offensive line.
“If we want to be the best, we have to be able to consistently play at our best,” Campbell said. “I have a great expectation that the group can do that. They certainly have the talent and ability to do that. Now, we’ve got to put that together.”
