The Iowa guy thread got me thinking about vices. Substance not other.. First off, your preference. I'm sure liking gummies after decades of not using it. So many alternatives available. Not hung over in morning. Always calming vs what booze brings. No calories.

Been helping my parents move out of their house that they have been in for 30+ years. This has resulted in some interesting finds. Here are a couple of them.

Looking to get a new HVAC (furnace and AC) installed. Any recommendations on companies to use?

Thanks so much to @Cyclones_R_GR8 for this thread topic:

“ How are your dreams, Scary, pleasant or just plain weird?
Do you have recurring themes to your dreams?”

I am going to let him share his, but it is really good.

I just have had recurring dreams over the years that I accidentally never quit the job I had in high school at a small supermarket in our tiny town, I suddenly needed to show up and work a shift after working my grown-up job. The dream just goes through that day.

How about you?

Please help me welcome Jake Brend to our team at Cyclone Fanatic. Jake started with us full-time today. Think about what he has done for local TV covering the Cyclones over the years. Now he will do that digitally for CF - on steroids. We are heavily investing in our video and podcast production going forward. Of course, Rob Gray will still be on the ground for us in terms of writing about the Cyclones.

A couple of weeks ago a tree in our front yard was hit by lightning. It is a little leaf linden that is about 2 feet in diameter. The lightning created some random cracks in the bark in the bottome 20 feet of the tree but more devastatingly it blasted the bark pretty much clean off in an area about 5 feet high and 8-10" wide at the bottom of the tree. I found chunks of bark across and down the street over 100 feet from the tree. I trimmed off the shredded bark in that area but what should I do around it? Should I remove, leave or try to fasten tight the loose but intact bark on either side of this area? What should I be doing to help protect the tree? I know when I was a kid I saw people paint open areas like that but I haven't seen that for years so I'm guessing it really doesn't do any good. Should I proactively apply pesticides or fungicides?

Any help would be appreciated.

Been helping my parents move out of their house that they have been in for 30+ years. This has resulted in some interesting finds. Here are a couple of them.

I've been looking at adding solar to my house. I think about 6000-7000w worth of panels will offset my cost of purchasing from the power company. I would like to do the installation (roof installation, running wires, mounting hardware) myself and then have a licensed electrician "friend" come over and do the final wiring. It looks like ROI might be around 8 years, and I don't plan on moving so after that I can reap the rewards.

Has anyone here done something like this? Who did you purchase panels, inverters, and mounting kit from? Has your ROI been close to what was calculated?

Jake Brend reacts to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers forcing a Game 7 in the NBA Finals with a dominant win over Oklahoma City. Hear from Brend and Haliburton as we look forward to the biggest game of the former Cyclone's life.

Congrats to Crooks and Brown for being invited to the AmeriCup trials. By my count, ISU is one of 4 schools with two players invited (Oklahoma, Vandy, Notre Dame).

Will be in Des Moines today, looking for a nice lunch option, somethiing like the Cafe in Ames maybe, ideally with some gluten free options.

Fire away!

I think an improved pass rush is possible in 2025 and could be a key to defensive improvement next year.

Since Iowa State sends fewer pass rushers than the rest of the league and every team faces a different number of passing plays, it can be hard to compare raw stats across teams without context. I tried to add some context to ISU's 2024 Pass Rush performance, compares to 2023, and some opportunities & challenges we may have in 2025.

The table below breaks down the pass rush stats and ISU's B12 Rank and ISU vs. Avg B12 Team:

1) Number of pass rushers per pass play (ISU send 0.6 fewer pass rushers than the B12 average and ranks 15th in pass rushers sent per pass play; they also faced 60 fewer, or 13% fewer, pass plays than the average B12 team in 2024; both of these impact raw stats like sacks and pressures)
2) Total Sacks
3) Total Pressures (Sacks+QB Hits+QB Hurries)
4) Pressure% (Total Pressures / Total Pass Rush Snaps, ISU was 4th)
5) Sack% (Total Sacks / Total Pass Rush Snaps, ISU was 13th)
6) %Pass Plays w/Pressure (Total Pressures / Total Pass Plays)
7) %Pass Plays w/Sack (Total Sacks / Total Pass Plays)



A couple things I would note:

First, ISU sends fewer pass rushers and this scheme accounts for much of the gap between ISU and the rest of the B12 in terms of pressure and % of plays with pressure. You can see, even in what I would consider a down year for ISU we were 4th in Pressure% which normalizes for both number of pass rushers sent each play and number of pass plays faced by a defense.

Second, ISU converted fewer pressures into sacks. Sacks can be volatile year to year. ISU only converted about 10% of it's pressures into sacks in 2024 (very low). B12 Average was 14%, top teams were close to 20%. Last year ISU was at about 13%. So, a bad sack year for sure, they ranked 13th in sack% (sacks/pass rush snaps).


