After missing the entire 2011 season after being deemed academically ineligible, Jerome Tiller is trying to make the most of his final year as a Cyclone.

This time, however, he won’t be under center.

“Catching the ball and throwing it are two different things,” Tiller said. “Throwing is pretty easy, catching it is a little different story.”

Tiller and the rest of the ISU football team partook in the first scrimmage of the spring season Saturday.

Following a couple miscues in Tiller’s first few days at the position as a non-scout team player, ISU coach Paul Rhoads said he saw good things from him.

“Jerome Tiller made a couple nice ‘concentration catches,'” Rhoads said. “Sometimes when you’re young at the position like he is, you can turn and look for the guy who’s trying to tackle you first and not catch the ball, and I thought he had great concentration out there.”

One of the things that stuck out in the first scrimmage as a whole, Rhoads said, was the defense’s inability to force turnovers as it normally is able to.

“When you’re playing against yourself, there’s always a winner and loser in that battle,” Rhoads said. “The fact that the offense won pleases me more than the defense [not creating] the turnovers.”

Rhoads’ pleasure of seeing the offense outperform the defense in the turnover battle comes a year after the team finished the season with a -11 turnover margin.

With the promotion of Courtney Messingham to offensive coordinator following the departure of Tom Herman to Ohio State, the offense has been transformed into a more condensed and simplified system that proved to be conducive to negating turnovers Saturday.

“The running backs and receivers were doing a great job of, when they were getting tackled, making sure that the ball was locked up and [we had] no fumbles,” said quarterback Jared Barnett. “I think it was really just improvement from the offensive side.”

Rhoads said only five scholarship receivers took part in the scrimmage Saturday, creating full competition for a position that lost two senior starters from last season.

“You’ve got a number of guys that are trying to earn spots on the travel bus — whether it be via special teams or as a receiver who can catch passes,” Rhoads said. “Those guys showed up and allowed us to run our offense and not just say, ‘OK, we don’t have this or we don’t have that, we’ve got to limit our play selection.’

“So I’m pleased with that and the ability of our quarterbacks to make the full range of decisions that they have to make.”

Rhoads said Justin Coleman, a transfer from Nebraska-Omaha, made the correct adjustments after being confronted about his playmaking ability by the coaching staff.

“I had a very blunt comment for him the other day. We walked out to practice and I said, ‘Are you going to be a special teams player because you can’t catch the ball? Or are you going to be able to help us in multiple spots?'” Rhoads said of Coleman. “And he went out today and Thursday and caught a bunch of passes, so that was very pleasing to see him do that.”

As for Tiller, his progression from taking snaps under center to catching passes near the sideline has been smoother than it was.

“He looks really good out there,” Barnett said of Tiller. “He’s running good routes and getting open and once you throw it to him, he’s really good at catching it and getting upfield.”

While dropped passes may still be a part of his game, Tiller is doing what he can to not let them get to him.

“It’s something you have to block out [of your mind] and know it’s a contact sport, you’re going to get hit,” Tiller said. “So you’ve got to be ready for it.”