Introducing a new weekly column here at CycloneFanatic.com. "Three Thoughts on Thursday" features the same concept as Monday Musings. It’s simply three opinions on hot stories that are relevant within Iowa State and Big 12 athletics. Enjoy!
Montgomery makes 2014 offense downright dangerous
As I write this, the beginning of the 2013 Iowa State football season is nine days away. However, recruiting (kind of) is without question the hot topic surrounding Iowa State football and this website with Mark Farley’s pesky Panthers coming to town in just a few days.
This is what happens when 6-foot-5, former 4-start wide receivers sign with a program that is insanely hungry for a high-flying offense in the very near future.
Hello D’Vario Montgomery. Nice to see you again (note that Iowa State heavily recruited him out of high school).
The former South Florida Bull signed with the Cyclones yesterday and now, visions of 60-point outbursts are dancing around in Courtney Messingham’s head.
I touched on this earlier this week in Monday Musings, but the potential for Iowa State’s offense in 2014 should make somebody spending any time at all on this website downright giddy.
Consider this: At Iowa State’s first practice of fall camp that was open to the media, a very, very, bright football mind that is very, very close to the program said this to me…
“Wide receiver has been our weakest position for a while now. Looking at these young guys, it is probably going to be our deepest and best in a year or two.”
That was before Sam Richardson’s old teammate, Montgomery, signed.
Iowa State’s young wide receivers still haven’t done anything and the verdict still out on these guys. But what I’m interested here is body-type. Gone are the days that 5-foot-9 speedsters are lining up at wide-out for the Cyclones. If you look at the current depth chart and imagine what a future one might look like, 6-footers (plus) who are speedsters dominate it.
Now just relax and stop drooling all over your keyboard…
The line still has to block. The quarterback still has to be decent at the very least. You’ve got to have a running game and the scheme can’t suck. But this talent compilation at wide receiver that Iowa State has put together is one like we have never seen before in Ames.
Rivals drops Lazard in rankings. Why?
Speaking of the future of the wide receiver position, Rivals.com recently dropped Urbandale’s Allen Lazard from No. 1 to No. 5 in its position rankings.
Is this a big deal?
You tell me.
I posted this thread on the site yesterday morning to get your opinions. As expected, they were mostly split.
My take?
Do I believe that recruiting services across America consciously have it out to get Iowa State? Absolutely not.
But, let’s say that Lazard would have switched his Iowa State commitment to Notre Dame or Alabama two months ago. Would he be dropping across the board?
I highly, highly doubt that would be the case.
Now, perhaps he still would be. I’m not a recruiting expert, nor do I claim to be one. But I am a human being and if I look at a kid’s offer list and see the big dogs of the SEC, I’m going to automatically assume that he is better than one with offers from Akron and Eastern Michigan.
Can you really blame me for that?
In this circumstance though, a conspiracy theory? Heck no.
A natural human instinct to downgrade the top 40 player with “Iowa State” next to his name instead of “Ohio State” or “Florida?”
We have a winner.
It was inevitable…
I could go on and on about how good Cyclones.TV already is and will be in the future for Iowa State athletics. The Walters-Rutherford-Varley-Kroeschell is second-to-none. As talented as that foursome is, they are even better people and that’s a fact.
But it was only a matter of time for this to become an issue.
What is “this?”
I went on 1460 KXNO’s Miller & Brinson Show on Tuesday and was asked about a potential injury to Iowa State’s junior running back Aaron Wimberly. I knew nothing about this.
Where did it come from?
Folks chatting about his whereabouts based off of practice video shown on Cyclones.TV. Apparently Wimberly has missed a day or two this week.
Perhaps he has the flu? Maybe it is something a little more serious? All I know is that Paul Rhoads recently told the media that his team is healthy and really, that’s all that we can go by.
Again, Cyclones.TV is a very, very good thing. But when you start letting the fans (Fanatics, that is) tune into practice, this is going to keep happening over and over and over again (just ask Mack Brown).
It’s a “gotta take the good with the bad” type of deal. Over all, the good of Cyclones.TV FAAAAAAAR outweighs the bad.
