Iowa State will beat Baylor.

[The_Architect]

1- I agree that you will come ready to play and will have a very good chance at beating us.

2- Shutting down McNutt was a great effort by your D but to a certain extent played into utilizing your strongest personnel. You had one elite corner in LJ to match with one elite WR in McNutt. Their formations rarely used multiple WR and their running game didn't really utilize the option run plays we do. This makes it apples to oranges. If LJ is shutting down our outside WR thats fine and good but what happens to your safeties and nickel defender? Shutting down a WR in a 2 wr power handoff offense is quite different than stopping a spread pass & option run team in terms of how you defend them.

Your best personnel is 4 line, 3 backers, and 4 dbs. Your backers are great taking on blocks and having them and your safeties near the line takes some pressure off your smaller DEs in the run game.

A team attacking you with 4 WR changes things as now your DEs have less help in the run game and you either have 1 LB on the field or give up coverage flexibility with 2 LBs as the 2nd won't run with Wright or Reese.

3- Your base defense is probably better at defending Iowa than TCU would be. However their DL and safeties probably match up better against us. If RG3 had simply missed his difficult deep throws for TDs against man coverage you would have had similar results to what TCU did to several teams last year. If you also take away the 2 WR passes that we tricked them with for 55 yards you get the following:

58.6%
5.33 per play and more pedestrian results.

Take our game against them last year and give us the 3 bad drops for 30 yards to start off. Then give us the wide open deep route where our slot had burned their safety on what would have been a 73 yard bomb RG3 flat out missed.

It goes from 263 yards and less than 5 per play to 366 and 6.5 a pop.

The TCU D is still very good. Both BU and SMU had guys open last year and protected the QB pretty well in 2010 vs the Frogs but simply kept missing the throws. RG3 is much improved throwing it and SMU has a more accurate QB and the results are pretty self explanatory. They replaced 2 safety starters and 2 DL who with experienced backups who were semi starters recently. They replaced 1 corner with a top JUCO guy. The overall talent is still very good and their best DL guys are still there with Maponga and Yendrey.

June Jones on TCU's defense compared to last year before their game:

To outsiders, TCU looks vulnerable this year. Not so for SMU head coach June Jones, who said the Horned Frogs look as tough as ever.

"They look exactly the same to me," Jones said. "They've done a great job with their schemes [on] both sides of the ball, and just recruiting and plugging in new bodies."

SMU and TCU to renew old rivalry Saturday | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth


4- Our offense is probably the first offense you will see this year that will attack you in a similar fashion to how Tech and Utah went after you. UConn and Iowa use power run mainly, UNI doesn't throw it much, and Texas will only occasionally go with the spread plays as they do a little of everything with Harsin.

Sammy, don't even bother trying to talk x and o's with UNIGuy and a few of the other juvenile posters (Baylor sucks!!!1!, Waco sucks!!!1!, David Koresh!!!1!) - they won't understand what you're talking about. Although, UNIGuys post that you replied to is much higher quality than usual so I'll give that to him.

IMO, we have an unusually high number of kids that post here that tend to water down the post quality.

 

[mt85]

1- I agree that you will come ready to play and will have a very good chance at beating us.

2- Shutting down McNutt was a great effort by your D but to a certain extent played into utilizing your strongest personnel. You had one elite corner in LJ to match with one elite WR in McNutt. Their formations rarely used multiple WR and their running game didn't really utilize the option run plays we do. This makes it apples to oranges. If LJ is shutting down our outside WR thats fine and good but what happens to your safeties and nickel defender? Shutting down a WR in a 2 wr power handoff offense is quite different than stopping a spread pass & option run team in terms of how you defend them.

Your best personnel is 4 line, 3 backers, and 4 dbs. Your backers are great taking on blocks and having them and your safeties near the line takes some pressure off your smaller DEs in the run game.

A team attacking you with 4 WR changes things as now your DEs have less help in the run game and you either have 1 LB on the field or give up coverage flexibility with 2 LBs as the 2nd won't run with Wright or Reese.

