Iowa State Cyclones football head coach Matt Campbell leads the team to enter the field before the game in the season opening football at Jack Trice Stadium on Aug. 31, 2024, in Ames, Iowa © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
Iowa State football hosted its weekly press conference ahead of the Cy-Hawk game on Tuesday — and here are five things I took away from it.
Iowa has a new offensive coordinator, but its philosophy appeared unchanged in last Saturday’s season opener.
The Hawkeyes scored 34 points in the second half to beat Illinois State, 40-0, and they still wat to ground and pound on offense while adding a few new wrinkles for quarterback Cade McNamara in the passing game.
“The philosophy is the same,” Iowa State cornerback Darien Porter said of Iowa’s offense. “How they do it may be a little different with a new coordinator, obviously, but it’s a very talented, and veteran group too. They’re going to come out and block hard on the offensive line, block hard on the perimeter, and try to get the ball in the hands of their playmakers – and they’ve got plenty of great ones.”
That sets up what could look like a similar game as we’ve seen in the recent seasons, but expect some twists from both first-year offensive coordinators in Iowa’s Tim Lester and Iowa State’s Taylor Mouser.
“They’re showing a little more R.P.O. than they have in the past, so being able to take advantage of that and trying to steal a possession (is something we’re looking at).” Porter said.
Iowa will try to exploit Iowa State’s lack of experienced depth at linebacker.
With Iowa State missing two of its starting linebackers in Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin because of injuries (Bacon had sugery on Sunday and will be out for a while), expect for the Hawkeyes to try to exploit the inexperience.
Kooper Ebel won the starting job at the WILL linebacker spot over the offseason, but wasn’t a regular starter a year ago. Meanwhile, freshman Cael Brezina is slated to be back after missing the season-opening 21-3 win over North Dakota with an injury.
The Cyclones’ normal, eight-player group rotating at the position is down to six and that’s without the head signal caller for the group in Bacon.
Iowa State showed a weakness on first and second downs in the immediate drive following Bacon’s injury Saturday, but improved throughout the rest of the game.
Look for Iowa to try and find ways to attack there, especially running the ball to create third-and-manageable situations. It’s the most vulnerable spot for Iowa State going in to Saturday’s game.
Expect more tight end usage for Cyclones Saturday.
Iowa State tight end Ben Brahmer was targeted twice on Saturday, and no other Cyclone tight ends were thrown to on Saturday.
Campbell said after the game that Brahmer was limited because of being dinged up late in fall camp, but still able to play limited snaps. That limit should be lifted this week, and with tight ends coach Taylor Mouser heading the offense, expect more usage at that position.
“They know what the game plan looks like,” Mouser said. “There was a lot of tight end stuff on there that we didn’t get to just for the lack of possessions that we had and the lack of snaps that we had.”
Brahmer’s statline was as uncharacteristic as it gets for the 6-foot-7, 250 pound talent. Iowa State will look to him and possibly Gabe Burkle to pick up some drive-continuing, chunk plays at Kinnick Stadium.
Players know the game, importance of limiting turnovers.
Cy-Hawk Series games have a unique way of swinging momentum on two or three big plays that can come at any time.
Quarterback Rocco Becht said that it was his pick-six from a year ago that changed the outcome of the game in Ames.
“I felt like last year, take away that pick-six, and we’re in the game – it’s a tie game,” Becht said. “This year, I’m just focusing on taking care of the ball. That’s my biggest priority – and putting it in the hands of the all-stars we have on this team.”
They’ve got to avoid interceptions, and Becht improved in that area throughout the year.
Going back to the BYU game last season, Becht has 12 touchdowns and just one interception in his last five games on the field.
“If we have three-and-outs, we’re not going to win this game,” Becht said. “We’re going to need to sustain long drives and continue to hone in on the details and decisions on each drive.
Iowa State’s offense likes this matchup, but knows it can beat itself if not careful.
The Cyclones know what they’ve got in this matchup, and that’s as big of a positive as fans can hear from the offense going in.
“They’re one of the best (defenses) in the country for a reason,” Becht said. “It’s a challenge, but we love challenges. We love this matchup. It’s going to show who we really are and we just want to go out there and do our jobs the right way.”
As is this series, the opportunities will be there for the taking at the most unexpected times.
Saturday, Iowa State’s goal is to take advantage of them, and the key to the game may just be as simple as that.
“Their defense is so good and so disciplined,” Mouser said. “Very rarely are they out of place, and they’re certainly not as exotic of a defense as we saw last week. I think for us, we have to play disciplined football. That defense does such a good job of making you beat yourself – and we have here at Iowa State on offense. It’s cost us a lot at times. We need to be a lot better there.
“For us, it’s waiting for your opportunities against this defense to try and take advantage of what they give you, and when they do you have to make the best of your opportunities,” Mouser said.
