Iowa State:
Jayden Higgins – Wide Receiver
At this point everyone knows that the two “Jays,” Jaylin Noel and Higgins, are Rocco Becht’s two favorite targets. For this game though, I’m looking out for Higgins.
Going into the 2023 season, Higgins came to Iowa State as a transfer from Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Eastern Kentucky. He didn’t have any problems transitioning into his new home and quickly became one of the Cyclone’s best offensive weapons, racking up 983 yards and six touchdowns on 53 receptions.
Higgins hasn’t slowed down at all to start off his 2024 campaign. Across three games he has 208 receiving yards on a team-leading 17 receptions and has scored a touchdown in each of the Cyclones’ first three games.
The reason he is one of my players to watch in this game is because his consecutive games with a touchdown streak isn’t just three games. It goes back to last season, where he scored touchdowns in the last two games of the season.
His streak of five consecutive games with a receiving touchdown is tied for the longest in program history, and the senior will have a chance of breaking that record and cementing himself into the Iowa State record book against Houston.
Carson Hansen – Running Back
As a true freshman, Hansen appeared in all 13 games for the Cyclones but saw limited touches out of the backfield, only touching the ball 33 times for 182 total yards. The main reason for the lack of touches was due to the three-man backfield of Abu Sama III, Cartevious Norton and Eli Sanders.
Now, it seems that Hansen has found himself inside of a three-man running back room, featuring himself, Sama and Eastern Michigan transfer Jaylon Jackson.
Hansen had the most productive game of three in the Cyclones’ week 4 matchup against Arkansas State, carrying the ball nine times for 58 yards and two touchdowns. It will be interesting to see if this increases the amount of carries Hansen will get, or if head coach Matt Cambell and his offensive staff will continue to evenly distribute the carries like they did last season and have for a portion of this season.
Malik Verdon – Safety
When you have a defensive back room that features players like Verdon, junior Jeremiah Cooper, senior Beau Freyler, redshirt sophomore Jontez Williams, redshirt senior Darien Porter and senior Myles Purchase, sometimes you get lost in all of the talent and forget to acknowledge how good they are as individuals and not just as a unit.
Verdon has made himself hard to forget.
Going back to the Iowa game, Verdon was the Cyclones’ leading tackler, collecting nine with one of those being a tackle-for-loss, and added a pass deflection for good measure. Verdon played a huge part in the Cyclones’ defense turning things around in the second half of that game.
In the next game against Arkansas State, Verdon got his hands on his first interception of the season by picking off Red Wolves quarterback Jaylen Raynor near midfield and returning the ball to the 16-yard line, which set up a Cyclone touchdown.
PFF recognized Verdon’s excellence by giving him a 91.6 PFF grade, the highest of any safety in the Power Four conferences. I am excited to see how Verdon and really the entire defensive back room perform heading into Big 12 play.
Houston:
Donovan Smith – Quarterback
Smith is a player that Iowa State fans may remember, since he was at Texas Tech for two years before transferring to Houston last season. Smith is a very experienced quarterback who has appeared in 39 games in his career and is very familiar with the Big 12.
This season has been a struggle for Smith so far. Through four games the senior quarterback has thrown for just 610 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions. Smith is also boasting the worst quarterback rating, interception percentage and touchdown-to-interception ratio of his career through the first four games.
He is a good athlete who likes to use his legs, but so far he hasn’t had great success with that either, carrying the ball 37 times for just 31 yards on the season.
I don’t think the Cyclones secondary is something Smith should be looking forward to competing against. If he plays to the level he’s been playing at to start the season, I think the Cyclones secondary could have a field day.
Re’Shaun Sanford II and Stacy Sneed – Running backs
The biggest concern with the Cyclone defense since the injuries to starting linebackers Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin has been the ability to stop the run. The first two games were very shaky, allowing 174 yards on the ground to North Dakota and 204 on the ground to Iowa.
In the Arkansas State game, the run defense looked much improved. The Cyclones gave up just 64 rushing yards on 35 attempts, by far the best performance of the season. No offense to Arkansas State, but I want to see if the Cyclones can replicate that type of performance against a team that could actually give them trouble.
I think that Houston running backs Sanford and Sneed could give the Cyclones trouble. The running back tandem have nearly identical stats, with Sanford leading the team with 166 yards on 5.2 yards per attempt and Sneed trailing very closely behind with 138 yards on 5.3 yards per attempt.
I think if Houston wants any chance in this game, it will have to get Sanford and Sneed going early, because I don’t think Smith and his receivers will be able to consistently beat the Cyclones secondary.
Michael Batton – Linebacker
A true journeyman, Batton started his career at Houston Christian, then transferred to Nassau Community College in 2021, then transferred for a second time to ULM, where he played two seasons before finally landing back in his hometown of Houston to play for the Cougars.
Batton has been a great addition to this Houston squad. He leads the team in tackles with 29, sacks with two and fumble recoveries with one. He is someone that the Cyclones’ offense will have to keep an eye on everytime they take the field Saturday.