3- Your base defense is probably better at defending Iowa than TCU would be. However their DL and safeties probably match up better against us. If RG3 had simply missed his difficult deep throws for TDs against man coverage you would have had similar results to what TCU did to several teams last year. If you also take away the 2 WR passes that we tricked them with for 55 yards you get the following:

58.6%
5.33 per play and more pedestrian results.

Take our game against them last year and give us the 3 bad drops for 30 yards to start off. Then give us the wide open deep route where our slot had burned their safety on what would have been a 73 yard bomb RG3 flat out missed.

It goes from 263 yards and less than 5 per play to 366 and 6.5 a pop.

The TCU D is still very good. Both BU and SMU had guys open last year and protected the QB pretty well in 2010 vs the Frogs but simply kept missing the throws. RG3 is much improved throwing it and SMU has a more accurate QB and the results are pretty self explanatory. They replaced 2 safety starters and 2 DL who with experienced backups who were semi starters recently. They replaced 1 corner with a top JUCO guy. The overall talent is still very good and their best DL guys are still there with Maponga and Yendrey.

June Jones on TCU's defense compared to last year before their game:

To outsiders, TCU looks vulnerable this year. Not so for SMU head coach June Jones, who said the Horned Frogs look as tough as ever.

"They look exactly the same to me," Jones said. "They've done a great job with their schemes [on] both sides of the ball, and just recruiting and plugging in new bodies."

SMU and TCU to renew old rivalry Saturday | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth


4- Our offense is probably the first offense you will see this year that will attack you in a similar fashion to how Tech and Utah went after you. UConn and Iowa use power run mainly, UNI doesn't throw it much, and Texas will only occasionally go with the spread plays as they do a little of everything with Harsin.

Don't be surprised to see us in a nickel formation against your spread with Broomfield or Benton as the nickel back in place of Matt Tau'fo'ou. My biggest concern regarding ISU slowing Baylor's offense is the health of Leonard Johnson. I know he is expected to play, but he is going to need to be 100% to have any chance of defending KW.

As to June Jones comments about TCU's defense before the game, is there a head coach in America that wouldn't say the same thing before they took on an opponent.

It would be impossible to know for sure if he really believed that statement, but I can guarantee you that any coach worth his salt isn't going to give his opponent bulletin board material before they play.

I enjoyed your write-up regarding ISU on Baylor Fans. I don't, however, agree with your characterization that Texas flat out whipped ISU. ISU flat out whipped ISU would be how I would characterize that game. Texas didn't dominate the trenches on either side of the ball, and that is why I would claim ISU whipped itself more then Texas whipping ISU.

 

[Sammy11]

Don't be surprised to see us in a nickel formation against your spread with Broomfield or Benton as the nickel back in place of Matt Tau'fo'ou. My biggest concern regarding ISU slowing Baylor's offense is the health of Leonard Johnson. I know he is expected to play, but he is going to need to be 100% to have any chance of defending KW.

I expect you to go nickel but LJ won't cover KW unless he's moving to nickelback. KW is almost always a slot guy.

As to June Jones comments about TCU's defense before the game, is there a head coach in America that wouldn't say the same thing before they took on an opponent.

It would be impossible to know for sure if he really believed that statement, but I can guarantee you that any coach worth his salt isn't going to give his opponent bulletin board material before they play.

Usually I agree but having listened to Jones for a while he seems to be more like a polite version of Spurrier with the media- shoots straight on his opinions on other teams and doesn't buy into the coachspeak.

I enjoyed your write-up regarding ISU on Baylor Fans. I don't, however, agree with your characterization that Texas flat out whipped ISU. ISU flat out whipped ISU would be how I would characterize that game. Texas didn't dominate the trenches on either side of the ball, and that is why I would claim ISU whipped itself more then Texas whipping ISU.

I was referring more to the score. You guys moved it ok and took advantage of the 6 man fronts they gave you much like Rice did with them (RB avg 6 per carry in Rice-UT) but turnovers did hold you back.

