Official Spring Game Day Thread!

[Me State]

Who else is excited for the 2011 season??



CYCLONE!!!!!

[ianoconnor]

Party.

[skibumspe]

As much as I am enjoying the year teaching overseas, I absolutely wish I was stateside so I could hit not only the Spring Game but the entire season....have a very good feeling about this season.

Will we win every game? Of course not....but I think there are some special things that can happen this year! I think it's obvious that Rhoads & company know what they're doing & the pieces are falling into place to continue taking the program to a higher level!

GO STATE!!

[SenorCy]

POWER!!!!!

[SLCyclone]

[QUOTE=Me State;2218039]Who else is excited for the 2011 season??


I get excited about every season.

[SLCyclone]

By the way, is this an ***Official Game Day Thread*** without the ***?

[bringmagicback]

I went to bed at 10:30pm and set my alarm for 7am. Needless to say Im excited.

[Arkansas]

Looking forward to this! It's been a very, VERY long time since I've attended a spring game. One question - do they sell used jerseys at the spring game or is that some entirely different event?

[Cyforce]

Aren't we a little premature, clicker says we have 23 years 110 days till kickoff?

[fccy]

Looking forward to this! It's been a very, VERY long time since I've attended a spring game. One question - do they sell used jerseys at the spring game or is that some entirely different event?

I have not heard of an athletic "surplus" sale this year.

[Istate]

I'm excited about a number of things. For some reason, I really have a 'don't know what to expect' feeling more moreso than most years. Here's where I'm at after thinking about returning players and the little "news" from this spring.

1) Can Jantz get it done? It seems apparent to me that he will be the starting qb against UNI. I still question his arm strength, but I also didn't know he was as good of runner as portrayed so far this spring. If he's even without knowing the offense and making reads after just four months of mostly inside work, he will be the man after a full summer of passing work with WR's. I don't think Tiller gets us more than four wins so I am excited to see if Jantz can.

2) What does full time Shon Johnson look like? Is he strong enough to break tackles. Is he smart enough to take a three yard gain instead of always looking for 35 yards. Is he elusive enough to threaten long runs? I like what we've heard from the staff, but I'm excited to see if SJ can put it on the field on a consistent basis.

3) Can the Oline get it done? I'm excited to see if ISU can have success with a 270 lb center partnered with a new starter at LG that has surprised everybody by being listed as number one. I'm excited because I think the right side of the line will be very solid. I'm just worried about C and LG.

4) Will the WRs offer the athleticism we've been hoping for for years? We lost out consistent pass catchers last year, and I think that is difficult to overcome. We have interesting WRs. We have big kids like Jennert, and we have quick kids like West. The problem is we don't have kids that are full packages. Maybe we can have success at WR by mixing kids in and out, but I look forward to the day where we can get the 6'2, 6'3 quick kids that are natural wr's. I'm most excited to see if Darks can prove to be a consistent threat if he manages to stay healthy this year.

5) Has the Dline developed enough to challenge opposing offenses. I hear an awful lot about blitzing this year which means to me that we're still not anywhere close to be competitive up front on the DL. I'm not happy Latt is still on the team; however, he is and sounds like he will be unless he has to head back for time from his previous assault (thankfully that one was on a cheerleader and not another law officer). I hope he sits until Texas as I can stomach that. The problem I see is that we don't have a lot of guys that are going to pressure the qb nor that are strong run stoppers. I am hopeful that Maggit has made a jump to be a consistent player. I also have been impressed by what I've seen from W. Woods in the limited videos the team puts out this spring. I think we're still pretty weak here, and I'm not buying the "better than last year mantra."

6) Can the LBs move from the making a ton of tackles to making a ton of plays this year? We have two very solid football players in Knott and Klein. We need them to start making plays at the line of scrimmage or behind it this year. Their reaction time should be better but can the dline keep opposing linemen off of them this year? They aren't the best athletes, but they are tough kids. MLB is a concern. I would love to see George jump MT for the starting spot as I just don't think MT is a starting MLB in the big 12. I'm excited to see if AJ or Jake can set themself apart from the other as becoming the true stud LB at ISU.

7) Can we find safeties that can get it done? I really think we're Big 12 ready at the corner back position. Leonard has seen and been through it all. I think he'll play much better this year. Reeves shocked me last year. I didn't think he' d make a tackle, and he proved to be a very solid tackler. His jump this year should be very strong. Unfortunately, you are pairing those two kids with two safeties that are probably either not true safeties or are certainly not ready for the spot. This concerns me mostly because of the talk about blitzing. You need strong safety play in order to cover up blitz misses. TB is a good football player, but he is better near the LOS. He is not real good in space or at covering space like a safety needs to do. FS is a complete crapshoot. I thought we were putting a better athlete there this year, but then I saw Mike's pro-day workout. JW can become a good football player. He's not there yet, and he certainly isn't someone that I trust being in the right spot to prevent a 70 yrd td pass. I'm most excited to see if our cb's are strong enough to prevent our safeties from being asked to do too much.

[ajk4st8]

hopefully just need to get through with no injuries today.

