ISU assistant coach Ross Watson helps coach up the team’s linebackers during a recent spring practice. Photo by Rob Gray.
AMES — Iowa State head football coach Jimmy Roberts talked about a quarterback competition and rising stars among his team’s position groups. The highs and lows of camp and the growth he’s seen from the team.
So Monday’s media availability served as a standard spring football update from the Cyclones’ first-year head coach — until he broke some very unfortunate news.
“(Safety) Braden Awls tore his ACL,” Rogers said of the prized transfer from Toledo who totaled 52 tackles and intercepted five passes last season. “That’s probably the biggest (injury).”
Rogers said the injury is season-ending for Awls, a 6-0,196-pound senior who earned first team All-MAC accolades last season.
“(It was) kind of in a routine hit/blocking situation,” Rogers added. ‘His leg got planted. Outside of that — and that one sucks — but overall we’ve been able to stay as healthy as we need to be with the physicality with which we’re playing right now ion practice.”
A handful of candidates could replace Awls as a likely starter at safety, including Montana transfer Micah Harper, who started his career at BYU.
“(He) has done a really good job,” Rogers said. “He’s a savvy player. For him it’s getting the mental reps inside of it to where he doesn’t get confused.”
Washington State transfers Duhron Goodman, Brody Miller and Damarius Russell could each carve out roles at safety, as well — as could holdovers players such as Drew Surges and Eddie Lemos, who played cornerback last season.
“I’ve been intrigued with Drew Surges, how he just kind of flies around and his ability to pick up the defense really well,” Rogers said. “(Lemos), I think, he gives us flexibility. I really like the way Eddie plays. He’s just a really intellectual kid that plays hard and is very instinctual, and he’s surely gonna have a role in this defense.”
So outside of the bad news about Awls — who presumably could be back if he receives a medical redshirt, Rogers is seeing nothing but positive signs from his team on both sides of the ball.
“If you were to (ask) who I tipped my hat to (last) Saturday, it would surely be the offense,” Rogers said. “Of how they played, the physicality in which they played with, the execution standpoint outside of a couple things here and there.”
Rogers also said transfer quarterbacks Jaylen Raynor and Zane Flores have stood out through the first half of spring camp. Raynor, a dual-threat senior from Arkansas State, threw for 19 touchdowns and ran for seven more last season. The 6-3, 215-pound Flores was thrust into a starting role as a freshman at Oklahoma State last season and threw three touchdown passes along with seven interceptions.
“They’re both learning a new system and, at times, one does better in a certain situation, and one does better in the other situation,” Rogers said. “So we’ve been kind of mixing and matching who goes with which group at the end of the day. It will sort itself out over the series of spring ball and where (they’re at) going into summer.”
Rogers has also been highly impressed with his running backs room. Holdover Aiden Flora and Bowling Green transfer Cameron Pettaway have both turned heads both running the ball and catching it out of the backfield.
“There have been some splash plays,” said Rogers, who added that outside of Awls’ season-ending injury, no one else is dealing with anything severe from a health standpoint. “I think Flora could be a difference maker, for sure, and Cam Pettaway is really hard to tackle in small space, so trying to utilize those’ guys’ skillset. Those two are somewhat similar, but they can both catch the ball. They can both get out in the slot and line up at wide receiver and make a linebacker or safety miss. So I think the sky’s the limit for the group.”
