By the end of last season, some recruits had had enough.

They had watched the Cyclones struggle through most of the season and started to reevaluate their initial decisions.

In the end, several recruits changed their minds and decided they didn’t want to play for ISU coach Paul Rhoads and his staff. In fact, there was even a stretch in November when three separate recruits de-committed in the same week.

That string of events raised a lot of questions about the program, there’s no doubt about that. But more importantly, Rhoads was forced to shift his focus on how to fill out the 2015 recruiting class and he had to do it quickly.

But on Feb. 4, or better known to most as National Signing Day, it looks like this year’s Cyclones recruiting class turned out just fine.

“[National Signing Day] is a day that you want to start without any negative hoops and we were able to sail through that,” Rhoads said. “Everybody that we expected to sign did sign. As a matter of fact, all of those letters were in by about 10:30 this morning.”

It wasn’t until this past January, however, that Rhoads’ class really started to come together. He said he had staff across the country recruiting players, both available players and players who had other schools in mind.

And even though Rhoads said this past January was the wildest he’s ever seen, it looks like it worked out for him.

“It was a great January, a great close by our staff,” Rhoads said. “I don’t think we’ve landed as many quality players in the month of January against great competition in any of our previous classes … [the staff] just did a marvelous job.”

By the end of it all, Iowa State signed 22 players in its 2015 class. The majority of this group, along with any walk-ons, will arrive in Ames this summer to start working with the team.

Several members of this recruiting class aren’t coming directly from the high school level. Rhoads has signed six players who are transferring from the junior college level, trying to fill any gaps he has in the depth chart.

These junior college players are coming in with some pretty high expectations, as many are looking for them to make an immediate impact on the field.

“Six junior college players apart of this class was the plan from the beginning, in that neighborhood,” Rhoads said. “They fill holes that we knew we were going to have from graduation. … Anytime you bring in a player with junior college status, you’re expecting him to step in on the field right away and make an impact.”

It’s not just Rhoads and the coaches who are expecting the junior college players to have immediate impacts. Offensive lineman and junior college transfer Patrick Scoggins, from Long Beach Community College in California, knows what’s expected of him and he isn’t afraid to earn it.

“I expect to have an impact. I’m not shy of working hard,” Scoggins said. “I don’t mind working hard or earning my spot and that’s what I expect to do.”

But once again, the biggest question surrounding this team is how to turn the program around. After winning just five games in two seasons, finding a quick fix isn’t going to be a likely solution.

And while Rhoads seems to be putting a lot of faith into his transfer players, it’s going to take more than them alone to get the program moving in the right direction again.

“It’s not a far-fetched goal,” said defensive back Jarnor Jones, a transfer from Georgia Military College. “I don’t think just the JUCO [junior college] players are going to turn this thing around. I think it’s going to be a collective group, from the coaching staff to the players.”