On the other side of the ball you did well overall but they really busted open some big plays and dropped a couple more open ones.

So you did not get whipped play to play but the game was over early which was all I meant. A guy can get ahead of himself occasionally in a very long writeup like that.

 

[mt85]

I expect you to go nickel but LJ won't cover KW unless he's moving to nickelback. KW is almost always a slot guy.


Usually I agree but having listened to Jones for a while he seems to be more like a polite version of Spurrier with the media- shoots straight on his opinions on other teams and doesn't buy into the coachspeak.



I was referring more to the score. You guys moved it ok and took advantage of the 6 man fronts they gave you much like Rice did with them (RB avg 6 per carry in Rice-UT) but turnovers did hold you back.

On the other side of the ball you did well overall but they really busted open some big plays and dropped a couple more open ones.

So you did not get whipped play to play but the game was over early which was all I meant. A guy can get ahead of himself occasionally in a very long writeup like that.

They whipped us on the scoreboard, and that is what really matters. It will be interesting to see how ISU tries to defend Baylor. Personally I'm hoping the RGIII to KW magic is a little off for this game because they're virtually impossible to defend when they are on.

 

[heitclone]

1- I agree that you will come ready to play and will have a very good chance at beating us.

2- Shutting down McNutt was a great effort by your D but to a certain extent played into utilizing your strongest personnel. You had one elite corner in LJ to match with one elite WR in McNutt. Their formations rarely used multiple WR and their running game didn't really utilize the option run plays we do. This makes it apples to oranges. If LJ is shutting down our outside WR thats fine and good but what happens to your safeties and nickel defender? Shutting down a WR in a 2 wr power handoff offense is quite different than stopping a spread pass & option run team in terms of how you defend them.

Your best personnel is 4 line, 3 backers, and 4 dbs. Your backers are great taking on blocks and having them and your safeties near the line takes some pressure off your smaller DEs in the run game.

A team attacking you with 4 WR changes things as now your DEs have less help in the run game and you either have 1 LB on the field or give up coverage flexibility with 2 LBs as the 2nd won't run with Wright or Reese.

3- Your base defense is probably better at defending Iowa than TCU would be. However their DL and safeties probably match up better against us. If RG3 had simply missed his difficult deep throws for TDs against man coverage you would have had similar results to what TCU did to several teams last year. If you also take away the 2 WR passes that we tricked them with for 55 yards you get the following:

58.6%
5.33 per play and more pedestrian results.

Take our game against them last year and give us the 3 bad drops for 30 yards to start off. Then give us the wide open deep route where our slot had burned their safety on what would have been a 73 yard bomb RG3 flat out missed.

It goes from 263 yards and less than 5 per play to 366 and 6.5 a pop.

The TCU D is still very good. Both BU and SMU had guys open last year and protected the QB pretty well in 2010 vs the Frogs but simply kept missing the throws. RG3 is much improved throwing it and SMU has a more accurate QB and the results are pretty self explanatory. They replaced 2 safety starters and 2 DL who with experienced backups who were semi starters recently. They replaced 1 corner with a top JUCO guy. The overall talent is still very good and their best DL guys are still there with Maponga and Yendrey.

June Jones on TCU's defense compared to last year before their game:

To outsiders, TCU looks vulnerable this year. Not so for SMU head coach June Jones, who said the Horned Frogs look as tough as ever.

"They look exactly the same to me," Jones said. "They've done a great job with their schemes [on] both sides of the ball, and just recruiting and plugging in new bodies."

SMU and TCU to renew old rivalry Saturday | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth


4- Our offense is probably the first offense you will see this year that will attack you in a similar fashion to how Tech and Utah went after you. UConn and Iowa use power run mainly, UNI doesn't throw it much, and Texas will only occasionally go with the spread plays as they do a little of everything with Harsin.

