Iowa State Cyclones football head coach Matt Campbell reacts after a touchdown against Arkansas State during the first quarter in the week-4 NCAA football at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Iowa State will face off with Houston in its Big 12 opener on the road Saturday night.
Here’s what we learned from Tuesday’s pregame press conferences …
Iowa State’s offense is prepared for Houston’s turnover-forcing tactics
The No. 18 Cyclones are ready for the tactics Houston’s defense has put on film ahead of this weekend’s game.
“Those guys – they fly around,” Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht said. “What we saw was, whenever we get the ball in a wide receiver’s or running back’s hands, those defensive players are taught to hit that ball out and they’ve done that a couple of times. So just holding onto that ball – especially me in the pocket – knowing that they’re coming after it is going to be big.”
Coach Matt Campbell has long preached the importance of winning the turnover battle and Cyclone fans and players alike know it can swing a game in either direction.
“Not only the young guys, but also the veterans in the group, too – just protect the ball,” wide receiver Jayden Higgins said. “Whether Rocco’s throwing it or we’re running it, just protect the ball at all times.”
The I-formation plays stem from Coach Tyler Roehl’s NDSU days
Iowa State fans have seen the Cyclones line up in the I-formation for the first time in a long time this season at Jack Trice Stadium.
They pulled it out a little in the season opener against North Dakota and it again showed up last weekend against Arkansas State.
To the casual fan, it might come off like another card out of first-year offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser’s back pocket. However, that subsect of the new-look playbook came out of running backs coach Tyler Roehl’s time at North Dakota State.
“I call it, ‘Crazy Man 2’ – that’s a Tyler Roehl special there – the goalline, stack-I craziness there,” Mouser said. “I love it. It’s something that we haven’t done a lot of. He, obviously, has a lot of experience running it at North Dakota State. When he got here, we watched a lot of what they did and I felt like we had a lot of the personnel to do a lot of that stuff. He’s obsessed with that kind of stuff – him and (offensive line coach Ryan Clanton).”
That’s been a cohesive point for this young Iowa State staff, which includes former offensive coordinators in both Clanton and Roehl, as well as a college star in quarterbacks coach Jake Waters.
It’s part of where the fake QB sneak came from that Iowa State ran on Saturday.
“They dial up a lot more than what we do, and we kind of tone it down a little bit to find the stuff that will fit,” Mouser said. “He does an awesome job of coming up with that kind of stuff and making it look easy. He instills a lot of confidence in our guys with it.”
Houston will continue to play two quarterbacks
Cougars head coach Willie Fritz said during his press conference that both Donovan Smith and Zeon Chriss will see the field against the Cyclones. .
“They’ve both done some good things,” Fritz said. “It might be crystal clear to some people, but to me, I’ve seen some good things and some things not so good. We’re going to play both those guys and we’re going to give them both opportunities and show us what they can do. We’ve got to play better with the other 10 guys.”
Both quarterbacks have the tendency to run. In last week’s game against Cincinnati (a 34-0 loss for the Cougars), Smith ran the ball 10 times for 27 yards.
After checking in during the third quarter, Chriss — a Louisiana transfer — led three drives, rushing the ball eight times for 27 yards and completing 2 of 5 passes in his 17 plays in the game.
“We really haven’t seen Zeon have the opportunity to do a bunch of stuff,” Fritz said. “I think he had five pass attempts on Saturday. But, I’ve seen – you look at two games ago (against Oklahoma), I thought Donovan played pretty well. But we’ve got to play better at all of the spots.”
Houston was also limiting Smith’s number of throws earlier this season. Smith is recovering from surgery to his throwing shoulder after a torn labrum kept him out of a majority of the spring action for the Cougars.
Fritz said that he isn’t under the restriction anymore and that Houston was letting him take Sunday’s and Monday’s off from throwing the ball.
Iowa State will do what it can to avoid looking at the big picture
Last time an Iowa State team started 3-0, it ended up going 4-8.
That message was heard loud and clear inside the locker room, especially during the Cyclones’ early bye week.
“What we’re focused on is winning the next game and also just knowing our history,” Becht said. “Last time we were 3-0, we only won one conference game that year. So just understanding that and coming in with urgency each and every day (is what we’re focused on).”
Houston comes into the game with blowout losses to UNLV and Cincinnati on its 1-3 resume but did play Oklahoma to a 16-12 result.
Fritz’ resume speaks for itself, too.
It’s easy to say that a team won’t overlook an opponent or doesn’t pay attention to what’s in front of it, but this quote from Matt Campbell Tuesday really resonated to the ability and challenges sustaining success comes with.
“I don’t think it’s easy,” Campbell said. “I mean, man, it’s not easy in the NFL. I just watched the Houston Texans play the Minnesota Vikings, and that wasn’t easy. And, you know, those are professionals, right? We’re all 49ers fans, and it’s not easy for them right now. The reality of it is sport is hard. College football is hard. The mentality to sustain success. It’s hard in everybody’s business.”
Campbell noted that road teams went 1-7 last week in the eight games that involved Big 12 Conference teams.
That’s why it’s hard to win,” Campbell said. “Can we continue to have a winning mentality? I don’t know. You know you you hope that you continue to pound away at the fabrics of what we build ourselves on, and that’s really great habits every day, and great focus and coming in and trying to get better. But to say you can do that, or how easy is it? It’s exhaustingly hard, and it’ll only continue to be exhaustingly hard because it’s hard to win football games.”
The Iowa State coach will become the winningest in program history with a win against Houston.
“I think Coach Mac, just knowing the longevity that he had here, knowing what he took over when he got here, and then his ability to take the program from where it was to where he took it during his tenure, was really impressive,” Campbell said. “Just the ability to find people that can can be a guidepost. And not only has he been a guidepost, he’s been an unbelievable mentor. He’s been He’s meant the world to our alumni, and he’s meant the world to our coaching staff and our kids here. And so anytime he’s around our program, we cherish and really appreciate what he’s done.”
