With just a few days remaining before Iowa State opens its football season against Northern Illinois, coach Paul Rhoads addressed the media for the final time.

Rhoads, along with the team’s captains, discussed everything from the opponent, the Mid-American Conference’s Huskies, to the team’s improved depth at nearly every position.

“We’re excited to be three days away from playing a football game,” Rhoads said Monday morning. “We’ve had an excellent training camp. I maintain that I have a very mature and focused football team.”

The main topic of discussion with Rhoads was the depth and progression of nearly every unit of the football team.

Defensively, the coach said the unit is a “work in progress.” The defense returns four starters from last year’s squad that finished 11th in the Big 12 in total defense.

“I will talk over and over about how important continuous improvement is to our program in year two,” Rhoads said. “Those guys are going to have to improve daily, and they’re going to have to improve game by game.”

While the defense finished 11th in the league in yards allowed per game, it also finished fifth in points allowed per game by allowing 21.85.

“Everywhere you look statistically, you’re trying to drop the yardage you allow as a defense,” Rhoads said. “There are several more [statistics] that are even more important than total defensive yards. But, yeah, rush yardage, pass yardage and total yardage are all areas that we need to improve upon if we’re going to begin to be a good defensive team in the Big 12 Conference.”

The depth of the young linebacking corps was a concern for Rhoads, but it was seemingly the only position with which the coach was worried.

The coach said the team now could be nine deep on both the offensive and defensive lines — thanks to the development of players like Cleyon Laing and Willie Scott — and could feature as many as three safeties with Jacques Washington and Deon Broomfield now being listed on the depth chart.

“All of these names I’m giving you are guys who were redshirting a year ago, or simply were not ready,” Rhoads said. “A number of those have returned and put us in a position to have that kind of depth.”

The list behind Alexander Robinson at running back is also chock full of newcomers and redshirts.

The team’s depth chart shows three freshmen — Jeff Woody, James White and Shontrelle Johnson — all listed behind the 2009 All-Big 12 honorable mention runner. Not shown is freshman Duran “Duck” Hollis, who may be a candidate for a redshirt.

“I think the depth is great right now at all positions,” Robinson said. “You see the rotation, both ones and twos are getting after it. They’re definitely out there and competing and doing a great job executing what we’re asking them to.”

Thursday Night Football

For the fifth consecutive season, Iowa State will open the football season the Thursday before Labor Day.

The Thursday night opener gives the Cyclones a greater chance of appearing on TV — the game will be picked up by nearly every Fox Sports Net outlet — and puts them in the national spotlight, if only for a night.

For Rhoads, though, the first week of the season is the only good week for Thursday night games.

“For the opener I don’t mind it at all because there’s no difference in your preparation,” Rhoads said. “During the season you can have a five-day week — which I despise — or you can have a 12-day week which is also a little bit different. Anytime you get 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds out of routine, you’ve got a chance of screwing things up.”

For the players, it is a chance to play under the lights early in the season, as well as giving them some much-needed time off before the weekly grind really gets into full swing.

“Sure makes my Saturday a little bit more fun,” said ISU quarterback Austen Arnaud. “I get to sit around, be a couch potato and sit back and watch.”

Redshirts, depth charts

Rhoads said the coaching staff had made no final decisions on redshirt statuses as of Monday morning. The process of deciding the redshirts will likely continue through the first couple games.

Newcomers Anthony Young, Ricky Howard, Shontrelle Johnson and Jeremiah George are all listed on the team’s most recent depth chart, and Rhoads said they are likely to see the field Thursday night.

Meanwhile, some changes were made on the depth chart.

Most notably, senior Bailey Johnson leapfrogged sophomore Jake McDonough at the defensive tackle position.

Leonard Johnson was listed as the top kickoff returner, and Josh Lenz was tabbed as the team’s punt returner. Rhoads said Shontrelle Johnson, a freshman running back from DeLand, Fla., will also share the kick-returning duties.

The starter-to-be at punter is still to be announced, and Rhoads said it will likely be Tuesday before the race between senior Daniel Kuehl and freshman Kirby Van Der Kamp will be decided. Rhoads went on to say, though, that Kuehl would have to “go out through Tuesday’s practice and fall on his face,” to lose his edge over Van Der Kamp.

If Van Der Kamp doesn’t see the field Thursday, though, it doesn’t mean he will redshirt his freshman season.

“Kirby has really boomed it the last couple of days,” Rhoads said. “If we need to, we’ll keep an eye on Kirby, as well.”