There is no statistic kept in NCAA football for yardage gained after contact. There is such a statistic kept if you are a Cyclone football player.

Coach Gene Chizik calls them Cyclone yards, and he made it blatantly evident that the Cyclone running backs have yet to meet his expectations at Monday’s press conference.

“I told them [Sunday], I don’t care if you run for 140 yards or 199 yards or whatnot, we’re not getting enough yards after contact,” Chizik said. “We keep that, we call them Cyclone yards, and you got to have more Cyclone yards then we had Saturday.”

J.J. Bass ran for 134 yards last weekend, and has 390 rushing yards through four games, for an average of 4.1 yards per carry. He stands just 133 yards from passing the Cyclones’ leading rusher last season, Stevie Hicks.

Yet for all the yards he and freshman Alexander Robinson (82 yards) have amassed, the coaching staff remains worried not about yards gained, but by the ones that could have been gained.

“I don’t think we’re making guys miss enough, I don’t think we’re running over guys,” Chizik said. “I think we’re getting our 5 yards a carry and there’s a guy in the hole and we can’t get anywhere beyond that.”

“You get in the open field, you get one-on-one, at some point you have to win a one-on-one. You got to be better than their guy at some point.”

Chizik’s tone of voice at Monday’s press conference was matter-of-fact, and when asked how they planned to fix the problem, his response was blunt.

“You got to get guys in there that can do it,” Chizik said. “You got to get guys in there that will put his hat down and run over a guy, or make a guy miss. We are going to try and get the guys in there that will do that.”

Chizik never distinguished one back as having the problem, but rather grouped the running backs as a whole. When he was asked about whether it was a matter of switching things up this year or in following years, he responded, “I just want to find a guy that will do it on the field now, I’m not worried about next year.”

Bass has been the Cyclones’ feature back, and is ranked No. 40 in the country with a per-game average of 97.5 yards. Robinson is averaging 20.5 yards per game on 3.7 yards per carry.

Bass’ performance this year is in stark contrast to the weak running game that plagued the Cyclones in 2006. Hicks didn’t break into the top 100, averaging only 65.4 yards per game, and the offense averaged just 101.75 rushing yards for a No. 99 ranking.

2007 has brought a significant improvement of 144 rushing yards per game and a No. 65 ranking. The improvement comes still to the dissatisfaction of Chizik, and he said he brought the issue to the running backs’ attention because he didn’t want them to be satisfied.

“They blocked great, they gave me a lot of opportunities, but I just got to do a better job of running more physical and making the first guy miss,” Bass said. “That’s definitely what I am going to focus on this week.”

Despite Bass’ pressing need to improve in the areas that Chizik highlighted, offensive coordinator Robert McFarland displayed confidence in Bass.

“I think J.J. has an opportunity to be a special back, and I think we have seen some encouragement in the first four ball games with him at running back,” McFarland said. “He’s a college running back at this level, hopefully we’ll see him really blossom and be a special talent for us.”

Invincible Bret

When Bret Meyer takes the field Saturday in Lincoln, Neb., he will be making his 41st straight start. No big deal, right? After all, a different Bret – Brett Favre – has started 242 straight games for the Green Bay Packers. While Favre is the iron man of the NFL, Meyer is the iron man of NCAA football. His consecutive games streak of 40 leads the nation among active quarterbacks. His 1,613 career plays leads the NCAA, and his 8,957 career total yards are second only to Hawaii’s Colt Brennan (11,666) among active players. With his 251-yard performance against Toledo, Meyer increased his career passing yards to 8,159. That sent him past Heisman Trophy winner Jason White of Oklahoma and into fourth place on the all-time Big 12 passing yards list.

On your feet

Through the first 36 games of Meyer’s career, he was sacked 105 times, another testament to his ability to stay healthy. Coming into this season, with an offensive line that was returning just one starter, many assumed Meyer would once again be scrambling for his life. Through four games, however, Meyer has been sacked just three times.

“I personally don’t think about how many sacks we’ve given up,” said junior center Brandon Johnson. “It’s nice to hear at the stats or whatever, you know, three sacks. Each game we try to give up zero.”