The last time Gene Chizik was this excited for a game, he was preparing for the Rose Bowl.

Thursday, the former defensive coordinator for the former national champion Texas Longhorns will make his head coaching debut when the Cyclones host Kent State at 7 p.m.

“It’ll be a mixture of nervousness [and] excitement and I’m fired up, man,” Chizik said. “I’m so stinking fired up, it can’t get here quick enough.”

What has the new coach so fired up is taking over a Cyclone team that finished 4-8 (1-7) last season. After taking Iowa State to five bowls in six years, former Cyclones coach Dan McCarney resigned. Now, it’s Chizik’s turn, with quarterback Bret Meyer and wide receiver Todd Blythe returning for their senior seasons.

As much experience as Chizik has, coming back, he has newcomers, including junior college transfer left tackle Doug Dedrick. Thursday will be his first chance to see them all come together.

“You’ve got a lot of moving parts out there on gameday, and you don’t know how those parts are going to connect until you see it live,” he said. “It will be a real interesting experience for me.”

Chizik hasn’t just been learning about his team as his staff has spent the past week watching game tape of Kent State.

What they’ve seen is a mobile Golden Flash quarterback in Julian Edelman who passed for 1,859 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, while guiding his team to a 6-6 record.

Most of the Kent State team has been lost at what to expect for tonight’s game. With the exception of Meyer and Blythe, Golden Flash coach Doug Martin said the first half of tonight’s game will be crucial in order for his team to develop a rhythm of what the Cyclones are doing.

“We don’t know what type of plays they’re going to be running,” Martin said. “We just make our best guess looking at where their coaches have been before.”

Kent State won’t even know who will be starting at running back, as Chizik has yet to announce who will take the opening snaps. After rushing for only 1,221 yards last season, the Cyclones have experimented with three running backs: Jason Scales, J.J. Bass, and Alexander Robinson.

“We kind of have an advantage over them not knowing what we’re going to do,” Meyer said. “Obviously they can look at what our coaches did in past offenses, but there’s always that uncertainty, which is obviously an advantage for us.”

Despite the advantages, Chizik said Kent State will be a great opening test for the Cyclones. Returning eight starters on offense and defense, the Golden Flashes were picked by the Mid-American Conference News Media Association to finish second in the East Division of the MAC Conference.

“I think it’s a great opening game for us,” Chizik said. “It’ll be very challenging.”

Whatever challenges Kent State provides, Chizik said he’s just eager to get his first game out of the way, with plenty of Iowa State fans to welcome him.

“Don’t keep it in. Let it out and bring all your friends,” he said to Cyclone fans. “I want there to be a passion in this stadium.”