Paul Rhoads announced Sam Richardson as the starting quarterback for the Cyclones on Aug. 18 heading into the season opener against North Dakota State on Aug. 30.

“Sam will be our quarterback,” Rhoads said. “He’s had a tremendous fall camp up until this point. He has displayed great leadership and been very much in control of our offense. His understanding of the schemes and his decision-making has grown a lot in the last two weeks, and more than anything, he’s throwing a great ball.”

Richardson is a redshirt junior listed at 6 feet 2 inches tall and 221 pounds. He was the undisputed starter heading into the 2013 season after a breakout game against Kansas during his redshirt freshman season locked him into the position. 

Richardson started last season with four consecutive games of at least 240 yards passing and set career highs in passing yards with 262 and total yards with 345 in Iowa State’s loss to Texas.

He was hampered by injury midway through the season before the starting job was handed over to Grant Rohach for the final four games of the season. Rohach threw for back-to-back games of 300 or more yards passing in wins over Kansas and West Virginia to close the season.

Rhoads said during spring football that Richardson’s injuries in 2013 were “more serious than we ever hinted” to the media. Richardson saw limited action in run packages in the final few games of the season last year.

With new offensive coordinator Mark Mangino leading the offense, the quarterback competition started from scratch with both Richardson and Rohach, as well as Joel Lanning in the mix through the spring, battling for the starting job. Rohach appeared to be in the best position to win the job coming out of spring practices, but it was Richardson who impressed in fall camp.

“I’m excited going into the season,” Richardson said. “This is a nice relief to know that I’ll be back there. I’m just coming out there every day, doing what I can do to get the job done.”

Richardson enters his redshirt junior season with 1,938 yards passing on 167-of-299 attempts and 19 touchdown passes. He also has 598 rushing yards on 142 carries.

The Cyclones open the season Aug. 30 against the North Dakota State Bison at Jack Trice Stadium.