Standing against the wall in a red Cyclone shirt and basketball shorts, senior wide receiver Todd Blythe is preparing for the routine questions he’s gotten the past three years about the annual Iowa vs. Iowa State football game.

With a slight grin, Iowa State’s all-time leader in touchdown catches answers a question everyone seems to be asking these days: “Why aren’t you getting the ball?”

Blythe was ready with his answer.

“I think it’s just that they [Northern Iowa] play a certain coverage and we had other receivers step up,” he said.

But it hasn’t just been Northern Iowa. Typically the Cyclones’ biggest offensive threat, Blythe has only seen seven catches and one touchdown between Iowa State’s first two games.

“Any good wide receiver is going to want the ball as much as possible in crunch time and things like that, but at the same time we had other receivers step up and have a great game” Blythe said.

In Iowa State’s 24-13 loss to Northern Iowa on Saturday, Blythe caught a 14-yard pass from quarterback Bret Meyer early in the first quarter. Fans didn’t hear from Blythe again for another two quarters, until, with 2:20 remaining in the third quarter, Blythe once again entered the picture when Meyer tried to complete a pass to the wide receiver.

“If people want to game plan and try and take a certain player out of a game, then we have enough playmakers to step up and do other things,” Blythe said.

Against the Panthers, plenty of receivers did step up. R.J. Sumrall caught seven passes for 71 yards, Marquis Hamilton caught seven for 97 yards and running back J.J. Bass added four catches for 27 yards. Still, after an 0-2 start, fans want to know why they aren’t seeing more of Blythe.

“They were playing a lot of bump coverage and getting physical with Todd on the line of scrimmage,” said coach Gene Chizik.

Because of the heavy amount of coverage, Blythe said many defenders are keeping him jammed at the line of scrimmage and away from running his routes.

It’s a type of coverage that is a lot different than Blythe’s freshman year, when the Indianola native caught nine touchdown passes.

“My first year it was easy going out there and seeing just one guy out in front of you,” Blythe said. “It’s just something that you kind of get used to and you go into [a game] expecting it.”

Despite the heavy attention, Blythe says he has no complaints.

“Hopefully teams will look at that and say, ‘We can’t do that,’ because we’ve got other wide receivers and running backs and people that can make plays,” Blythe said.

While Chizik said he plans to keep Blythe involved in the offense, he added fans should get used to seeing other receivers getting the ball too.

“We’ve got some good receivers out there, and we’ve got to give them some opportunities,” Chizik said.