Call the national weather service, safety David Sims has arrived in Ames.

Sims has burst onto the ISU football team like a tornado in his first season, leading the team with three interceptions and amassing 23 tackles, one tackle behind Jesse Smith’s team-high 24 stops.

Fittingly, Sims won the EF-5 award. The award, named after the strongest classification of cyclone on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, goes to the strongest pound-for-pound ISU football player.

Although Sims is listed at just 5 feet-9 inches and 207 pounds, he benched an impressive 380 pounds, power cleaned 325 and squatted 420 pounds, making him pound-for-pound the strongest player on the team.

But Sims’ skills reach beyond the weight room and onto the football field. Along with his defensive prowess, Sims has become a dangerous return man for the Cyclones, leading the team with 203 return yards and a team-high 29 yard per return average.

“It’s an added bonus,” said head coach Paul Rhoads of Sims’ return abilities. “I forget about it because he’s so valuable to us as a safety. It’s a job that we didn’t know who was going to be there in the first game, and obviously he took that first game and ran with it and has become a very key part to that unit.”

Although he is primarily a defender now, Sims is no stranger to carrying the ball. He played running back in high school and as a freshman at Butte Community College in California.

“Since I don’t play running back anymore, [returning] gives me a chance to touch the ball,” Sims said.

Sims has also found ways to make use of his ball-carrying talent on the defensive side of the ball as he has been a ball hawk in the secondary with three picks in as many games, gaining 41 interception return yards.

Although he has had success against the pass, defensive coordinator Wally Burnham feels Sims is best against the run.

“Stopping the run is one thing he does well because he tackles well and he is a good physical player,” Burnham said.

Sims has always been athletic. That was one of the first things about Sims that caught Rhoads’ eye.

“He’s so solid, physically, first of all,” Rhoads said. “By that, I mean he packs a load. When he hits you… he hits you.”

Despite the coach’s praise, Sims wants to become an even more physical player like his favorite NFL safety, former Iowa Hawkeye standout Bob Sanders.

“He is 5 feet 8 inches and I’m 5 feet 9 inches so I try to play like him: fast and physical,” Sims said.

Yet while he tries to fashion his game after Sanders, Sims admits he has a ways to go before he reaches that level.

“I think I have to get more physical if I want to be like him,” Sims said. “He is more physical than me.”

But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Sims in his transition from junior college to Iowa State. When he first put on the pads last spring, coaches say his tackling needed work.

“I think his tackling has improved and it had to,” Rhoads said. “That was one of the things he had to improve on because his tackling was very, very average before we started the season.”

Another big transition for Sims was watching film. His high school team didn’t watch much film and they did only limited film study at Butte Community College.

“In junior college I barely watched film so I’ve had to get used to it,” Sims said. “I took film home, they gave me DVD’s to take home, but I would just watch them the day before just to figure out what routes they run and stuff.”

Now Sims can’t imagine being competitive at this level without extensive film study. He claims to watch film every day for at least half an hour.

Sims has also had to get used to life in Ames. He has noticed a definite change of pace from his home town of Gainesville.

“It’s really laid back [in Ames],” Sims said. “Different from home. I know this is a college town but where I’m from: Gainsville, Florida, the University of Florida is right there. It’s a big college city. There are more bars and clubs, it’s more lively down there.”

But the laid back Midwestern attitude has been a pleasant change of pace Sims said. Instead of going out to bars and clubs, he prefers spending time with his daughter Amarianna, who will turn 13–months–old on Saturday.

“I can’t really describe her. She is sweet. I love her to death. She’s funny too,” Sims said with the smile of a proud father.

Sims has adjusted quickly to his role as a father and said he has not had much trouble making time for Amarianna along with school and football.

“It’s nothing like I expected growing up,” Sims said. “You know how your parents were like, ‘It’s hard and stuff.’ It’s not really that hard. It’s fun.”

The way Sims has dealt with becoming a father has earned him praise from the coaching staff. He accepts responsibility and works to make the best of the situation, just as he does on the football field.

“David has a pretty high level of maturity,” Rhoads said. “He’s very accountable. When he does something wrong and he’s called on it he’s always ready to defend himself. He’s not an excuse maker. I think when you’re put in that position you’ve got no choice but to mature and I think he shows that.”