Iowa State free safety Dustin Avey’s best sport just might be track and field.

That could explain why the redshirt freshman from Ames didn’t mind running around the football field on Saturday to make many critical defensive stops for ISU.

Avey’s quick legs took him where he needed to go and helped him finish the season opener with 15 tackles.

“I feel track is one of the biggest assets I have,” said Avey, who was an All-American runner in high school. “The speed workout we do in track and the conditioning we do carries all year long.”

Avey was recruited by nearly every college track program around after winning two events and finishing second in another at the 1996 Iowa Boys’ State Track Meet.

But he was not heavily-recruited for football despite the fact The Des Register named him to the All-State first-team as a wide receiver.

“Dustin had a phenomenal high school track career, but we didn’t know if we wanted to recruit him until we saw him at our summer camp his junior year,” ISU football coach Dan McCarney said.

Even though he may have gotten a late start, McCarney said recruiting Avey was definitely the right choice.

“We, as a staff, could not be happier with his development so far,” McCarney said. “He’s got tremendous range, speed and toughness. All the things you look for in a football player.”

After Saturday’s game, it would only be natural to compare Avey to Iowa receiver Tim Dwight.

Like Avey, Dwight was an All-American track athlete in high school as well as a first-team All-State running back.

Avey said he sometimes keeps in touch with Dwight.

“We both ran indoor track this year,” Avey said. “We talked at meets in Minnesota and the ISU Classic.”

Until the Oklahoma State game, Avey had not played in a football game since his senior season in 1995 because he sat out in 1996 as a redshirt freshman.

He admitted that he got a major case of the nerves before Saturday’s game.

“It was a major adrenaline rush coming out in front of 50,000 fans,” Avey said. “After about the first or the second series, I pretty much calmed down. I was excited to get out there and try to make some plays.”

Once Avey went onto the field Saturday he made some good plays and finished with 10 unassisted and five assisted tackles.

But Avey said it might not be ideal for the free safety, in essence the team’s defensive safety-valve, to be making most of the plays.

“It’s really not the free safety’s job to make all the tackles on defense,” he said. “But when the defense needs someone to step up and make the tackles, I’ll do it.

He said ISU needs to play a more team-oriented defense.

“We need to work on being a team defense, everyone contributing and making tackles,” he said.

In addition to his athletic skills, Avey, a business major, has always been a good student. He was an academic letter winner in high school with a 3.70 GPA.

“I have always felt that Dustin is the type of student-athlete I want to be a part of this football team,” McCarney said.

“He’s got character, class, personality and most importantly athletic ability,” he said.