AMES – In case you haven’t heard, No. 10 Iowa State is 7-0 for the first time in 86 years. It all came about from a two-minute drill score to survive a scare against UCF.
The win was not only Iowa State’s seventh in the first seven games but also allowed the Cyclones to start 4-0 in conference play for the first time ever.
No one in the history of Iowa State football has seen the team start this well in conference play. This is a historically great year for a historically mediocre program.
I’ll give credit where credit is due. Head coach Matt Campbell and his entire coaching staff have brought a culture to Ames that is finally reaching its peak. Just two seasons ago, the Cyclones went 4-8, and now they are a top-10 team in the nation.
Campbell would also say that the coaches play a big role in everything, but it’s the players who make it all happen.
There are 133 players on the football roster. Through seven games, 101 have played.
That’s an insane number of players that have actually played.
In a typical two-platoon football game, at a minimum, 25 players are needed: 11 on offense, 11 on defense, a punter, kicker and long snapper. Obviously, more players than that play in a game, but 101 is a crazy amount to have seen on the field.
It would take way too long to name and list all 101, so I’ll go through some of the rooms that have needed players to step up throughout the season.
First off, take a look at the linebacker room. It feels like every week at least one of the Cyclones’ linebackers goes down with an injury.
The starters going into the season were Caleb Bacon and Will McLaughlin, but others including Jack Sadowsky V and Jacob Ellis have been taken out too. Everyone in the linebacker room has needed to step up and the most recent to do so was Rylan Barnes.
Barnes, a redshirt freshman, got his first start of his young career against UCF. He had four tackles against the Knights and has 10 solo and 11 total tackles throughout the four games he has seen action in.
Now look at the offensive line. Eight guys have been starters on the offensive line this year. The running back room? Five players and all have scored a touchdown.
In the quarterback room, JJ Kohl and Connor Moberly have seen game time, even though it was in garbage time, it still counts.
The defensive back room is probably the deepest on the team in my opinion, and without a doubt has to be the deepest anyway, given the 3-3-5 defense that defensive coordinator Jon Heacock runs. Fourteen defensive backs have recorded at least one stat this season.
Four of the top six in total tackles are defensive backs. Malik Verdon (53), Beau Freyler (42), Jontez Williams (28) and Jeremiah Cooper (27).
Those four combined make up 34.7% of Iowa State’s total tackles this season. But, the other 10 defensive backs that have a tackle are a part of the overarching idea of the 101 players that have contributed to the 7-0 start.
I firmly believe that the bye week will be crucial for the Cyclones going forward. Iowa State made it through its first string of five straight games. Now there is an opportunity to rest, recover and prepare for the final five-game slate.
Three home games against teams on the rise (Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Kansas State) and two road games against struggling opponents (Kansas and Utah) remain.
