If a team is a family, it’s easy to make the connections.

They refer to one another as brothers, they laugh, sweat and cry with each other day in and day out. Oftentimes, they live together and spend nearly every hour of the day with each other.

Saturday, the ISU football team — along with the rest of the ISU community — will celebrate Cyclone Family Weekend, reminding everyone that there’s family outside of football, too.

“You don’t have to wait until the weekend for that to be the case,” said ISU football coach Paul Rhoads. “Family is always important. It always plays a factor.”

–––

Drew Davis has always been a part of a Cyclone family.

Fans may not recognize his name, but he’s hard to miss as the team exits practice.

The 6-foot-8-inch redshirt sophomore grew up in Dubuque, playing football and basketball.

His parents, Tom and Barb, were ISU graduates and raised their kids in cardinal and gold, so when the time came for Davis to pick his school, the choice was obvious.

“I had been to football games here in the past,” Davis said.

“Growing up a Cyclone fan was definitely one of the major factors in deciding.”

Ultimately, the tie to the Cyclones came from his parents, but it was cemented by his visits during his younger days.

His parents brought him to campus for numerous events aside from sporting events, including Veishea.

Schools like Iowa and Wisconsin were interested in Davis, but at the time of his recruitment, Davis was interested in engineering — another edge for his preferred school.

That, and like most ISU fans, the thought of spending four years in Iowa City wasn’t appealing.

“I just couldn’t see myself in the black and gold,” he said.

He’s been in Ames for three years, and has since switched over to an environmental science major.

Before he arrived, Davis’ parents made sure he knew what he was getting into, and gave him some pointers on Iowa State and college life.

Now, on Saturdays in the fall, the Davis family can be together on the campus they have all called home at some point.

“They come down for games early, walk around and reminisce,” Davis said.

“They tell stories about their college life here, and it’s kind of cool.”

And although No. 70 in red has yet to see the field either last season or in the first four games of this year, he’s made some strides.

He’s one of many that fights for a spot on the team’s travel squad — a narrower version of the roster that travels to away games — and earned a spot to travel to Iowa City earlier this year.

“When I was a freshman, all the hard work paid off when I ran out into the stadium the first time,” he said.

–––

Most every time Rhoads walks off the practice field, he’s got three shadows in tow.

His wife of 19 years, Vickie, and his two sons, Wyatt and Jake, follow him wherever — and whenever — they can.

Rhoads is as busy as you would expect the coach of a Division I football program to be. But, with his sons growing along side his near-infant program — just 21 months old — it’s important he makes time for them, too.

“My son plays JV games on Mondays and tomorrow he starts at 6 o’clock and I go on the radio show at 7, so I want to be able to go out and see 45 minutes or so of his game,” Rhoads said. “That’s exciting for me to be able to do that and fun to be in the stands to watch him play.”

As with most families, schedules are getting tighter as the years progress, and Rhoads said he doesn’t see his sons or wife as often as he did at past stops in Auburn or Pittsburgh.

Vickie, though, said her husband’s promotion to head man has given him a chance to be home more often.

“I actually spend more time with him as a head coach than as an assistant,” she said. “We have lunch a lot more, he actually comes home more. He may be down in the office working, but he’s in the house.”

Vickie is much more active with team members than Jake or Wyatt — at least in the public eye — and has become a kind of second mother for players — or even coaches.

The Rhoads family celebrates with the other coaches, be it birthdays or wins on the field.

Many coaches’ families are not as near to Ames as the Rhoads clan, same as many of the players.

“You go to the players, they become our family,” Vickie said. “I get a reminder when their birthdays are here, I make treats for them, we have them to our house. It’s fun to have a big football family.”

Paul’s move to Ames has brought much of the Rhoads family back together, too.

He’s an Ankeny native, so Jake and Wyatt have aunts and uncles in the area to come support them and spend time with them if Paul can’t get away from the office.

Sometimes, he doesn’t leave the office often enough.

Vickie has made it routine to take her husband to lunch throughout the week, but she said rough weeks — like the 27-20 loss to Kansas State — always seem to make him want to push more.

“Absolutely I have to pull him away,” she said. “He gets involved. But you’ve still got to step away and catch your breath and go back with a clear head. He listens sometimes.”

Rhoads said he doesn’t manage his stress very well — “I don’t exercise … I don’t eat very good, I don’t sleep a whole lot,” he said — but having his family close to him helps to keep him calm and keep him going.

“Anytime I see them walk through the doors or walk onto the practice field, it gives me a little charge,” he said.

–––

Austen Arnaud and Patrick Neal are second-generation Cyclones.

