A pessimist might claim, after the 2000 Iowa State spring football game, that depth is still a crucial concern for the team.

Of course, Cyclone optimists, including head coach Dan McCarney, would just point out that the ISU first-team is as good as it’s ever been before.

Regardless of your interpretation, the contest was far from an even match Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinal team, composed of ISU’s first- and fourth-stringers, made short work of a coach-imposed 16-0 kickoff deficit, scoring on their first two possessions en route to a 48-16 victory over the White team.

“I guess we just showed everybody and ourselves the reason why we’re the number ones,” starting tailback Ennis Haywood said.

And that dominance started with Haywood.

Emerging from the shadow of ISU’s Davis dynasty, Haywood scampered for a game-high 116 yards on 25 carries and scored a touchdown.

“We just wanted to go out and have a little fun,” Haywood said. “I wanted to get my hundred yards, but the biggest thing was to give the fans something to look at.”

The fans had more than enough to keep them entertained on the afternoon, watching an explosive Cardinal offense and several exotic formations and plays.

In all, the Cyclone starters amassed 422 yards to the White team’s 77, in addition to outscoring them 48-0.

After spotting his second- and third-stringers 16 points to open the game, McCarney called the action from the press box as his Cardinal squad needed fewer than 20 minutes to take their first lead.

In fact, the Cardinal entered the locker room at halftime with a 28-16 lead, having piled up 330 yards to the White’s 4.

Starting quarterback and team captain Sage Rosenfels looked very sharp on the day, completing 14 of 25 passes for 218 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one a 12-yard strike to fellow captain Chris Anthony less than five minutes into the game.

A 28-yard TD toss to Craig Campbell on the very next possession cut the deficit to two, and J.J. Moses and Lane Danielson scampered into the endzone for rushing touchdowns before the break.

After the half, Haywood got on the board following an early White fumble and fullback Frank Garcia added a pair of scores before the afternoon was done.

“I’m not going to put any numbers on it,” Rosenfels said. “But I’m very confident that we’re going to play well and I’m confident that we’re going to be a team that people are going to be scared of.”

While the first-team offense was running rampant, their defensive counterparts were equally impressive.

Led by a strong line performance, the defense hounded the White squad all afternoon, registering five tackles for loss, forcing a pair of fumbles and intercepting two passes.

“I love the way the ones came out,” team captain and starting defensive end Reggie Hayward said. “That’s what [Coach McCarney] recruited us to do — to make big plays and pitch shutouts and things like that.”

Hayward, fellow captain Ryan Harklau and standouts James Reed and Kevin DeRonde led the defensive line, combining for 12 tackles, including four for loss.

“That’s just a taste of things to come,” Hayward said. “This is not just us going against our twos. We expect that every game. Our demeanor is to come out and give that to you every game. We’re not here to play soft or be intimidated. We’re here to play hard Cyclone defense.”

With the game well out of hand in the fourth quarter, both teams began to experiment.

Gerrin Scott quarterbacked the White team for the first half, but as so often happens in college football, he traded jerseys at the break and played a few series for the Cardinal in the fourth quarter.

The Cyclones also allowed several defensive players to move to the offense, emphasizing afterwards that the experiments would not become a familiar sight next fall.

On one occasion, the Cardinal’s entire starting secondary lined up at receiver, but Rosenfels overthrew safety Doug Densmore, who was open on a deep post route.

Later, Harklau took a handoff, a la William “Refrigerator” Perry, and bull-dozed his way for three yards behind the blocking of Reed.

“We gotta talk to Ennis — see if he’ll let me have a couple more carries out there,” Harklau said. “But, I don’t have any ‘shakes in the bag,’ like he does. I lost those about 40 pounds ago.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the afternoon was the play of former basketball standout and current strong safety Stevie Johnson, who was cheered every time he came near the ball.

Despite giving up the long touchdown to Campbell in the first quarter, Johnson was impressive, leading all players with seven tackles.

He even lined up at receiver a couple times, just missing a reception after juggling the ball in the fourth quarter.

“That’s not a little game we’re playing with him, throwing him out there at wide receiver,” McCarney said.

“There’s a good chance you’ll see him doing a little bit of that this fall. When you’ve got a 39-inch vertical leap, you better try to get him the ball.”

Hayward, Johnson’s roommate, wasn’t quite as complimentary.

“Stevie had some big plays,” Hayward said. “He dropped that ball, but I can’t blame him for that. He’s just got stone hands out there. I guess the football and basketball are just different shapes.”

Overall, the Cyclone starters looked better than they have in any spring game in recent memory. Both units seemed fundamentally sound and both will be supplemented in the fall with several players currently sidelined with injury.

As always, optimism is running high in the city of Ames.

“My goal every day is to come out of here and make sure this is a better program,” McCarney said. “Sometimes it comes in real small steps. Obviously, there’s been a lot of days like that. But I still try to come out of this building every day knowing that we built a better program. We’re getting much closer to where I want to be.”

“We could play with anybody in the nation,” Hayward said. “I strongly believe that. If we’re all healthy and we keep a good, healthy mental frame of mind, we can play with anybody.”

While it remains to be seen whether this team will provide Ames and McCarney their first winning season since 1989, the tools seem to be in place.

“I don’t think it’s any secret this will be the best team that I’ll put on the field since I’ve been here,” McCarney said. “We’ve come a long way since that first year.”