Iowa State Cyclones defensive back Quentin Taylor (24) and Iowa State Cyclones defensive back Malik Verdon (7) takes down Baylor Bears wide receiver Josh Cameron (34) during the third quarter in the NCAA football at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
No. 11 Iowa State takes on West Virginia Saturday in Morgantown as Iowa State chases its first 6-0 start since 1938. Here are the takeaways from Tuesday’s press conference.
Injuries on the defense
As I wrote Saturday night, Iowa State had seven defensive starters either injured in its game against Baylor or not playing entirely.
Coach Matt Campbell said Tuesday that he and his staff feel a lot better than they did Saturday.
“We’re a lot better today probably than where we felt we were Saturday,” Campbell said. “Cael (Brezina) was out there at practice today, which was great to see – I didn’t know if we thought that would happen. (Darien Porter) was back to full-go, which was a positive.”
Campbell said he’s still uncertain if Brezina will be on the field in Morgantown.
“On Cael – I would say it’s not a guarantee he’ll be ready (for Saturday), but I think he’s a lot closer than we thought he would be, so we’ll keep navigating that as we get through the week,” Campbell said.
There is still a question mark at the linebacker spot with true sophomore Jack Sadowsky.
The Illinois native started the first four games of the season, but did not play on Saturday against Baylor.
“We’re kind of trying to navigate exactly what to do with (Sadowsky),” Campbell said. “We’re, I think, in limbo of ‘do we redshirt him or do we not,’ just because he didn’t get that opportunity a year ago. I think we’re trying to be wise more than we were trying to do anything else. I think Jack is such a great team player – I think he wants to do what’s best for the team. Obviously, if (Brezina) wouldn’t go, he’d be a guy that will certainly be ready to go and help us play great football.”
This is a point to note, because in past years, Campbell has said that his staff doesn’t pay a ton of attention to the four-game redshirt rule and tries its best to put the best players on the field.
We’ll know more on it Saturday, as a depleted linebacker corps – which continues to perform no matter who’s on the field – lines up in Morgantown.
“It’s part of football,” Campbell said. “It’s why you try to build your team with depth – obviously it’s challenging, but it’s provided some guys with some great opportunities to play. A little bit of credit goes to coach (Kolby) Cratch. I think he’s done such a really good job of kind of keeping the standard of, ‘we’re going to keep playing good football because we have a lot of really good players.’ I think we felt like there was a lot of depth in that linebacker room before the season started. It’s just an area right now that’s gotten hit and the next guy up has had to go in and play good football.”
Getting out to quicker starts
A major point of improvement Iowa State is aiming to get better at is coming out to fast starts in games.
The Cyclones found themselves down 13-0 to Iowa, went into halftime at Houston with a slim, 3-0 lead and got down 14-3 against Baylor Saturday after a 4th and 2 attempt fell short on the first drive.
It’s hit home with new offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser.
“Even still, the last two weeks, there are still a lot of calls that are still lingering in my mind of things that I wish I would have called differently to get us out to a better start in short yardage situations,” Mouser said. “The defense did such a good job this last week, because we didn’t hold our side of the bargain early.”
Mouser said that Iowa State can find its way there by simplifying its play calls early in games, even if he wants a few back.
It might be a necessity for the Cyclones this week – West Virginia got out to a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter in its win over Oklahoma State last week.
“I think just finding things that our guys are confident that we can go in and play fast,” Mouser said. “Houston, Baylor and West Virginia – those defenses can be so different. (It’s about) how can we keep it simple and allow our guys to play fast and play confident and know they can execute.”
Jing – Iowa State’s Power T formation
Iowa State lined up in a Power T-esque formation on Saturday against the Bears, and although it didn’t net positive yards, it’s a new-age wrinkle on classic Campbell sets.
“We’ve had a couple of different names for it – we just call it ‘Jing,'” Mouser said. “We start in a different formation, and shift to Jing and get to that. They didn’t line up exactly in the defense that we thought they would, so it didn’t work. We have a couple of different heavy formations that we can get into whether that’s in the stack or in the T, so it kind of allows us to be felxible based on what we’ve called it. It’s evolved a little bit through the years with coach Campbell in what that’s look like and who’s been at different spots.”
The playcalling duties are largely left to Mouser, but running backs coach Tyler Roehl and offensive line coach (and former UNI offensive coordinator) Ryan Clanton have brought their own twists on things.
“I think it allows you to be really flexible just with the personnel options we have at tight end, receiver and the running backs,” Mouser said. “Within that, it can be really easy to chase ghosts or feel like you have so many options where you’re like, ‘OK what’s really the best thing that we could do here to get a yard.'”
Tight end Ben Brahmer added that Mouser installed the tight end delay that fans saw Saturday during the week leading up to the game in practice.
Don’t expect this to be the end of unique looks the Cyclones roll out – and there could be a little bit of ‘something different’ every week with the minds that are on this staff.
