Football

Cyclone receivers at the core of 2024 offense

Iowa State football, and maybe college football as a whole, is gearing up for what may be the most anticipated season ever. With that brings expectations, especially those that get a little louder as July and August go on, and no one’s favorite team has lost a game yet.

First-year offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser enters the scene with an offense that returns almost all of its starters, and his pass-catching units could become a cornerstone of the entire team as the season grows older.

“I think the humans are probably (who) I am so high on,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said at Big 12 Media Days. “I feel like this is the tightest-knit group of kids we’ve had at one time at one place. I think probably a little bit of the adversity we had to grow through a year ago and the ability to fight through that and overcome some of that was really big for this group. Then the other part of it is your so young and I feel like as talented from top to bottom as we’ve been.

“To watch this group really come back in the off-season and really want to get better, and not feel like we’ve arrived or we’ve accomplished anything to where we want to go – it’s been really rewarding,” Campbell said. “I think all of those things make me really excited about the opportunity to go compete with this football team this year.”

Enter Jayden Higgins.

The transfer product from Eastern Kentucky finished with over 100 more yards for Iowa State this season than he had in his last year at the FCS level, collecting 983 yards and six touchdowns.

“I think you saw it in the second half of the season last year,” Campbell said of Higgins. “I think you just really saw his confidence and consistency just blossom. He’s a dominant football player. He’s a player that physically can dominate the game. He’s got the speed and the athleticism to dominate the game, but also he’s got great precision in his route running and an ability to go catch the ball at its catch point.”

Higgins turned into more of a dynamic player during the back half of 2023.

After six games at Iowa State, Higgins corralled three touchdowns but had just 266 yards. He produced, but not like he did as the year went on.

In Iowa State’s road matchup at Cincinnati, Higgins finished with 172 yards on six catches, including a 75-yard reception where a stiff arm added 18 yards on to the play.

“I think we’re really excited about (Higgins) and where he’s got the ability to just continue to evolve into,” Campbell said. “He’s a guy when you do sit down to look at the tape from the second half of the season, it was really special.”

Higgins was 17 yards short of reaching 1,000 yards after his 214-yard performance in the Liberty Bowl, and he could become the first Cyclone to reach the mark since Xavier Hutchinson, another wide receiver Iowa State found from a lower level.

Oddly enough, Hutchinson finished with 987 yards and five scores during his second year in Ames – Higgins may be ahead of the curve.

Iowa State feels that having a standout like Higgins at the spot, surrounded by other impact players in the room, puts its offense in an advantageous spot.

“I think that’s the thing that’s exciting,” Campbell said. “There’s been times where we’ve had maybe an A-player, but we’ve lacked maybe some of the tools around him to take the pressure off of that A-player. You look at what Jaylin (Noel) has done and you look at what (Higgins) has done. And you certainly look at Daniel Jackson – there were moments last year where Daniel, in the first half of the season, was making some of those plays that were big time plays. You get him back healthy.”

Noel has become a constant leadership piece to Iowa State’s locker room, and served as a captain last season where he finished with 820 yards – improving from his 572-mark from the year before.

Jackson finished with 90 yards and two touchdowns against Oklahoma State, but an injury stalled his progress and he had just 92 yards in his last four games on the field.

“Shoutout Daniel Jackson by the way,” Noel said during an interview at Big 12 Media Days. “Daniel Jackson is a name I haven’t heard enough today.”

Now, with Jackson healthy, Iowa State hopes he can take a forward step and be even more of a threat as the No. 3 pass catcher.

There’s more depth to the room, too, with Beni Ngoyi hoping to take a step forward after redshirting during his freshman year.

“You look at where Beni Ngoyi is right now and then you look at that tight end room,” Campbell said. “So, I think we are bullish about that. And I think when we’ve had that – you go back to that Butler and Lazard era – man, you feel like you can be a little more aggressive in terms of what you do down the field. You can do some different things. I think we feel that way, and then obviously with (quarterback Rocco Becht’s) experience and knowing what he can do now compared to maybe what we did or didn’t know at the beginning of last season. You can feed into his strengths with that group as well.”

Iowa State will intend to pass to set up the run at times, something that improved as the season grew older last year.

It’s something that paid dividends in Iowa State’s more successful seasons of the Campbell era.

“I think you saw even a little bit of that in the second half of last year,” Campbell said. “We were able to do that once we felt where Rocco was. I think when you look at Brock (Purdy) and the meat of his career, we were able to do that with him really well too. Just to have that option to do that is big.”

Mouser has stated that he won’t be shy to open up the playbook, and that fans might see more action in the screen game in 2024.

He was bullish on it during an interview with CycloneFanatic’s Chris Williams earlier this summer.

“Yeah, I won’t be shy at all,” Mouser said. “I think the big emphasis – well, I don’t think emphasis (is the right word) – but one of the areas I really wanted to study was the screen game. And I feel like some of the best offenses that you see have a really efficient, easy (and) simple screen game that I think we could use to get people like him, the ball out in space. Just like Abu (Sama) and Jaylin (Noel) or Dylan (Lee), whoever it might be, to get them the ball in space and let them go make people miss.”

Mouser is transitioning to the coordinator spot and has served as Iowa State’s tight ends coach since the 2021 season.

His pupil in sophomore Ben Brahmer caught a pass in 12 of 13 games last season, finishing with 352 yards on 28 catches with two scores.

“I think with the tight ends and the personnel that we have, there’s a wrinkle and a roll for that,” Mouser said. “We can get big and get heavy and run downhill and do some of that stuff, too, but I think we have some new, unique ways to get those guys the ball, whether that’s in screens or split out, or throwing it to him out of the backfield.

“I think there’s a lot of untapped offense there that we haven’t necessarily done in the past, that we could do now,” Mouser said.

If Iowa State can find the right mix between its offensive system under Mouser and the talent returning to Ames, this could be one of the best offenses in the Big 12.

And when Iowa State’s got a receiving room like it thinks it has this year, the success has followed in big ways.

“I think it allows you to spread the football around and allows you to not be one dimensional,” Campbell said. “It gives you the ability to really attack all of the football field. When we’ve had the ability to do that, I feel like we’ve been our best on offense.”

@cyclonefanatic