I agree with a lot what you said,McNutt is a different type of animal than your WR's. Like you said, a spread offense is going to take a different approach. Throw in the fact that you've got to account for RG, and there is a lot of pressure on the DB's. Last season we basically played a Nickel for a base defense with Benton in the slot, I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot of that this week. The thing that scares me is that most of the sucess against us this year in the passing game as been to the outsides, Baylor's WR are dangerous out there. I think this game will tell us a lot about what we're going to do as a defense the rest of the year, we don't play a "pro style" type of team until December. Our non conference didn't give us a whole lot of help playing against the type of offense we'll see the next 2 months.

 

[Sammy11]

I agree with a lot what you said,McNutt is a different type of animal than your WR's. Like you said, a spread offense is going to take a different approach. Throw in the fact that you've got to account for RG, and there is a lot of pressure on the DB's. Last season we basically played a Nickel for a base defense with Benton in the slot, I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot of that this week. The thing that scares me is that most of the sucess against us this year in the passing game as been to the outsides, Baylor's WR are dangerous out there.

Who would take Benton's spot deep if he is the nickel guy? Also who has been the nickel guy this year for you guys?

Nickel is our base D and Ahmad Dixon plays there every snap on our end.

As far as deep passes I think your CBs will do ok and it comes down to how well RG3 can place the passes. Some against TCU were unreal in terms of how he dropped it in perfectly.

I think this game will tell us a lot about what we're going to do as a defense the rest of the year, we don't play a "pro style" type of team until December. Our non conference didn't give us a whole lot of help playing against the type of offense we'll see the next 2 months.

One thing I love about our non-con schedule of TCU, SFA, Rice is what schemes they run.

TCU- 4-2-5 Defense like Tech runs and a spread offense with QB read run game.

SFA- Despite the athletic deficiencies on their end they offensively run a Mike Leach style Air Raid and they execute it well. Will certainly help prep for OSU where Holgerson's schemes he developed under Leach are still in use. 4-2-5 again.

Rice- Same scheme as you guys on offense and 4-2-5. Your OC was theirs and they kept running the same stuff after he left. They also have comparable guys at QB and RB with mobile Taylor McHargue and Michigan transfer RB Sam McGuffie. Their OL and WR aren't on par though. They have good receiving TEs too which will help us be ready to defend Hammerschmidt, MU's Egnew, and KU's Biere who are all solid targets.

You guys did get the benefit of going against 3 solid defenses though that will help Jantz & company improve.

 

[heitclone]

Who would take Benton's spot deep if he is the nickel guy? Also who has been the nickel guy this year for you guys?

.

Like I said, I don't think we know a whole lot about exactly how we'll play the spread. Brackens and Givens have seen the field at safety, Brackens would play if Benton moves up. So far this year we haven't played a ton of nickel, but we've got guys like Broomfield and CJ Morgan who are LB/DB hybrids (both are around 6ft 200lbs), although we've played a more traditional 4-3 with Klein, Knott and Matt T. I'm not sure exactly how our defense will look against a team like Baylor, but with Mizzou, A&M, Tech, OSU and OU coming up I imagine it will have a different look than the first month of the season.

 

[Jonecy]

Reeves is going to need to step up and make some plays this week for us to have a chance. He's been beat on a bunch of big plays the last couple games and you better believe the Baylor offense will be throwing it his way often.

I don't want to hear about what a great corner Reeves is b/c I have yet to see it. Just b/c he's fast and can stay with the receivers doesn't mean anything if he can't make a play on the ball.

Make it happen on the field #5.

 

[heitclone]

Reeves is going to need to step up and make some plays this week for us to have a chance. He's been beat on a bunch of big plays the last couple games and you better believe the Baylor offense will be throwing it his way often.

I don't want to hear about what a great corner Reeves is b/c I have yet to see it. Just b/c he's fast and can stay with the receivers doesn't mean anything if he can't make a play on the ball.

Make it happen on the field #5.

He's going to get picked on the rest of the season, nearly everyone we play likes to throw the ball around quite a bit.I think JR is solid, but he could have used a red shirt year. He by no means a shutdown corner but he's show he's got athleticism and the ability to make a big plays when he gets the ball in his hands.

