As practice nears its end on Tuesday night, Sage Rosenfels’ black jersey is set conspicuously apart amid the sea of white jerseys worn by his teammates.

How fitting.

NFL scouts have found it easy as well to spot the jersey that Rosenfels dons on Saturdays.

The senior has beckoned NFL attention by amassing 1,511 passing yards through five games.

He has completed 103 passes this year for seven touchdowns. He is averaging 251.8 yards through the air per game.

It would be useless, however, to mention this to Rosenfels now.

“Sage just wants to win,” said Head Coach Dan McCarney. “It doesn’t matter whether he throws five times of fifty.”

Senior wideout Chris Anthony said although Rosenfels’ competitive fire causes him to be vocal on Saturdays, he “never demeans anyone.”

Rosenfels stoic humbleness may be inherent. He admits that he and his two older brothers, Jaffa and Jeremiah, were always in competition.

So did young Sage dominate at every turn?

“My brothers made me the best I could be,” Rosenfels said.

Rosenfels grew up in Maquoketa with brothers Jaffa and Jeremiah, older sister Jaia and younger sister Sosha.

The brothers would play games where “Sage-is-on-the-team-with-the-ball.” In football that meant Sage got to hone his passing skills on both his brothers.

During his junior year, Rosenfels started getting attention from McCarney.

The summer before his senior year, Rosenfels took part in an ISU passing camp. After the camp, the football program offered Rosenfels a scholarship.

Rosenfels believes the scholarship was a byproduct of “wanting my team to win.”

He was named the starting quarterback at the beginning of last season. Rosenfels led a Cyclone team that finished with four wins and a handful of last-minute losses.

The yards he has already tallied this year can be attributed to many things.

“Work ethic is where it all begins,” Rosenfels said.

But work ethic does not always equal wins.

“Bringing in better talent,” has also made this team stand out from years past.

And aside from the “great coaches here at Iowa State,” Rosenfels believes “our confidence is high. We’re expecting to win every game,” he said.

Rosenfels said he has grown more comfortable in the pocket since the start of last year. His aforementioned statistics seem to agree with that.

If he continues at this pace, he may take home the “Big 12 Player of the Year” trophy.

“That’s not even on my mind,” said Rosenfels in response to him winning the award.

So what is?

Well, movies for one. He and good friend and teammate Doug Densmore will often debate them.

So what movies have they disagreed on? “Apocalypse Now,” Rosenfels said. “Doug didn’t like it.”

When movies are not taking up his leisure time, his wife Maria is. The lifelong friends started dating during their second year in college. One problem: Maria was at Northern Iowa.

After only a year of dating and Maria transferring to Iowa State, Rosenfels proposed. The two have been happily married now for a year and five months.

The marriage can be seen by some as a sign of maturity. Rosenfels knows what things he can control and what things he should not spend time worrying about.

He no longer worries that his brothers are still able to pin him when wrestling.

Rosenfels now just tallies up his defeats to a “strange strength” that the 180-pound Jeremiah possesses.

As for a career in football: “Whatever happens in the future will happen in the next five games.”