[CycloneNorth]

I started blasting music at 8. My roomates weren't happy until they realized the game is in 6 hours.

[Yes13]

I'm excited about a number of things. For some reason, I really have a 'don't know what to expect' feeling more moreso than most years. Here's where I'm at after thinking about returning players and the little "news" from this spring.

1) Can Jantz get it done? It seems apparent to me that he will be the starting qb against UNI. I still question his arm strength, but I also didn't know he was as good of runner as portrayed so far this spring. If he's even without knowing the offense and making reads after just four months of mostly inside work, he will be the man after a full summer of passing work with WR's. I don't think Tiller gets us more than four wins so I am excited to see if Jantz can.

2) What does full time Shon Johnson look like? Is he strong enough to break tackles. Is he smart enough to take a three yard gain instead of always looking for 35 yards. Is he elusive enough to threaten long runs? I like what we've heard from the staff, but I'm excited to see if SJ can put it on the field on a consistent basis.

3) Can the Oline get it done? I'm excited to see if ISU can have success with a 270 lb center partnered with a new starter at LG that has surprised everybody by being listed as number one. I'm excited because I think the right side of the line will be very solid. I'm just worried about C and LG.

4) Will the WRs offer the athleticism we've been hoping for for years? We lost out consistent pass catchers last year, and I think that is difficult to overcome. We have interesting WRs. We have big kids like Jennert, and we have quick kids like West. The problem is we don't have kids that are full packages. Maybe we can have success at WR by mixing kids in and out, but I look forward to the day where we can get the 6'2, 6'3 quick kids that are natural wr's. I'm most excited to see if Darks can prove to be a consistent threat if he manages to stay healthy this year.

5) Has the Dline developed enough to challenge opposing offenses. I hear an awful lot about blitzing this year which means to me that we're still not anywhere close to be competitive up front on the DL. I'm not happy Latt is still on the team; however, he is and sounds like he will be unless he has to head back for time from his previous assault (thankfully that one was on a cheerleader and not another law officer). I hope he sits until Texas as I can stomach that. The problem I see is that we don't have a lot of guys that are going to pressure the qb nor that are strong run stoppers. I am hopeful that Maggit has made a jump to be a consistent player. I also have been impressed by what I've seen from W. Woods in the limited videos the team puts out this spring. I think we're still pretty weak here, and I'm not buying the "better than last year mantra."

6) Can the LBs move from the making a ton of tackles to making a ton of plays this year? We have two very solid football players in Knott and Klein. We need them to start making plays at the line of scrimmage or behind it this year. Their reaction time should be better but can the dline keep opposing linemen off of them this year? They aren't the best athletes, but they are tough kids. MLB is a concern. I would love to see George jump MT for the starting spot as I just don't think MT is a starting MLB in the big 12. I'm excited to see if AJ or Jake can set themself apart from the other as becoming the true stud LB at ISU.

7) Can we find safeties that can get it done? I really think we're Big 12 ready at the corner back position. Leonard has seen and been through it all. I think he'll play much better this year. Reeves shocked me last year. I didn't think he' d make a tackle, and he proved to be a very solid tackler. His jump this year should be very strong. Unfortunately, you are pairing those two kids with two safeties that are probably either not true safeties or are certainly not ready for the spot. This concerns me mostly because of the talk about blitzing. You need strong safety play in order to cover up blitz misses. TB is a good football player, but he is better near the LOS. He is not real good in space or at covering space like a safety needs to do. FS is a complete crapshoot. I thought we were putting a better athlete there this year, but then I saw Mike's pro-day workout. JW can become a good football player. He's not there yet, and he certainly isn't someone that I trust being in the right spot to prevent a 70 yrd td pass. I'm most excited to see if our cb's are strong enough to prevent our safeties from being asked to do too much.

Good write-up. I'm gonna put my opinion on your points.

1.) I'm excited to see Jantz. I also think its pretty clear our staff thinks Steele will be the starter. However, I think Tiller, with a year of improvement, could get us to six wins. I think he could easily be as good as Arnaud this year.

2.)Shontrelle will be very exciting to see regularly.

3.)You basically said it. C and LG will be the worry, but I can't wait to see Farniok grow.

4.)Horne and West should add a nice dimension

5.)We should be better. We really only lost Bailey Johnson, who an improved Laing or McDonough should be better than. I don't want to get in a Lattimer thread, but he is probably the nicest player I've met. His record might not show it, but he's a soft spoken please-thank you kid. I really don't think he should be kicked off.

6.)Jake is a great athlete. We need both to make more plays, hopefully actually having some depth for the end of blowouts will help them out.

7.)I don't think you can worry about TB being good at covering ground. He was/is a very solid corner, he can cover his ground. I could see him being a top safety in the Big 12. He can play the run very well, and he has coverage skills. JW and Deon Broomfield remind me of Knott and Klein their freshman year. Both basically only played on specials team, but they always seemed to make plays. I could see the same jump. I'm thinking when TB has to play at Nickle, its gonna be Broomfield and Washington at Safety.

[Me State]

By the way, is this an ***Official Game Day Thread*** without the ***?

I failed.