 

[bots]

He's going to get picked on the rest of the season, nearly everyone we play likes to throw the ball around quite a bit.I think JR is solid, but he could have used a red shirt year. He by no means a shutdown corner but he's show he's got athleticism and the ability to make a big plays when he gets the ball in his hands.

I'm not sure a RS year would have helped. Overall he seems pretty solid, but there have been at least a handful of times this year when the difference between him making a play and getting beat has been a couple of inches of height.

On the other hand, if the RS year was used to put him on an HGH regimin, I would have been on board with it.

 

[bluestarcyclone]

Ames grew from 52,000 to 60,000 between 2000 and 2010. Try again.

Ames, and Central Iowa in general, isn't dying at all. The Des Moines metro is constantly at the top of "Best City for...." lists, and that growth is helping Ames.

I think as des moines, especially ankeny, continues to grow, you'll see Ames benefit from some of that. The more jobs that go into ankeny, the more you'll see more stick around ames and just commute down to jobs there instead of moving down to the des moines area (and honestly, while its a long commute by iowa standards, Ames to Downtown DSM isnt an awful commute when you compare it to commutes in the country's larger cities). I know quite a few who wouldve stuck around in ames if there had been jobs available there or close. I-35 between ames and des moines gets busier and busier every year.

 

[woodie]

steele jantz may be good,but robert griffin no 3 is better. we have better linebackers so our defense has the edge. robert griffin no 3 will be the difference between a win and a loss. baylor by 3 in a shootout...

 

[woodie]

what is the las vegas odds on thegame?????

 

[ISUAgronomist]

what is the las vegas odds on thegame?????

I think it's Baylor (-16.5)

 

[InCytful]

I think it's Baylor (-16.5)

I think the bigger the spread, the better our chance to win...or at least beat the spread. :yes:

Just had to post something here to bump an actual football thread back onto the list above the realignment threads. Got to get pumped up for Saturday! Go State!

 

[woodie]

it will be a good game. the last time i went to a baylor -iowa state game was chizzlestick's first year. there was a qb controversy between bates and arnaud because bates old man was lobbying with jaime pollard for time for his kid to get more playing time. bates quit in the middle of the week and austen played the whole game with a wounded throwing arm. i concluded after the game(which we lost) that old chizzy was stupid(yes stupid!) for playing austen with a bad arm. chizzy just stood on the sideline with hiis chin in his hand stone faced during the whole game as robert griffin no.3 put on an offensive performance.. i really felt sorry for austen that eveningand it did not take me long to figure out that pollard had picked the wrong guy to coach the cyclones. thank the lord we now have paul rhoads as our coach....

 

[halaleezy]

Glad this thread migrated back to football talk. I'm looking forward to the game this weekend as both teams are coming off disappointing losses in games where they felt they either should have won or at least could have been competitive. Jantz as a passer doesn't worry me too much, but his mobility does give me pause. Klein hurt us on a few QB scrambles last week and the potential is there for Jantz to do the same thing. Plus, if we haven't fixed our kickoff returns and coverage, all bets are off. Hope any Cyclones that make the trip enjoy themselves and get in some solid tailgating. Weather should be awesome this weekend, temperature-wise!

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

I have been watching the games again from this year and I noticed that Texas only scored on drives where we made a mistake (penalty/turnover) and I know that was the same as the UConn game. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Cycsk]

They whipped us on the scoreboard, and that is what really matters. It will be interesting to see how ISU tries to defend Baylor. Personally I'm hoping the RGIII to KW magic is a little off for this game because they're virtually impossible to defend when they are on.

I would blitz a ton in the first quarter and make sure that RGIII gets knocked down often. If we want him to be a little off, then we have to knock him around.

 

[tejasclone]

Hope any Cyclones that make the trip enjoy themselves and get in some solid tailgating. Weather should be awesome this weekend, temperature-wise!

Where's the best spot to tailgate? How much does parking cost?