Senior defensive end Reggie Hayward is a sociology major from Dolton, Ill., where he was a SuperPrep All-American at Thornridge High School. He is a 2000 preseason All-Big 12 selection and Cyclone team captain. He was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 the previous two seasons. Hayward currently leads the team in tackles with 18, tackles for loss (3-20) and sacks (2-15). Jordan Gizzarelli: The team is 2-0 right now. Tell me a little about the team’s expectations going into the season compared to where you’re at now. Is this where you guys want to be? Reggie Hayward: Yeah, we’re 2-0 right now; we haven’t lost any games. We’ve taken our bumps and bruises during those games but we came out victorious. We have a lot of things to improve on. We showed we can do a lot of things, but we have some ways to go. Right now we’re playing as hard as we can and learning from our mistakes. We’re going to continue to go out there and play hard and continue to win. JG: As a unit, what were some of the defensive line’s goals for this season? RH: More turnovers, more tackles for loss. We want to hurry the quarterback more. We want to set the standard for the defense, and as a defensive line we feel we can do that. JG: And some of your personal goals for this season, your senior season? RH: My personal goal is to win. I want to get a lot tackles for losses, some sacks. I do have dreams of playing in the next level, and I know if I want to play in the next level I have to get those things done on the field. I want to leave a legacy here. I want a tradition here. I want everyone to be proud to be a Cyclone. I want kids running around saying `I can’t wait to join the team’ and `I can’t wait to go out there and cheer for the Cyclones.’ JG: Tell me about your prep career at Thornridge High. RH: I guess those were the easy years. Those were the fun years. Those were the years when you could just go out on a football field and do whatever you want to, as you want to. My high school coach Pat Jennings was a great coach, and he was more than just a coach, he was a father figure. He’d take care of you and just make sure you had your head together. JG: I read somewhere that you punted? RH: (Laughs) No comment. JG: Tell me then about your choice to come to Iowa State? RH: Coach Mac was very good to me and my family. He came out and recruited me and formed a good relationship. I also wanted to play early, I wanted to get out there and get my feet wet. I’ve never sat on the bench in junior high, high school or college. He [McCarney] flew me out and showed me all the new facilities ,and I was hooked ever since. JG: Do you plan to graduate? RH: Well, I’d say I have a year and a semester left. I got a little behind when I switched my major from business to sociology. That’s something that I may have to come back and do if I have aspirations of going to the NFL. But I do plan on coming back and getting my degree because I need it for life after football, and it would just make my parents so proud – to be a true student-athlete. JG: The big question of course is that you’ve got Iowa this week. This is the last time you’re going to suit up against them, how much does winning this game mean to you? RH: It means a lot. Not that it’s just Iowa, but every game means a lot to me. I want to win every game. Iowa is a good state rival. It’s good for the state, it’s good for the fans, and more or less it’s just fun. It’s a fun atmosphere and its fun to play Iowa. It’s gonna be a hard, grinding game to the end, and the best team is gonna win. JG: Is this [ISU-Iowa] the best rivalry you’ve ever been associated with? RH: Actually no. My high school rivalry was just about on the same plane. JG: Who was that with? RH: Thornton High School. It was just like college. Basketball, football, anything that we lined up against them in and played them in was a competitive, competitive event. JG: How have Coach Loney and Coach Elliot impacted this team? RH: See I knew Coach Loney before he went to Minnesota, but he’s always been a great impact on the offensive line. He really goes out there and teaches them what they need to learn. And Coach Elliott is a great defensive backs coach, he knows his stuff and besides that he’s a very positive guy. He always has something positive to say, and he never gets down on a player. JG: How important has Coach McCarney been to your career? RH: Extremely important. He’s doing everything that a head coach and a winner should do. And that’s very important to a struggling program that’s trying to get back on its feet. JG: Who was your role model growing up? RH: Well I was a big Walter Payton fan. I don’t know if he was my role model, but I was fascinated with how good he was and even more fascinated at how he could always appear so fast and never really stay injured. He was just a great person to try to imitate and if you could set your standards as high as Walter Payton you were really pushing yourself. He was a great role model, as well as my father who taught me a lot of morals, and a lot of self-respect, and a lot about being classy and not going out in the streets and embarrassing yourself and the people around you. So, those were my role models. JG: And finally, how do want the Iowa State community to remember Reggie Hayward? RH: As just a good person, you know – off the field. The stuff I do will always be in the record books, you can’t take that away from me. But I want the people to remember me as a good-fella all around. You know, just someone you can go up and speak to and say `he’s a nice guy, he has his head on his shoulders’. Just someone you’d like to introduce to your parents. That’s about it.