Looking at 2024 vs. 2023, we can see our pressure% improved, but our sack rate declined. Looking more closely, you can see this was driven by the LB position, where Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin were missed. In 2023, they combined for 4 sacks and 24 pressures on 101 pass rush snaps. The two combined for a Pressure% of 24%, and a Sack% of 4% (much higher than the 2024 ISU averages of 10.4% and 1.1%).



Change in LB Production Year to Year:




2025 Opportunities & Challenges:

LB
Iowa State's LBs are an important part of ISU's pass rush. They accounted for about 1/3 of the team's pressures and sacks in 2023. But in 2024, this dropped to about 1/4 of the teams production. Getting Bacon and McLaughlin back in 2025 should boost the production from the LB's in 2025.

EDGE:
On the edge, ISU lost 4 of their top 5 pass rushers from a year ago. Three transfers will attempt to replace them along with other younger players on ISU's roster. Vontroy Malone (Tulsa), Cannon Butler (UNI), and Tamatoa McDonough (Yale) will all be competing for time. Their stats were similar to the players we are losing but they will need to do it at the B12 level (Pressure% 9.7% v. 9.5%, Sack% 1.2% vs. 1.1%). One note on Butler, although he only had 1 sack on 25 pressures in 2024, he has 8 sacks on 68 pressures over his 3 seasons at UNI. So, last year he had a low pressure to sack conversion rate (4%) vs. his career average (12%).

I have 2 young kids, 7 and 5, and am super excited that the young one will be out of daycare and going to kindergarten in the fall so I should be able to save quite a bit more money. I mention this to other people and they say well it just goes from daycare expenses to sports/activities costs. I know that these cost more, but it seems like all you hear about is kids doing tournaments/travel ball all the time. My neighbors are gone every weekend during the summer for baseball tournaments all over the state. There seems like there are competitions all over the place and that is the new norm even for young kids. I heard a commercial today for Des Moines softball tryouts for what I am assuming are "elite" teams that start at an 8 and under division. I can't believe that they have tryouts for specific teams at that age. Are the days of pee wee baseball with just kids from the local schools or other sports like that without having to travel all over the state done? I live in Ankeny so it is hard to believe that there isn't enough kids that they have to travel all over to play teams. I am all about kids playing sports but I really don't want to go crazy competitive and cost wise especially for super young kids. Any input from other Fanatics on this issue?

With just three home and home games each year in Big 12 play moving forward, who should Iowa State fans want to play?

I've got my list of 1-15 here. Would love to know your thoughts!

Packed

Edit: Changed thread title to reflect for generic space discussion.


New Glenn Launch

Not sure why the Starship thread got closed, but here's one for discussing Starship's main competitor, New Glenn. The NG-1 mission is scheduled to launch tonight (Jan 11) at midnight CST after many, many delays. They were ready a few days ago but seas were too rough for the landing.

Looks like they're going to attempt to land the massive booster on a drone ship 600 miles off the coast of Florida. If they pull that off, it will be incredible and give Jeff Bezos a little bit of bragging rights over Starship, even though Starship is still way ahead.

New Glenn and Blue Origin have a special place in my heart because my daughter, an ISU engineering grad works on New Glenn and has some software running on a few of the controllers on the booster and second stage. She has a mentor that is pretty high up that is also an ISU grad.

LFG!!!

Just wondering how often posters on here get their teeth x- rayed. My dentist, who is fairly young, insists I get them every year. (Actually wants them every 6 months) I Googled , and it looks like I could get by with every 36 months based on my history- no cavities for 17 years now, no other problems or complaints. Full disclosure, my dental insurance pays for one set/ year, and I’m not overly concerned about the radiation. But if I don’t really need them, why risk the exposure?

Chris Williams welcomes new Chief Content Producer Jake Brend to the team by digging into the state of media, his past as a Cyclone fan, and what he will bring to Cyclone Fanatic. All this and more presented by Mechdyne.

Jake Brend gives you the Iowa State Athletics news of the day with Audi Crooks earning a spot on Team USA for the 2025 AmeriCup Games, new football helmets and an update on Tyrese Haliburton‘s injury status for Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

Hey all!

Wanted to pass along this opportunity to meet some Cyclones this Saturday late afternoon at the Iowa Cubs game.

Rocco Becht, Tamin Lipsey, Dom Orange, Addy Brown, Audi Crooks will be in attendance. Come get photos/autographs, etc and watch them throw out first pitches and a few other special Cyclone touches.

Please use this link if you can join as We Will gets a percentage of each ticket sold:

Looks like the punter for the class. Same HS as the three Barrett brothers.

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Takes out Messenbrink twice. World Team. LFG.

Today Alli ran a clinic for my Lewis Central girls wrestling program, and I just want to let everyone know what an amazing job she did!!! She is such a valuable asset to Cyclone wrestling and CRTC we should all be very grateful for her!

She made 40 LC girls wrestlers better today, and I can’t thank her enough!!