A lot has happened in the last six weeks for ISU football.

After executing a coaching change mid-way through the recruiting period, head coach Paul Rhoads was able to put together a pretty big class for the Cyclones.

Iowa State added 23 new scholarship athletes to its team on Wednesday on national signing day, including 18 freshman and five junior-college transfers.

Although he managed to get a lot of players, he was doing it at a decided disadvantage.

“We had three contact weeks left, in what normally is a six contact-week recruiting period,” Rhoads said. “We had already used up 32 of our official visits — you’re allowed 56 — so we only had 24 official visits to work with.”

In order to get so much done in such a small amount of time, it took a lot of organization by the head coach.

“I got here and he had a plan, he had a vision, he had a goal, he knew what was in place,” offensive coordinator Tom Herman said. “Now, he had been here two weeks prior to hiring me, but he was on top of his game.”

Rhoads was able to pull together such a big class in part because of the amount of time he has devoted to recruiting since being named head coach in late December.

“Recruiting, first and foremost, has taken the most time,” Rhoads said. “I’ve been from L.A. to Florida, and tons of places in between.

“I’ve been in tens of homes, in schools, I’ve made hundreds of phone calls, all geared towards signing an outstanding football class on Wednesday, February 4.”

Rhoads is not the only one to hit the ground recruiting. Herman claimed that he had been on a plane every weekday for the past two weeks, including one 24-hour period in which he was on six different planes, all in an effort to lure talent to Ames.

The reason they have spent so much time on recruiting is that he sees it as a major step in building a good program at Iowa State.

In Rhoads’ “comprehensive plan,” which he spent seven hours discussing with athletics director Jamie Pollard before his hiring, he mentioned recruiting prominently.

“Recruiting is the first part of that plan,” Rhoads said. “We’ve got to be able to identify, and evaluate, and then recruit. It starts here in the state of Iowa, it branches out to the Midwest, and then it goes to target states of Texas and Florida where there is a high number of football players. And then recruiting is the lifeline of everything we do.”

This year, the Cyclones were a little bit behind their friends from Iowa City in the battle for in-state recruits as Iowa State got three in-state players and the Hawks pulled in seven.

“I think you have to spend a full year in the state and get a chance to know them and recruit them,” Rhoads said.

“Having done it before for five years, there are certain young men in the state that are Hawkeyes, just like there are certain young men that are Cyclones. Those are easy gets for both institutions. Its the ones in between us that you can’t mess up on and you really got to go to work on.”

Rhoads doesn’t plan on losing many of those battles with undecided Iowa recruits in the future, however.

“Nobody will get to know the coaches in this state better then this staff,” Rhoads said. “It will be a priority, as we approach recruiting and approach the state. Every single coach in the state of Iowa will be talked to before we start spring ball.”

It takes more than just identifying the talent and noting their coaches. For both in-state and out-of-state recruits, Rhoads had to sell the program and the school.

“The main pitch I think, is the chance to be a part of something special,” Rhoads said. “To build something, not necessarily just to add to something.”

Along with building the program, Rhoads sold the excitement of being a Cyclone to prospective players.

“The atmosphere, the environment, the fans, the excitement that is associated with our football games and with our basketball games and anything event-wise here at Iowa State helps sell itself,” Rhoads said.

Beyond these broad selling points, Rhoads also tried to have a little bit more personal touch to help recruits make up their mind.

“Each individual recruit is a little bit different in what his needs are,” Rhoads said. “Maybe somebody feels the need to play right away, and you show that opportunity. Maybe somebody wants to be a part of this offense and all the production that is going to take place in it, and you sell that over another university’s scheme.”

Although Rhoads only recruits players that he wants to come to Iowa State, he doesn’t get too broken up when a player turns the school down.

“In the end it’s not the players that you don’t get that hurt you, it’s the players that you get that can’t play that do,” Rhoads said.

“We just have to make sure, in our evaluation process that we don’t end up with those particular guys.”

The Staff feels confident that they did not get any of those particular players this year.

“The number one thing we are looking for in our recruits is when you turn the film on, they play the game of football,” Rhoads said.

“They might not be 6-4, they might not be four stars, they might not all be 4.5, but I guarantee you with this class, when you turn the film on, they play the game.”