Netten works to bury Toledo loss
September 24, 2015
ISU coach Paul Rhoads called a brief meeting on Sunday, just one day after the Cyclones’ double overtime loss to Toledo.
And when he walked into the meeting room, he did so with a shovel in hand.
His message? Bury the last game.
“At first I saw it and was like, ‘What is a shovel doing here? This ain’t no construction zone up here anymore,’” said running back Trever Ryen. “He pretty much just told us were going to bury the past and start with the Big 12. He had a good little speech with it.”
Rhoads said the meeting lasted only about 15 minutes, but that he thought it was very productive.
“We talked about several things that I thought would help us move forward,” Rhoads said. “It was a needed meeting, I’m glad we had it.”
One person who has already moved on from last weekend’s loss is kicker Cole Netten.
Netten, whose game winning field goal attempt sailed wide left on Saturday, didn’t get much time to dwell on the miss. Just a few plays later, he was right back out on the field to attempt another field goal.
Netten drilled the second kick in that first overtime, keeping hope alive for the Cyclones. And while it seems that he may have moved on from the missed kick, a little baggage remains.
“That’s something that you’re not going to completely forget about for quite a while,” Netten said. “But yeah, essentially [I forgot about it] because I mean how much worse can it get? Might as well just go out there, and you just have to stay composed and relaxed and let your body do what it does.”
While Netten’s kick in the final seconds could have clinched the victory for the Cyclones, Rhoads said there were a lot of other factors that went into the loss.
And he made sure that no fingers were pointed in the locker room after the game, too.
“He’s one guy of many that was on the playing field,” Rhoads said. “As I told them in the locker room after, there’s not a guy on the team that doesn’t have a play that they’d like to take back from that game. That’s what I told them to focus on.”
Rhoads said that Netten has bounced back well, though, making 100 percent of his attempts in practice the last two days. And although he hasn’t been perfect on Saturdays this fall, Netten said he isn’t letting the distractions bother him.
“You have a lot of people saying stuff, but you just have to shut it out,” Netten said. “You’ve got to have confidence in yourself, and you just have to know that you’re a talented player and stuff happens. I think the team’s got confidence in me too and so does coach, so that helps out a lot.”