Want a free preview of the 2000 ISU football team?

A chance to see running back Ennis Haywood in his new feature role?

An opportunity to see starting basketball forward Stevie Johnson don an official football uniform for the first time as a backup defensive back?

The occasion to catch a peek of former quarterback Derrick Walker in his brand-new position of linebacker?

Well, you can do all of these things when the annual Iowa State spring game takes place Saturday at 1 p.m. at Jack Trice Stadium.

Admission is free for everyone.

“It’s going to be a good chance for the kids to show the fans what they’ve been working on, and it should be a good time,” ISU head coach Dan McCarney said.

“We hope to play well and come out with no injuries.”

While the contest will be similar to a regular season game, there are some significant differences.

The game will pit the starting units against the reserves.

The starters, who have been working with running backs coach Tony Alford, will start out with a 16-point deficit.

“I figured last year we started them out down 17, and we’ve got a little more depth defensively, so we gave them one more point,” McCarney said.

The reserves will be coached by new assistant Bob Allot, an old friend of McCarney dating back to their days as teammates at the University of Iowa.

“Bobby felt confident the two’s could win straight up, but I decided to spot them a little,” McCarney said.

The Cardinal squad, made up of first- and fourth-teamers, will take on the Gold team, a unit made up of second- and third-teamers.

There will be four 12 minute quarters in the contest, and McCarney doesn’t feel there will be too many surprises Saturday.

“When you go as much best-against-best as we did this spring, in every game situation imaginable, you have a lot better feel for your strengths and weaknesses,” McCarney said.

ISU defensive lineman Reggie Hayward said starting with a deficit could be interesting.

“It’s going to be a little strange, but hopefully we can jump on them early and coast for a win,” Hayward said.

Haywood, meanwhile, has other things on his mind.

“Just get me 100 yards and I’ll be happy. Everybody has been working hard, and want to show the fans what they can do,” he said.

“It’s going to be fun,” Haywood said. “But everybody’s going to want to get theirs.”

McCarney remembers last year’s spring game and knows, with increased depth, this could be a close one.

“Last year Sage was on the second team, and he went right down on the first drive and all of a sudden they scored, and it was 24-0 before they came back,” McCarney said.

Alford has a few basic goals for the scrimmage.

“Well, we really want to stay healthy. We want to have our backs go out and do what they’ve done all spring, and that’s to play hard, have fun and keep getting better,” Alford said.

He knows that this will be a new experience for some of the younger guys in the backfield.

“This will be good for guys like Mike Wagner and Hiawatha Rutland, who have never been in that type of situation before,” Alford said.

The game will also feature 18 red-shirt freshmen that have cracked the two-deep lineup, a record in the McCarney tenure.

“We’ve got some really talented guys that we were able to hold out last year, and there are a lot of them who will make an immediate impact on this football team,” McCarney said.