Someone on the Iowa State message board thinks Seneca Wallace should be benched.

Because these message boards, used as forums for discussion — and trash talk — related to just about anything under the sun, can be completely anonymous, this fan doesn’t have an actual name.

He does have a screen name, though.

Moron.

At least that’s what I think it should be.

His post came after Wallace had five turnovers in the loss to Kansas State and prior to the Colorado game, and after Wallace threw a pick and had three fumbles against the Buffaloes, this guy probably thinks he’s the next Einstein.

But bench Wallace?

Are you kidding me?

ISU head coach Dan McCarney and the ISU players have said all season they wouldn’t trade Wallace for anyone in the country, and they know him best.

Jack Whitver said it best after the loss in Boulder, essentially saying that Wallace is the reason the Cyclones have come this far.

The statistics back it up.

Wallace has passed for 2,922 yards this season and 14 touchdown passes. In just two years at Iowa State, he is within reach of second place on the all-time career passing yards list and has the best completion percentage this school has ever seen — nearly 60 percent.

He’s rewritten the ISU recordbooks, establishing three new marks in 2002.

He has also had 14 passes picked off and has fumbled six times, all in the last three games, but benching Wallace is surely not the answer.

Although he is no longer a Heisman candidate, Wallace is still the best quarterback wearing cardinal and gold.

His fumbles against Kansas State and Colorado looked bad, but the dropped snaps aren’t the result of anything physical.

Focus is the key in that position, and with 50,000 fans screaming at you, it’s not exactly easy.

Don’t forget, either, that this is the first season Wallace has really focused on becoming a passer more than a runner.

For the most part, he’s been committed to staying in the pocket longer, and delivering the ball with pinpoint accuracy.

When he does scramble, he’s been looking for receivers much longer than ever before.

Playing one way for so long and then, for whatever reason, changing pace just a little will produce a mistake here and there.

Of course, a mistake came here, there, over there and back there out in Boulder. And they were critical, but as Zach Butler said after the game, the 70-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter — in which Wallace was 4-for-4 and ran the final 6 yards for the score — “was all him.”

He bounced back from his mistakes to do that with the clock dissolving before his eyes.

And no one takes the errors harder than Wallace.

You can tell his turnovers eat him up inside, and maybe it’s that kind of pressure that can lead to more problems.

Above all, Wallace is human.

After being elevated to god-like status to start the season — full with ESPN and MTV attention — it’s only natural for someone who has gone so high to slip just a little.

With only one game left in Cyclone country, keep giving Wallace your support and good things will happen.

He’ll be missed next season, so cheer him while you can, through good and bad.

And don’t forget where the program was and where it is today.

Jeff Raasch

is a junior in journalism

and mass communication from Odebolt.