Paul Rhoads didn’t search long and didn’t search far when it came to selecting his new offensive coordinator to replace departing coordinator Tom Herman.

Rhoads knew early on when he and wide receivers coach Courtney Messingham came to Iowa State in 2009 that Messingham could succeed Herman whenever the 36-year-old coach moved on to a different opportunity, which he did last month, becoming the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

“I knew Courtney was the guy about a month into the job when he was already working here,” Rhoads said. “When Tom got his opportunities — and they were going to come whether it was going to be as a head football coach or a coordinator at some other program — that opportunity was going to come and I was pretty strong that Courtney Messingham was going to be our next offensive coordinator.”

The Waterloo, Iowa, native brings 22 years of coaching experience, which include 11 of the first 15 spent as an offensive coordinator or head coach. Messingham spent his first two seasons at Iowa State as tight ends coach before moving to the wide receivers coach position this past season.

“What Courtney brings is he’s an excellent teacher, and I think your best teacher has to be in that position because he has to not only teach his players, but he has to teach a whole side of the ball and he has to teach a staff,” Rhoads said.

Rhoads said in December that he wanted to hire someone who would run an offense similar to the spread attack Herman implemented. The system Messingham plans to run will be similar, but as both Rhoads and Messingham made clear, it will be run with a more simple approach than that of his predecessor.

“First off, Courtney will simplify what we’re doing. He’ll have it divided into packages that we can practice and go out there and execute,” Rhoads said. “If you can do less better, you’re a better football team, and I think simply stated that’s what we’ll work at doing.”

Messingham is excited for the chance to sit down with the offensive staff once ISU’s 2012 recruiting class is signed so that they can evaluate last season’s success in order to pick and choose which plays will make the offense both simple and “explosive.”

“I’m a big believer in that you’ve got to make it so that your skill guys in general, that they can get out and go play and get the most out of their athletic ability and not be thinking when they’re out, it’s got to become second-nature,” Messingham said.

A quarterback for three of his five years at Northern Iowa in the late ’80s, Messingham played under center, not in the shotgun like ISU quarterbacks have done in the spread. Messingham didn’t bring his playbook out to reporters Thursday, but he noted that fans can expect some packages where the Cyclones will run plays under center.

“From that standpoint, I think I learned that taking care of the football has to be a premium and that’s something that we’ve got to do much better,” Messingham said.

Scoring points has been a challenge for the ISU offense since 2009 as the Cyclones have finished either last or next to last in the Big 12 in scoring each of the last three seasons.

“When he told me that this was the move he was going to make, first off I was excited and then I started thinking, ‘OK we need to figure out how to score points,'” Messingham said.

The Cyclones will begin spring practice in late March.