Editor’s note: This is the second of an eight-part series previewing the 2009 Cyclone football season

With season tickets purchased, Cyclone jerseys crowding Ames shelves, and creatively toned beer cans being purchased by the pallet, Jack Trice Stadium is just over a week away from kicking off the 2009 Iowa State football season.

Once the tailgates and discussions end, the games begin and the Cyclones are looking to a new coaching staff and new offensive system to bring some excitement to Saturday nights in Campustown.

Newly minted captain Austen Arnaud is returning at quarterback to lead the Cyclone charge, while first year head coach Paul Rhoads and offensive coordinator Tom Herman attempt to give him the greatest opportunity to win that he’s had since he played with the Little Cyclones. A new version of the spread offense was implemented by Herman with success at perennial cellar dweller Rice University to the tune of 471 yards gained and 41 points scored per game, resulting in 10 wins last season.

“The advantage to being in the spread is that we’re going to use every square inch of the field to our advantage,” Herman said. “The field is 54 yards wide, and 100 yards long, and they’ve only got 11 human beings to cover it,”.

The spread offense, featuring a new no-huddle aspect, has been the talk of the offense. With Herman’s success and the pieces in place for the Cyclones, the season’s outlook is positive.

“We’re not, and maybe never will be at Iowa State, capable of going in and playing football in a phone booth against the Texases and Oklahomas, but what we can do is spread them out and make sure that we’re using that space and numbers to our advantage,” Herman said.

An offensive line that averages over 6-foot-3-inches and 320 pounds will give Arnaud the largest protection he’s seen in Ames, and dual-threat running back Alexander Robinson returns with tough running backups in Florida-transfer Bo Williams and redshirt freshman Jeremiah Schwartz.

“My role on the field will be up to the coaches, I just want to try and go out there and do whatever they ask me to do, and do it to the best of my ability,” Robinson said.

After over 800 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns in 2008, Robinson looks fit and ready for another campaign, and not having to shoulder the load on every down should keep his legs fresh. Herman holds the same philosophy for the rest of the offense, since the team doesn’t have a specific star at any of the skill positions. Herman’s underdog mentality is meant to push the Cyclones toward success.

“We expect by play eight or play nine of a long drive, or by the third or fourth quarter, that we’ll have worn down the defense to kind of compensate for some athletic deficiencies,” Herman said. “A tired great athlete isn’t as good as our fresh good athlete.”

Herman and Rhoads have worked tirelessly to try to match up the Cyclone offense with the 35 points per game the Big 12 tallied on average. Last year’s average of 25.3 points per game won’t cut it against the increasingly high powered offenses that span the region, and quarterback Arnaud understands what he must do for the team to be successful.

“That’s our main goal as an offense, Coach Herman was talking about it, to outscore our opponent,” Arnaud said. “So many times at Rice, in his first year when they went 3-9, they lost four or five games where they scored 40 points, and he said that’s still our fault. You’ve got to outscore your opponent; that’s our main goal.”

Rhoads and Herman have both mentioned offensive depth as very high on their importance scale, with multiple players at each position being able to pick up the slack. With receiver Darius Darks out with a hamstring injury, the success of other wide outs, like 6-foot-4-inch sophomore Sedrick Johnson, will be vital for the spread to work. Johnson caught three touchdowns as a freshman, and like most of the squad, worked diligently in the offseason on explosive strength and conditioning and fills out the cardinal jersey much more this season than last.

“We’re going to get the ball down the field a lot more than we did in the past. We’re still going to play the short pass, but we’re going to run a lot more deep routes,” Johnson said. “I think we’re going to be a lot better than last year and a lot faster.”

Strength coaches Yancy McKnight and Clayton Oyster have received much praise for their offseason work, using their skills to turn the Cyclones into a much more competitive squad in terms of team speed. The receiving corps and running backs have gotten leaner as a whole, and even the quarterbacks are getting in on the fun.

“Right when Coach (Rhoads) got out here, he told us we were going to be an explosive football team, and that’s what we are right now,” Arnaud said. “We had 28 guys power clean over 300 pounds, that’s definitely an improvement.”

The Cyclones will soon get the chance to show off their high-powered act on the field, and fans will see for themselves whether the charismatic Mensa member Herman is calling the right plays for Iowa State with the headset up in the booth.

“We’re going to try our best here at Iowa State to compensate for some of our speed deficiencies, and I think we’ve developed and learned ways to do that through this offense,” Herman said.