By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher
SCHEDULE TWEAKED: Hopefully none of you travelers out there planned too far ahead.
The Big 12 threw us all a slider yesterday by messing with Iowa State’s 2011 football schedule.
Over the last two seasons, Iowa State hasn’t had a single bye week during the season. Next year, the Cyclones will have two.
I’ve spoken with a couple of players/former players to see what they think about this. So far, the reaction has been two big thumbs down. With two bye weeks in the middle of the season, the overall feeling is that the coaching staff will work them even harder during training camp. As one former player put it, "practicing during a bye week is hell. It is like training camp all over again."
Now that is all from the player’s perspective and nothing more. Players like playing games. With this, we’re talking about more practice. Practice?
In addition to that, Paul Rhoads has mentioned on more than one occasion that he enjoys not having bye weeks all due to the routine that his team gets in.
Iowa State’s two bye weeks will come on Sept. 23 and Nov. 12 next fall. Here’s an updated look at the 2011 schedule.
Sept. 3 – Northern Iowa
Sept. 10 – Iowa
Sept. 16 – @ UCONN
Oct. 1 – Texas
Oct. 15 – @ Missouri
Oct. 22 – Texas A&M
Oct. 29 – @ Texas Tech
Nov. 5 – Kansas
Nov. 18 – Oklahoma State
Nov. 26 – @ Oklahoma
Dec. 3 – @ Kansas State
MUCH RESPECT FOR KO: When you sit down to watch the 2012 NFL Draft, there will hopefully be some Cyclone flavor on Thursday night.
According to draft guru Todd McShay’s first 2012 mock draft, Iowa State offensive tackle Kelechi Osemele will be a first round pick.
More mocks…
Andrew Perloff from Sports Illustrated has KO tabbed at No. 19.
Peter Schrager from FOX Sports has KO going as the 26th pick in the draft.
KO is as close as you can be to a unanimous first round selection right now.
PROGRESS: Remember a couple of weeks ago when Tron Smith and I challenged you Cyclone fanatics? When Tron and I met with members of the Cyclone Gridiron Club a little over two weeks ago, the group had 475 members. As of Thursday, the club now has 550 members! Thank you so much fanatics. That is an awesome start. Now, we need to keep the momentum going as our goal is to get 1000 members for the club by kickoff 2011. Tell your friends!
CLICK HERE to visit the club’s website, where you can sign up online for only $100 a year.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING: Yesterday was somewhat of an active one on the basketball recruiting front.
Alex Kline from www.TheRecruitScoop.com broke a couple of Iowa State related stories.
The first is that LaDontae Henton, who visited Iowa State two weeks ago, committed to Providence yesterday. Now that he’s going elsewhere, I can put this out in the open. Despite what many believe, I’m not sure that Henton was ever a true top target for Iowa State. In fact, he might have even been third on the 2011 pecking order behind Percy Gibson and Olu Ashaolu.
Kline also reported a 2013 Iowa State offer, in Detroit’s Byron Zeigler. While the Tweet wasn’t specific, I imagine that Zeigler is a Cornell Mann recruit.
AWESOME BLOG: I’m still getting the feel for what exactly these Cyclone roundups are. But I want to do this from time-to-time. I spend hours every day consuming media from all over the globe. What are some of my favorite blogs? Here is one of them. It is a blog on the business of college spots, written by Kristi Dosh. I started following her on Twitter (@SportsBizMiss) earlier this week and the content that she produces on a daily basis is fantastic.
If you’re into television contracts and that sort of thing, you’ll love it.
LINKS GALORE
– ESPN.com’s David Ubben wraps up Iowa State’s spring football. He’s a few weeks late on this piece, but I’ll cut the guy some slack. A decent read, but nothing in it a diehard doesn’t already know.
– Here’s a very strong read out of Austin from one of my favorite writers in the Big 12, Kirk Bohls. This column focuses on Nebraska leaving for the Big Ten. Who is better off going forward? Texas or the ‘Skers?
– The USA Todayrecaps spring football for the Big 12.
