Historically, Iowa State football has been forced to plug in multiple players at the quarterback position, and last year was no different.

After cycling through Jacob Park, Kyle Kempt, Zeb Noland and — at times — Joel Lanning in 2017, the Cyclones will have two of the four previously mentioned at their disposal: Kempt and Noland.

The two quarterbacks are utilizing Iowa State’s spring practices to chisel their skillsets.

Kyle Kempt

“Some of my footwork in some of those critical situations [last season] really cost us,” Kempt said. “I’ve really harped on myself with the big-play opportunities. I didn’t think I took advantage of that enough.”

Along with Kempt’s footwork, the sixth-year quarterback is looking to improve his arm strength.

“I think a lot of [arm strength] comes from the weight room,” said quarterbacks coach Joel Gordon. “If you’re not naturally gifted with a really, really strong arm, there’s your squats, your cleans all those lifts where you’re working on your trunk, your core.”

Kempt said that he’s added 10 pounds since the Liberty Bowl win over Memphis in the process of improving himself physically.

On the mental end of the spectrum, Gordon wanted to see Kempt with a different mindset entering this spring after leading Iowa State to some big wins last season.

“Confidence, just knowing he can go out there, read the defense and make any throw [is what I wanted to see from Kempt],” Gordon said. “He needs to do it and do it every play and do it everyday. That’s really what we’re looking for from him.”

Meanwhile, Kempt is focused on improving as an offense and proving that last season wasn’t a “fluke.” Kempt said that he thought the offense left too many opportunities out on the field, while the defense played stellar.

To fix that, Kempt is placing a large chunk of the expectations on himself.

“If I’m out there trying to be perfect, then if I fall a smidge below that, then that’s pretty good,” Kempt said.

Zeb Noland

After Noland suffered a knee injury in his initial season at Iowa State, the Georgia native was limited in spring practices last season.

Now, fully healthy, Noland has the luxury of competing in the spring with a healthy knee.

“In the spring [of 2017], I only got seven-on-seven reps, so that was kind of hard standing around in practice most the time,” Noland said. “It’s really been good to be able to get some good team reps with people coming at you instead of just standing back there without a blitz.”

Now that Noland has some game experience under his belt and can dive into more drills this spring, the redshirt sophomore is refining some of the fundamentals of the quarterback position.

“[I’m working on] good footwork, knowing the offense inside-out, knowing where to put my eyes, just doing what they’re asking me to do and taking it one play at a time instead of trying to see the big outcome,” Noland said.

Gordon added that Noland — like the rest of the quarterbacks — can improve with the fundamentals, consistency and understanding what they see on the field.

Kempt has been assisting Noland with his progress in those areas. While the pair are competing for playing time, the two are helping each other as well.

“We both know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Noland said. “I know what he’s going to do and he knows what I’m going to do, and when we come off, we can talk about it.

“That’s my favorite part about practice is knowing that me and Kyle are on the same page no matter what.”