After talk of a snowy forecast for VEISHEA weekend spread all week, the sun shined for ISU football’s annual Spring Game on Saturday.

A game that would not see any effect on the Cyclones’ wins-and-loss column provided room for error to enable the coaching staff to assess mistakes and how they will be corrected come fall.

“You can’t win football games turning the ball over like we did today and getting takeaways as a defense gives yourself an opportunity to win football games,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads. “So when you’re going against yourself, there’s always good and bad with that within a program.”

A close eye was kept on the battle at quarterback between the four athletes on scholarship at that position, as all four were given opportunities to run the first-team offense.

“I thought they all moved our football team at times,” Rhoads said. “We threw the ball deep today and it’s been a priority for us as we’ve gone through this spring and we got that accomplished as well.”

Jerome Tiller, who played with an elbow injury, completed 12 of his 18 passes for two touchdowns to lead all quarterbacks in offensive production.

“I felt like it was my role to step up and I felt like the pain in my arm wasn’t something that decided how tough of a person I was,” Tiller said. “I really had no choice but to practice.”

However, Rhoads said he has yet to make a decision as to whom he will start at quarterback.

The four running backs listed on the depth chart also showcased their different skills, despite fumbling the ball twice.

“We had quite a few explosive plays and I know we did a real good job on blitz pickup and a lot of blocking assignments,” said Jeff Woody, who rushed for 47 yards and one touchdown. “A lot of times we made something out of nothing.”

Sophomore Shontrelle Johnson led all ball carriers with 59 yards while third-stringer James White rushed for 57 yards, both of whom were limited to 11 carries each.

The defense had a couple standouts emerge to vie for playing time in the fall through their consistent play on Saturday.

Brandon Jensen, a redshirt freshman from Ankeny who was listed as the third-string nose tackle, recorded five tackles and two sacks, both of which were for a loss of seven yards each.

“I think we made a lot of improvements,” Jensen said. “We got looks from every side of the ball, we got young guys in there ready to step up to get a good standard for the fall coming up.”

Other standouts for the defense were left end Willie Scott, as four of his eight total tackles were for a loss, and nickelback C.J. Morgan, who led the second-team defense with 10 tackles and 2.5 tackles for a loss.