Twice the winner of highly touted quarterback battles, Steele Jantz is used to being in the public eye.

On Wednesday night, the redshirt senior spoke — for the first time since being named the starting quarterback of the ISU football team — with certainty about what he wants to be different this year and his 3-4 stint as the starter last season.

“I want to play better than I did the first three games [last season],” Jantz said. “I don’t want to play like I did — I made a lot of mistakes. Sure we won, but a lot of that goes to the team. I kind of have an idea of how I want to play: mistake-free.”

ISU coach Paul Rhoads said Tuesday, Aug. 21 after the announcement that Jantz would not be given a “short leash” with former starter Jared Barnett playing second fiddle vying to unseat him.

Jantz, who was benched after the team’s fourth straight loss last season, agreed.

“Any position on the team, any time you’re a starter, there’s always so many things — you can get hurt, you can play bad,” Jantz said. “There’s so many reasons why you might not be starting the next week, there’s no point in worrying about it.”

Rhoads said composure will be the key component to Jantz’s play remaining consistent and not going by the wayside as it did after his injury against UConn last season.

“He’s going to be a guy that runs around back there; that’s who he is, that’s one of the things that makes him a dynamic player,” Rhoads said. “But he’s got to have the composure to understand what it is we’re trying to accomplish and deliver the balls and do the things that coach [Courtney] Messingham is asking him to do with your offense.”

With the transition of Messingham to offensive coordinator following the departure of Tom Herman, it was revealed that the offensive playbook would be condensed for simplicity purposes.

On Wednesday, Aug. 22, Jantz said additions had been made to the playbook.

“It seems like we have a lot of plays, but I mentioned in an earlier interview [that] we understand it better now, we understand why we’re doing things,” Jantz said. “We’re just older and smarter.”

As for his overall outlook on the upcoming season, Jantz said he isn’t letting the cringe-worthy moments of last year get to him.

“I want to play better than I did last year,” Jantz said. “Last year isn’t by any means a bar that I set that I want to get to. The sky’s the limit and that’s the kind of attitude I have right now.”