Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell leads warmup drills prior to kickoff against West Virginia during a NCAA football game at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
If you’re hoping to learn something significant about Iowa State’s 2023 football team in Saturday’s spring game at Jack Trice Stadium, you’re likely to be disappointed.
The Cyclones will be approaching Saturday’s festivities like the game is what it is, and that’s the program’s 15th and final spring practice before they enter their offseason program this summer.
“The 15th practice,” Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said when asked what he’s hoping to get out of Saturday. “Nothing, to be quite honest with you. I think the last couple years, we’ve tried to play games in front of people with a young team. A year ago, we did it twice, and not really games, just practice. I just think it adds another piece of the puzzle to a young football team.”
As a result, fans can expect to see a pretty basic version of Iowa State football.
Everything is expected to get started shortly after 10 a.m. on Saturday as players will warm-up and go through drills before the “game” starts at 11 a.m. The format is expected to be offense versus defense with some sort of scoring system decided on prior to the game and should last a little more than an hour.
“We won’t even know what our team is going to look like until September and we get out in front of 70,000 people,” Campbell said. “I think the opportunity to put people in the stands, and, you know, a year ago, we had to go to Ames and some other places because our field was getting redone. This year, to be able to do it at home is great, because you’re in your stadium that you’re going to play in, but I just think the dynamic of that, honestly, it’ll be another practice. We’ve always kind of used these open deals as just another practice, but I think, again, putting people in the environment is phase to evaluating the football team and where you’re at, and where some individuals are at, quite honestly.”
One of the biggest things for fans and media alike will be to not jump to conclusions based on what you see on Saturday. There will be guys who don’t play at all, and there will be guys who are asked to play a ton that might not play a down for Iowa State this season.
It will be part of the process of building the football team, especially a new-look offense with a revamped staff.
If you’re hoping to leave Jack Trice Stadium feeling vastly better about the direction of the offense, you’ll probably be disappointed.
“First of all, hopefully, there’s enough trust in the results of six years or seven years of football here to know, we’ll be just fine,” Campbell said. “I think the second piece of it, I would tell you is it’s going to be hard to make any… man, it’s going to be 43 degrees and we’re going to keep it pretty simple. Nothing Saturday will tell you if we’ll be good or not, but I think what I’ve seen is I’ve seen is this group really grow in terms of the areas that take no talent to get better.”