The quarterback’s father, John Arnaud, was a defensive back for the Cyclones from 1980-82. Neal’s father, Brian, was an offensive lineman for the Cyclones during the late 70s.

“I remember growing up and hearing stories about my dad and his old playing days here and him taking me to the games and stuff,” Neal said. “I’m sure he always hoped that I’d play here, I’m sure it’s kind of a dream for him to have me play here, too.”

Like Davis, Neal said growing up a Cyclone fan is what ultimately drew him to playing for Iowa State.

While his dad may have dreamed about his son being a Cyclone, he never pressured him or even pushed him into doing it.

“That was a dream come true,” Neal said.

“I’ve always wanted to play for Iowa State. It had always been my goal to come play as a Cyclone.”

The same goes for Arnaud. He said it was obvious where his dad wanted him to play his college ball, but that his father wanted the decision to be what was best for his son.

“It definitely adds more of an impact, more significance just knowing my dad wore these jerseys, too,” Arnaud said.

Both players have strong ties to Ames and the ISU community.

The obvious tie is their fathers. Neal’s brother John was a member of the ISU basketball team from 2002-06, he has a brother currently attending Iowa State and another brother due to attend in the near future.

Arnaud, though, is from Ames and has multiple family members at each ISU football game.

“It means a lot to me just because they’ve been around and have seen me play probably every game I’ve ever played,” Arnaud said. “Just to have them there is important. I think it’s important to a lot of guys to have family there watching.”

–––

Shane Burnham didn’t see much of his father growing up.

His father, ISU defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, has been coaching college football for more than 40 years. Four of those years were as the defensive coordinator at South Carolina, the same years that Shane was a linebacker for the Gamecocks.

Twelve years after Shane’s graduation from South Carolina, the father and son are together again, coaching on the ISU defensive staff.

“You put in terrible hours as a coach as far as time away from the family, so I guess we’re making up for lost time, so to speak,” Shane said. “It’s just one of those experiences that very few people get to do.”

When Rhoads was hired as the Cyclones’ head coach in December of 2008, the elder Burnham was one of the first additions to the coaching staff.

Shane, a coach at Elon University at the time, heard nothing about a job opportunity after his dad took the new job in Ames.

“I recommended him to Paul,” Wally said. “That’s the only impact I had.”

Shortly after the recommendation, a position on the staff opened up. Wally called his son, asking him if he was interested in taking a job at Iowa State.

“I said, ‘That’s one of the dumbest questions you’ve ever asked me. Yes, of course I’d be interested,’” Shane said.

It would be a few weeks before Rhoads put a call in to Shane — who said he was “more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs” — to gauge his interest and begin discussing a position.

“I just didn’t want to screw up the opportunity,” he said.

Both Burnhams said the opportunity to coach together was a dream, and they both said it with the same, slow Alabama drawl.

“I always wanted him to coach in college at this level and I always wanted to coach with him before I retired,” Wally said. “That happened, and that means a lot to me and my family — my wife and his brothers and sister — and hopefully it means a lot to him to be able to do that.”

Wally, a graduate of Samford University in 1963, said his son coaches with his smarts, a lot like he played at South Carolina.

Shane was a three-time Academic All-SEC selection while also being a four-year letterwinner playing for his dad.

But, Wally also said he doesn’t get to sit back and watch his son being a coach as much as he’d like.

“I see him coaching, and I’m proud of him,” he said, “the way he coaches and the way he handles himself in a professional way.”

Shane said his dad is mellower now at age 69, and that the two can still get heated when it comes to defensive football, but disagreements between the Burnhams never last long.

The younger models his coaching style off the elder. He’s figuring out how to shut off the “drill sergeant,” and if his father taught him anything, it’s how to build relationships with his players by listening.

“Listen more, say less. You’ve got two ears, you’ve got one mouth and there’s a reason for it,” Shane said.

Shane guessed he had four or five years left with his dad on the same sideline. He figured that, in 20 years, he can look back and better appreciate the limited time the two had together.

“Just knowing that the clock was running out and getting ready to expire on this opportunity just makes it all that much more fun.”

–––

Vickie Rhoads called it a “big football family.”

Paul, though, said he doesn’t make too much of what his players call the “Cyclone family.” The weekend’s name brings awareness to something that’s always on their minds.

“Since [the team] breaks down huddles ‘Cyclone Family’ a good bit of the time, I’d consider it to be very important,” Rhoads said. “It’s not something that I overdo, talking about this team as a family.

“But we do bring it up, and they bring it up a lot more than me, so it’s very important to them.”