Is ISU looking at any guys in the Portal?

[Frak]

Agree with your point on McDonald. I hope another year with Andrews will see some weight gains (no real increase year to year based on the reported numbers from cyclones.com; 220lbs 2018, 230lbs 2019, 230lbs 2020). McDonald is incredible when we know it's a passing play and he can just go get the QB... But I think his size works against him in our base defense. If he doesn't put on weight, I think our base defense would likely be one of the Peterson's (Zach or Blake) or even Cory Suttle vs. McDonald (but just my guess). We need to be able to clog up the line to stop the run... last year that was Bailey (261), Lee (301), Uwazurike (310). Asking McDonald to step into Bailey's role may not be realistic. Love his upside and probably the best pro prospect on the D-Line, but not sure if he has the size needed for the base 3 man front when we need to defend both the run and the pass... if it's 3rd and 10, we can give up some rush yards in exchange for his pass rush. I assume expanding on his roll this year will likely be dependent on how much weight he can put on.

Yeah, as good as McDonald is, he's a 4-3 DE and not a 3-3 DE. He's great when he rotates in on passing downs or after teams have given up on the run game. He's just not built to be an every down player in this defense and trying to make him that will likely affect his ability to rush the passer when we really need it. My guess is that we start Zach Peterson, Lee and Uwazarike. McDonald comes in on 2nd and long or 3rd and long. If Suttle is good enough to take some of those DE snaps, all the better.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Dolphins fan here - Rumors are despite the staffs repeated attempts to keep him on the team, Lima was adamant about retiring from football. Dolphins felt he would fill their NT role nicely. It wasn’t a lack of talent issue that kept him from being in the league.

 

[CyCloned]

Yeah, as good as McDonald is, he's a 4-3 DE and not a 3-3 DE. He's great when he rotates in on passing downs or after teams have given up on the run game. He's just not built to be an every down player in this defense and trying to make him that will likely affect his ability to rush the passer when we really need it. My guess is that we start Zach Peterson, Lee and Uwazarike. McDonald comes in on 2nd and long or 3rd and long. If Suttle is good enough to take some of those DE snaps, all the better.

The solution for McDonald may very well be some type of 3-4 defense, where he would be a blitzer at times. Or maybe a modified 4-3 with him moving from side to side to get the best rush angles. Not too worried about it. He is talented enough he will be on the field and JH is probably the best scheme DC in the country.

 

[cyclones12321]

big kat bryant from auburn would of been a dream transfer to land but he's going to ten i see.

Well Iowa state is the only ten I see!

 

[CloneGuy8]

Dolphins fan here - Rumors are despite the staffs repeated attempts to keep him on the team, Lima was adamant about retiring from football. Dolphins felt he would fill their NT role nicely. It wasn’t a lack of talent issue that kept him from being in the league.

Perhaps he is thinking of giving it one more go?

 

[Cyforce]

The benefit is reduced with the defense we play. There were a lot of situations, even in passing downs, where we sent 3 guys. That means teams could double both Bailey AND McDonald fairly easily. It's why I'm not a fan of the frequency with which we only rush 3 guys. The game is won and lost at the line of scrimmage and even IF you have stud lineman it's hard to consistently beat double teams. We need to create more (favorable) one on one matchups.

This is wrong and doesn't understand the advantages only having three on the line gives us. First our defense was constantly coming forward. A LB could blitz from a variety of spots making it difficult to double our ends. Our Safeties filled for blitzing LBs. Our DEs rarely had contain allowing them to be multi dimensional on their rush.

I guess my question to you is if it's so poorly schemed why did it work so well?

 

[tolfbfan]

If the three man front was a bad idea, why did CMC and staff get so many other coaches at major universities wanting to learn about the system. For those Ohio Midwestern types, Marion Local is a prime example. Lol.

 

[Steve]

This is wrong and doesn't understand the advantages only having three on the line gives us. First our defense was constantly coming forward. A LB could blitz from a variety of spots making it difficult to double our ends. Our Safeties filled for blitzing LBs. Our DEs rarely had contain allowing them to be multi dimensional on their rush.

I guess my question to you is if it's so poorly schemed why did it work so well?

Completely agree. The key to the defense is how the 3rd safety is utilized for both coverage and run support. Taking that away by putting that 11th guy on the DL exposes any shortcomings that the remaining 7 LBs and secondary might have. There would be many more big plays given up.

 

[Peter]

McDonald led the nation in sacks last year. No way he isn’t starting next year.

 

[Bipolarcy]

This is wrong and doesn't understand the advantages only having three on the line gives us. First our defense was constantly coming forward. A LB could blitz from a variety of spots making it difficult to double our ends. Our Safeties filled for blitzing LBs. Our DEs rarely had contain allowing them to be multi dimensional on their rush.

I guess my question to you is if it's so poorly schemed why did it work so well?

I agree we need to rush more than 3 guys more than we do. It seemed to me like we quit bringing pressure from LBs or DBs in some games and suffered because of it. I thought that was an advantage of playing 3 down linemen -- you could bring pressure from anywhere on the field and blow sh!t up. There were some games where we didn't do that at all or rarely, especially late in the game.

