The Iowa State football team has been warming up for the fall season with spring practice the past few weeks, and coach Dan McCarney is optimistic about his team improving on last years 2-9 campaign.

“It’s been a real good spring,” McCarney said. “Two of the recruiting classes are here, and the third one is coming. We are not ready to challenge for a championship yet, but it has been real competitive. This has been the best spring since I’ve been here.”

The competitiveness that McCarney mentioned is evident at the linebacker spot, where three starters with a total of five years of first team experience return.

“Dave Brcka will be No. 1 at one of the linebacker spots,” McCarney said. “Michael Cooper is real close to beating out Derrik Clark, who was our defensive MVP last year, for the other linebacker position. It’s not that Clark had dropped, but Cooper has really upgraded. Overall I’m real happy with this group of linebackers.”

Brcka led the team last year with 127 tackles, of which 91 were solo. Clark was second to Brcka with 115 stops, and it was Cooper’s interception that locked up the Cyclones win against Northern Iowa.

“We have to replace six starters on offense and that will be the key. We lost three starters on defense, but players like Mike Hansen and Nigel Tharpe have stepped up to give us much more depth on the defensive line than last year,” McCarney said.

Tharpe is a 6-5 freshman from Detroit, Michigan and Hansen is a 6-2 sophomore from Omaha, Nebraska, who left the team last year because of personal problems, has returned for the 1997 season.

The biggest loss last season from the offense was Troy Davis, Iowa State’s All-American running back and Heisman finalist.

But McCarney has a talented group of running backs, including Troy’s younger brother Darren, that should be able to step up and fill the void.

“No sense of a let down,” McCarney said. “It has been a real good battle for No. 1 between Darren and Jimmy O’Neal, player of the year in New York in 1995. But Darren is the No. 1 guy right now. Both are excellent backs who could play winning football in the Big 12. Realistically, I see both of them getting some snaps on August 30.”

Another key loss from last year’s offensive team will be at the quarterback spot which was left open by departing senior Todd Doxzon.

Despite the loss, McCarney has experience coming back at the quarterback position in junior Todd Bandhauer.

“I don’t feel like I’m unexperienced. I’ve won a game and I’ve been in a shellacking, a 73-14 loss to Nebraska,”said Bandhauer.

Bandhauer lost a year of eligibility last year when he came off the bench in a loss to Kansas, after Doxzon went down with an ankle injury.

“The last thing I want to do is dwell in the past. I want to look forward. The frustration from last year was mainly from not playing. I like playing,” Bandhauer said.

“I never questioned coming here. The faculty and staff, academicswise, is great. I couldn’t ask for any changes here, except maybe the weather. If teams think we are a joke, they are going to be in for a rude awakening. We are not a joke anymore, we are a lot better than we were.”