This week, the Iowa State Daily had an opportunity to sit down with Sage Rosenfels, the junior quarterback of the Cyclones. Rosenfels talked about the goals of this year’s team, the game against Nebraska and his life after Iowa State.

Iowa State Daily: Sage, right now you’re juggling school, family and being the quarterback at a Division I university. How are you able to handle all that?

Sage Rosenfels: I think I juggle them through time management and making the most out of every opportunity I get in all those areas. I do that with my wife when I’m home, at school when I’m studying and here on Saturdays. I try to make every moment count and do my best in everything.

ISD: You came out of high school excelling at a number of sports. First, why did you choose football, and then, why did you come to Iowa State?

SR: I chose football because it gave me the best opportunity for a scholarship, and it was a chance to play in a big-time sport. I came here because it was close to home, I could play in a great conference and I saw it as a great opportunity. I knew if I worked hard here, I would be successful in a couple of years.

ISD: As a celebrated athlete in the state of Iowa, how hard was it to come here and sit on the bench?

SR: It was always tough, but I knew if I kept working hard and kept improving in all areas of the game, that it would pay off, and right now it is, and hopefully, it will pay off with more wins this year.

ISD: How special has it been these first four weeks, being 3-1 and having this be your team?

SR: It feels really good to be 3-1, but it would’ve been nice to be 4-0. But we do know we have a lot of opportunity in front of us. We have a lot of ball games that we know we can win and we should win. We just have to go out there and play to the best of our abilities, have no regrets and we’ll all be satisfied.

ISD: What do you personally want to get out of this year?

SR: Offensively, defensively and on special teams, play to the best that we can play. We have a lot of great players, a lot of hard-working guys, and we have guys that at crunch-time can make plays. If everybody is satisfied at the end of the year, that means we have a lot of wins.

ISD: Presumably, you’ll be back in the year 2000. After that, what do you plan to do?

SR: My wife and I are thinking about moving. We’re not real sure yet about where, maybe Colorado, out West or maybe the East Coast somewhere. I’ll hopefully be working for a company where some sort of rich Iowa State alum will hook me up with a job. But that’s yet to be seen. It’d be nice to get out of Iowa for awhile, but maybe come back some time in the future.

ISD: What sort of potential does this team have?

SR: I’ve heard people say potential is a terrible word because it means you haven’t done it yet. We do have potential, and that means we haven’t done it yet. We need to do it, and if we play like we did the first half of last game, we’re going to turn a lot of heads this year and make a lot of things happen.

ISD: How devastating was the last game against Kansas State? Do you feel like you have any momentum left?

SR: We have plenty of momentum. We learned some things in that game about not letting up, and we learned that we are a really good football team both offensively and defensively, and that we can play with the best teams in the country. Even though we lost, we know we are a very good football team.

ISD: What kind of goals and expectations do you have for this Saturday against Nebraska?

SR: My goal is to win. To come out and play like people don’t expect us to play. To play physical with them, make big plays, not have any turnovers offensively and come out of there with a win somehow, some way. I think if we have the right attitude and we make the right plays and do things like we’re capable of doing, we can win.

—Josh Flickinger