Decked out in their new white jerseys, the Iowa State football team gathered in Jack Trice Stadium with less than a month until the Cyclones’ opener against South Dakota State.

No pads were present, but cameras, audio recorders and cell phones were found in nearly every non-player’s hands. Tuesday officially marked Media Day.

The Big Three

While David Montgomery covered some of the blemishes up front on the Iowa State offensive line with his balance and elusiveness, holes still glared on the offensive line.

The offensive line in 2017 was a weakness more than a strength for Iowa State. The Cyclones lost a solid tackle in Jake Campos, but Iowa State retained three important pieces on the line.

The junior trio of Julian Good-Jones, Bryce Meeker and Josh Knipfel return. The offensive line isn’t set yet for the Cyclones, but Good-Jones and his athleticism allows Iowa State to shuffle the line around.

“I think athleticism is the first thing when you talk about Julian Good-Jones,” said Matt Campbell in his media day press conference. “He’s got very high end athleticism, which has certainly allowed him to have position flexibility along the offensive line.”

Campbell also mentioned that Good-Jones’ versatility allows others on the offensive line to shift to their ideal positions.

Good-Jones has started 24 games in a row, and joining him on will be Meeker, a tackle who played in 10 games last season.

“[Good-Jones and Meeker] have a very unique opportunity in my opinion,” Campbell said. “When I challenge the offensive line, it starts with those two. My reasoning for that is those two have played football, whether they should have or not early in their career, they have.

“One of the hard things with the early part of their career, is there wasn’t much around them to challenge them to be the best version of themselves as they could be.”

The third piece with substantial experience on the offensive line is Knipfel. After coming from junior college powerhouse Iowa Western, Knipfel emerged as a standout on the Cyclone line, starting all 13 games last season.

Knipfel hasn’t been in Ames as long as Meeker and Good-Jones, but the guard is slotted as a key piece to the offense with his talent and leadership.

“I think [Meeker, Good-Jones and Knipfel] are really important because those guys have played some football here,” said offensive line coach Jeff Myers. “They have those experiences to help these young guys and groom these young guys.”

Kamilo Tongamoa

Iowa State’s class of 2017 recruiting class was headlined by three JUCO transfers with three-stars from 247Sports.com.

Ray Lima busted onto the scene last season, proving to be a valuable asset in Iowa State’s three-man front, but the other two transfers — Kamilo Tongamoa and Matt Leo — didn’t explode on the field like Lima.

Battling through injuries and the transition to a Big 12 school, Tongamoa has his feet underneath themselves now.

“It was kind of hard coming from JUCO, it wasn’t much, no food or nothing, but when I came out here I saw all the free food,” Tongamoa said. “I was out there eating up, you know?”

Tongamoa said he’s adapted to a better nutritional lifestyle through the team nutritionist, along with Director of Strength and Conditioning Rudy Wade assisting him in the weightroom.

Tongamoa should find himself in the mix on the defensive line. Defensive line coach Eli Rasheed said ideally three-deep on the defensive line would be best for depth purposes.

Digging Deep in the Stats

Campbell and his staff spent their spring and summer jetting around the U.S. on the recruiting trail, but aside from that Campbell spent his time studying football through the numbers.

“No. 1 was turnovers,” Campbell said about his No. 1 stat he looked to after the season. “We start every fall camp meeting, we start our No. 1 meeting to start every season [with] that number [of turnovers].”

Campbell continued by talking about the study of eight criteria in football that change the percentages of winning and losing football games.

“The No. 1 stat in any level is the turnover margin,” Campbell said.

Campbell also rattled off that Iowa State is 10-2 with a positive turnover margin in the last two years.

The turnovers are a recordable statistic, but in the data-driven age of sports, Iowa State also use advanced statistics.

Campbell said he uses advanced statistics to hone in on gaps between Iowa State and other teams.