Head Football Coach Dan McCarney will find himself in a somewhat familiar position this Saturday during the Cyclones’ game against the Iowa Hawkeyes — on the sidelines. But this year he hopes the game will have a different result than in the past.

“It’s been a total and complete mismatch, really, in the last 12 years. You look at some of the scores and they’re ugly now,” McCarney said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

McCarney, who is in his first year as the head of Iowa State’s program, coached against the Cyclones on the Iowa coaching staff from 1977 until 1989.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to make sure that it’s not a mismatch in the trenches Saturday,” he said.

Iowa looked very strong against Northern Iowa last week, McCarney said. The Hawkeyes won the game 34-10.

“Iowa’s got better athletes, top to bottom, than we do,” he said, “but you’ve got to line up and play and in the short college season that’s been played already, there’s been some surprises and some shocks. I’m just hoping we can be a part of that before the season’s over this year.”

Some of the older Cyclone players have seen the Hawkeyes come into Cyclone Stadium and dominate the game. Iowa won 37-9 last year in Iowa City.

“It’s my fifth year and I’m embarrassed,” said Mark Konopka, a senior offensive guard. “We haven’t really been competitive in the past.”

Angelo Provenza, a fellow fifth-year senior and outside linebacker for the Cyclones, said he sees this game as his last chance at beating an Iowa team that has won every game against ISU since 1982.

“For me, it’s my chance and I’m going to go out there and do everything in my power to make it happen,” Provenza said.

The prospects of it happening are substantially better now with the return of junior quarterback Todd Doxzon. He has been sidelined with a sprained ankle for over two weeks and has not taken a snap in a game this season.

McCarney said he fully anticipates Doxzon lining up for the Cyclones this Saturday.

“Hopefully with Dox’s return we can upgrade our passing game, because people will jump in there and give you eight-man fronts all day long,” he said. “You’ve got to be more two-dimensional than handing the ball off to No. 28.”

Number 28 is Cyclone tailback Troy Davis. Davis ran for 180 yards against Texas Christian last week and currently ranks second nationally in rushing with 471 yards and in all-purpose yards, averaging 290.5 total yards per game.

Konopka said even if the Hawks send eight men to the line, the Cyclones will still be able to move the ball with a player like Davis in the backfield.

“They’re going to come out thinking we can’t throw the ball — that’s something we definitely have to work on this week,” Konopka said. “Doxzon gives us a little more of the scramble — that’s a great thing he has.”

McCarney said fan support for all aspects of the football team has improved from last year. The cheering no longer comes just from a touchdown, but from defensive stops, kicks and special teams.

“I hope all the fans out there will turn it up a few notches,” McCarney said. “It’s been far too easy for Iowa and everybody else to come into this stadium for many years and have success.”

“We don’t want this thing to be a 50-50 crowd attendance type thing. We want it to be an Iowa State Cyclone football game with our fans,” he said.

McCarney credits a lot of the fundamentals and philosophies he has brought with him to ISU with the 11 years he spent as an assistant under Hawkeye Head Coach Hayden Fry.

“I wouldn’t be here today without the opportunity that he gave me,” McCarney said. “There’s always that mutual respect that we’ll have for as long as we’re alive.”