 

[isucy86]

The solution for McDonald may very well be some type of 3-4 defense, where he would be a blitzer at times. Or maybe a modified 4-3 with him moving from side to side to get the best rush angles. Not too worried about it. He is talented enough he will be on the field and JH is probably the best scheme DC in the country.

I don't see ISU changing it's base 3-3-5 defense to accommodate McDonalds talents. McDonald is pretty athletic, would not surprise me if he isn't quicker and has more straight ahead speed than Hummel, Vance and Rose.

Curious if staff might try to play McDonald some at LB as part of that position's rotation on 1st & 2nd down. Similar to how Bronco's used Von Miller in a 3-4 defense. Mostly as pass rusher, but also drop back into coverage at times.

 

[CyberJJJ]

I agree, thing could be pretty well set, but there are some really good guys out there transfering, like the OL that OU got from TN. ISU has a lot of guys at WR, but it doesn't have a guys that can get behind a defense, or if they can, they sure have not shown it so far. ISU only needs guys that are going to be a major upgrade to what they have on the roster. A stud DT, DE, OL, WR or safety that is looking at a chance to play on a team that is going to be very good.

Why saftey? Is it because we play three and there is a drop off in talent after our first two? I like the Beau Freyler pickup. At safety, it seemed the biggest weakness was we got burned over the top in the middle of the field at times. I wouldn't have been as surprised if you said CB as it seemed we were burned there more often, or at least taken advantage of by taller receivers. Maybe you are that excited about Myles Purchase (I am too!) but if I was adding one stud on D backs, my inclination would be corner rather than safety.

 

[CyCloned]

Why saftey? Is it because we play three and there is a drop off in talent after our first two? I like the Beau Freyler pickup. At safety, it seemed the biggest weakness was we got burned over the top in the middle of the field at times. I wouldn't have been as surprised if you said CB as it seemed we were burned there more often, or at least taken advantage of by taller receivers. Maybe you are that excited about Myles Purchase (I am too!) but if I was adding one stud on D backs, my inclination would be corner rather than safety.

Not saying that anyone already on the team can't handle it, but ISU has 20 of 22 starters back. One of the few guys not coming back is a safety. I agree, that would probably be the very last place ISU might need help, but you never know how these guys are going to play until they play.

 

[RustShack]

McDonald has a future in the NFL as a 3/4 OLB.

 

[ForbinsAscynt]

I was just looking at the transfer portal section of 247. ISU is the only school in the Big 12 that has not taken a transfer in Dec/Jan.

 

[LarryISU]

Amazing, if you look at the National portal, there are so many players with high "ratings" looking to change schools. I suppose some are grad transfers. But in general, this portal reinforces the idea that ratings are quite suspect and also that some coaches just don't do a good job of player development. A lot of good prospects coming out of high school obviously were overrated or just fell prey to poor coaching and strength training.

For example, D'Wan Mathis decommitted from ISU and went to Georgia. In the portal now he is going to Temple. Aside from Dekkers, he would have been our highest rated QB in quite a while.

 

[ForbinsAscynt]

To reiterate the point above, remember Maurice Massey? Decommitted and went to Missouri. Now transferring after never playing a snap.
Edit: just found out what really happened. Might be the off the field stuff that pushed him out.

 

[Frak]

Why saftey? Is it because we play three and there is a drop off in talent after our first two? I like the Beau Freyler pickup. At safety, it seemed the biggest weakness was we got burned over the top in the middle of the field at times. I wouldn't have been as surprised if you said CB as it seemed we were burned there more often, or at least taken advantage of by taller receivers. Maybe you are that excited about Myles Purchase (I am too!) but if I was adding one stud on D backs, my inclination would be corner rather than safety.

I feel like we'll be fine there. Isheem Young was just a RSFR and he'll get better. Eisworth is solid, although probably not fast enough to cover like they want. White had some good games, but he struggled some games as well. It seems like they are willing to sacrifice speed and coverage ability for guys that are solid tacklers and it's worked out fine other than a few big plays. TCU beat them repeatedly down the seam. Baylor did the same. OU got deep on them more times than they should, even though they have a lot of talented WRs.

Replacing White...Chambers saw quite a few snaps and did OK, but he also struggled in coverage some. McDonald also got his feet wet. The JUCO Langston will be here this spring and he could very easily grab a starting spot. He's probably a step up from White in coverage. Miller has seen plenty of snaps with mixed results. Edwards could make a jump too. And I really believe that Freyler will be a multi year starter for us.

 

[Frak]

McDonald led the nation in sacks last year. No way he isn’t starting next year.

I'll disagree with that unless we are moving to a 4-2-5 (unlikely). I just don't think that he's big enough to play 3-3 DE on running downs. That is, unless Andrews finds a way to put 15 lbs on him this offseason. If that happens, he's hands down our best DE ever.

 

[HTOWN Cyclone]

If our freshman safeties get spring practices under their belts, we will be just fine
They will be bigger, faster from the off season workouts
Have seen live game action already, so the game should slow down for them

I look for them to do the same as Young
out of position a bit in first couple games but make big strides as the year goes on

They were highly thought of as recruits