“Solid” was the word ISU defensive coordinator John Skladany used to describe his defense’s effort last Saturday against the triple-option attack of Ohio University. Very solid indeed, as the Cyclones succeeded in holding last season’s sixth best rushing offense in the nation to 179 yards on the ground. The ISU defense also managed to come out on top in the turnover department, winning that battle 4 to 1, which pleased head coach Dan McCarney. “We’ve talked about turnovers since last November, when our season ended. We got four, and we gave up one. We won it [turnover ratio]. That’s important and I hope we can build on it. That’s the mark of a good defense. We had some missed tackles and some sloppy plays, but this was our first game and I’m real proud of the way our defense played,” he said. Turning in solid efforts were veterans Reggie Hayward, Doug Densmore, and Dustin Avey, along with newcomers Tyrone Tucker, Derrick Walker and Marc Timmons. Hayward and Densmore tallied seven tackles a piece, with Avey collecting six. Tucker paced the team with nine tackles, a fumble recovery and a sack in his debut, while Walker made four stops, one sack and a fumble recovery in his first showing at linebacker. Timmons effort in the fourth quarter was key. Not only did he spell a tired Avey, he also managed to put a stop to Ohio’s last ditch effort by intercepting a Dontrell Jackson pass with just eight seconds remaining in the game. The Cyclone defense limited Ohio to 3 of 13 on third-down conversions and wore down a Bobcat offense that got off to a very quick start. On their first possession of the game Ohio went 53 yards on seven plays for their first score, in just under two minutes. “They came out and showed us how well they could run the ball, and we had some butterflies. But as you can see, in the second quarter, we came out, stuck with it and stopped them from running the ball,” Hayward said. Following the first drive, Hayward and his teammates regrouped, allowing just two more scores for the remainder of the game, a field goal later in the first quarter and a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against ISU’s prevent defense. “It’s a change from junior college to here, but they handled it well [Tucker and Eilers],” said Skladany of his two new outside linebackers,” and Derrick [Walker] changing over from quarterback handled it really well. I thought they did real well, they competed and made some big plays [ISU defense].”