On the balcony of the Jacobson Building overlooking Jack Trice Stadium, Bret Meyer is midway through an obligatory pre-season interview for the Mediacom Connections channel.

The most experienced college quarterback in the nation, Meyer can’t avoid being distracted as his friend, roommate and favorite target purposefully walks into and stands in his field of vision.

Meyer looks away from the camera and starts to laugh.

After Meyer comes back into the building, Todd Blythe revels in his accomplishment during an interview of his own.

“Yeah, I got you. I didn’t even have to come outside,” Blythe said. “Watch yo ass.”

Maybe the warning from friend to friend should be taken seriously.

The excitement for Gene Chizik’s first year as head coach is tempered by the uncertainty of the talent and inexperience of the team’s core. Iowa State has been picked to finish last in the Big 12 North by every major media outlet.

Miracle has been used multiple times to describe the chances of a winning season.

Despite having an experienced offense in 2006, Meyer was in constant duress due to poor protection. Now four of last year’s O-line starters gone, leaving an inexperienced front in charge of protecting the senior leader from the big hitters of the Big 12.

Meanwhile on defense, six starters are back from a team that allowed 30.8 points per game last season.

Doubts surround the ISU football team, with the exception of quarterback and wide receiver positions.

Blythe and Meyer, the two Iowa-grown stars of the offense, are pairing up for their final season as the most prolific aerial combination in school history.

Chizik said he has liked what he has seen from the duo in the off-season and in practice, but seemed anxious to see the two in a live game.

“I’ve always lived under the theory that great players produce on gameday,” Chizik said. “Players play on gameday. If you’re a great player then you’re going to show up on gameday. I am looking forward to seeing [Blythe and Meyer] on gameday at their finest.”

Meyer and Blythe probably don’t want to remember much about last year’s 4-8 season.

After two trips to bowl games in the pairs’ first two seasons, the Cyclones lost six straight Big 12 games last season by an average of almost 21 points. Meyer, the school’s all-time passing leader, and Blythe, the school’s record holder for receiving touchdowns, each experienced the pains of a losing season.

Even now, Meyer doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Last year wasn’t good at all,” he said. “But that’s about as much as I’m going to say about it.”

Meyer – whose mobility has enabled 631 rushing yards in his career – was sacked 38 times, seven times by Texas’ Chizik-led defense, and finished with 12 interceptions, a career-high.

Last season was Blythe’s worst statistical year as a Cyclone, with only 484 yards on 34 receptions. He missed the last three games of the Cyclones’ six-game losing streak with mononucleosis, but was able to return for former head coach Dan McCarney’s final game at Iowa State – a 21-16 win over Missouri.

Blythe was glad to help send McCarney and last year’s seniors out with a win, describing missing those three games was “the most difficult thing in the world.”

“You can’t even imagine how hard it is just to sit there and watch your guys struggling. Especially with the season we were having,” Blythe said. “To see my guys, my best friends out there struggling and losing games like that, for me to be sitting on the sidelines in sweats and not be able to do anything about it – that was really hard.”

About a week after the win against Missouri, Meyer said he started preparing for this season, an effort that included learning the new playbook and system as well as improving physically. Meyer said more plays have been designed to get rid of the ball quicker, as well as protections schemes and new terminology.

Blythe said he thought his body had fully matured, but in the off-season he added six to eight pounds and improved his speed and leg drive, to which he credits strength and conditioning coach Ken Sheppard. Routes that took nine steps last season now take him seven, Blythe said, and the team as a whole has improved its speed.

Blythe said the team as a whole has improved speed, a mixture of hard work in the off-season and additions through recruiting. He said there was 100 percent attendance for voluntary workouts.

“We had everybody up here working hard ever since January when we got our new coaching staff in,” Blythe said. “We came back from Christmas break, and everybody hit it hard through winter conditioning, spring ball and right into summer conditioning. I’m really proud of our guys. Everybody came ready to work.”

In the last seven months, Chizik said he was impressed both by Meyer and Blythe’s leadership and work ethic. Wide receivers coach Jay Rodgers has been able to inventory what Blythe, the 6-foot-5 big-play wide receiver, can contribute to the passing game.

“He has extremely good height, which is lethal in the red zone. Speedwise, he is good. He is not a 4.2 kid; he is not slow at all,” Rodgers said. “But he has good enough speed he can sink his hips, he can get in and out of breaks. And he is a strong kid, so if somebody wants to come up in his face and press him, he has the ability to get off press coverage.”

Blythe is regarded as a sure-NFL Draft pick next spring, while by the very nature of his position Meyer will have a tougher road to the professional level.

Still, in their final seasons, both have to prove themselves and shoulder the responsibility of being the team’s two offensive leaders.

But the success of the team isn’t as reliant on the senior leaders as many would hope.

“Bret and Todd will only be as good as the other nine around them,” Chizik said. “So if Bret Meyer has a great day, it doesn’t mean we win. If Bret and Todd have a great day, it doesn’t mean we win. If Bret and Todd have a terrible day, it doesn’t mean we lose. Todd and Bret are a very important part of our offense, but our offense doesn’t go as they go.

“We’ve got to be able run the football, we’ve got to be able to protect the quarterback – all those things in there. So it’s developing the nine around them more so then how good they get.”

Blythe said he is excited to get going.

“Coming up [tonight], this is the first game of my last season,” he said. “We were 4-8 last year and that was frustrating, and that was disappointing, and that’s now how I want to end my career, so I’m lucky enough to come back for one more season.”

Meyer said he feels like the Cyclones are hungry, saying they’ve been through a lot in the last nine months. Meyer said he is not worried about the offensive line, and after last season he doesn’t blame media outlets for picking Iowa State last in the North. He said he is going to sit back and enjoy his final season, because it’s his last.

“It’s gone by real quick,” Blythe said. “It’s been fun and it’s been a great ride so far. I hope we can end it well.”