Jul 14, 2022; Arlington, TX, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell is interviewed during the Big 12 Media Day at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Well, well, well… I leave for 10 days and come back to find it’s nearly time to start the football season. The weather over the weekend even felt like football season.
It will really feel like fall this week when Chris Williams and I head to Dallas to cover Big 12 Football Media Days. This will be my first time covering the event, so it will be an all-new experience for me.
Iowa State is slated to partake in the event on Thursday with Matt Campbell, wide receiver Jaylin Noel, safety Beau Freyler, cornerback T.J. Tampa and linebacker Gerry Vaughn representing the program.
We’re going to start our Musings with five questions on my mind for Matt Campbell at this week’s event.
1 – What can he tell us about the gambling thing?
This story is going to hang over Iowa State’s program and fall camp as long as it remains unresolved. We still don’t know the names of anybody involved with the gambling story that broke back in the spring, but we know multiple Iowa State football players are rumored to be implicated.
What kind of impact, if any, has that had on the team’s summer workouts? How have the players implicated responded and bounced back? How does the program intend to handle any potential suspensions?
Those are all questions I’d like answers to, but I’m willing to guess we won’t get much information out of anyone down in Dallas. Still, this remains the biggest question hanging in the air over Iowa State football at this point.
2 – How have the backup quarterbacks progressed this summer?
Rocco Becht and JJ Kohl have both drawn significant praise since arriving on campus, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the battle for the backup spot behind Hunter Dekkers.
How has Becht performed during his second summer with the program? How did Kohl carry momentum through the summer after a strong first spring with the team?
There is little doubt at least one of these guys will be forced into playing time at some point this season, whether it is due to injury, performance or something else.
How ready are they for that scenario?
3 – Is the offensive line hype train still rolling?
The hype train was running at full speed back in the spring after the arrival of new offensive line coach Ryan Clanton. There was talk of how much this group has improved from a physicality standpoint since the end of last season.
How did that improvement carry into the summer?
The talent is there for this to be one of Iowa State’s best lines since Campbell took over, but we have to see the results on the field before anyone around here will fully buy into the hype.
4 – Who is standing out on the defensive line?
Few positions on Iowa State’s team were hit harder by graduation or professional decisions than the defensive line. Will McDonald and MJ Anderson are gone, leaving the Cyclones without their two proven pass rushers from last season.
Who has stepped up to fill that void? Those are some big shoes to fill, but I know the program has talented young players they feel confident about stepping in.
How have those guys taken another step since the spring?
5 – What does he think of his team’s schedule?
Obviously, the schedule is what the schedule is, and there’s no point complaining about it if you don’t like it, but it will be interesting to get Campbell’s perspective on the new look slate.
What does he think of making a trip back to his home state of Ohio to play Cincinnati? How’s he feel about the road trip to Provo to play BYU? Does he like the way the schedule breaks up with a bye after seven games?
Those are somewhat tedious questions, but media days are for the tedious questions, especially after several months without strong football information to react to.
More Musings
*** Former Cyclone teammates Gabe Kalscheur and Izaiah Brockington went head-to-head Sunday night in the NBA Summer League. Brockington scored six points for the Pelicans while adding three rebounds, an assist and a steal. Kalscheur had five points and two rebounds while knocking down his only 3-point attempt of the night in the Warriors’ 94-86 loss.
I’m very interested to see where both of these guys end up playing their ball next season, whether that be in the NBA, G-League or elsewhere.
*** It was disappointing to see the controversy with Bob Huggins and his resignation from West Virginia come back up over the weekend. The gist of it breaks down to Huggins’ lawyers alleging the former West Virginia head coach never signed a letter of resignation after his arrest for a DUI last month, and he asked to be reinstated as head coach.
As you can imagine, that didn’t go over well with the University of West Virginia, who threatened legal action if Huggins’ claims continue. This is going to get messy.
In fact, it already is a mess.
*** If you haven’t watched Victor Wembanyama play in the NBA Summer League yet, you’re missing out. The No. 1 overall pick in the draft has put his tantalizing skill and unique body on display during the Spurs’ first two games in Las Vegas.
He wasn’t great offensively in the first game, but you could see the vision and playmaking ability that makes him so unique at 7-foot-5.
You could see him getting his legs underneath him in game two, including a sequence where he scored six straight points by knocking down a 16-foot jumper off the dribble, tipping a rebound to himself then slamming it home over defenders then running the floor in transition to throw down a thunderous one-handed slam over a defender.
I have no idea if this guy is going to live up to the monstrous hype surrounding him, but it is certainly fun to watch someone his size play like a guard the way he does.
*** I was on vacation all last week with my Dad and I wanted to drop a few vacation thoughts before signing off.
First, if you love baseball, and especially love going to baseball games, then you must hit PNC Park in Pittsburgh at some point in your life. It instantly moved near the top of my list of favorite ballparks.
Second, and along the same lines, I couldn’t recommend making the long drive to Cooperstown, N.Y. to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame enough. It is an absolutely beautiful museum that tells the story of the game in a near-perfect way.
I wish I could say the same thing about the Basketball Hall of Fame, but I was highly disappointed to see the museum share the same building as a Subway and a Coldstone Creamery. Nothing against either of those establishments, but they just don’t scream a museum or celebration of the story of basketball.
Lastly, make time to spend time with your Dad if you’re still able. My pops and I drove nearly 3,000 miles and spent 50 hours in his Dodge Ram pickup over the 10 days we were on the road. Countless stories were told and an immeasurable number of memories were made.
It was the trip of a lifetime, and I was lucky to share it with my dad.
