Pick 2 players that have surprised you the most this year

**enisthemenace** · 10-13-2012, 07:39 AM

My very first thoughts were Broomfield and Watson. Broomfield has really good instincts, and loves to hit. Watson has been a very nice compliment to Reeves. I don't think we lost anything with Leonard graduating, and I really worried about that. I'll stay with it, although McDonough has been a beast. As soon as he gets a hand on someone, they're going down.

**MIClone** · 10-13-2012, 07:40 AM

Fortunately, this is a REALLY difficult question to answer. If a program is going to make it to the next level, then more than two incoming players have to be able to step in and perform at a level that would be surprising to Cyclone fans of the past. And that is exactly what we are seeing. It is a testament to our coaching staff that this is a difficult question to answer. That said, I guess I would have to say McDonough and Young. As somone else said, a lot was expected out of Jake, but not the domination that he has shown thus far. And I definitely didn't know Young was going to be this good, and definitely didn't expect him to be starting. But many others would be very legitimate to name.

Edit: I'm not taking back what I said, but I can't believe I didn't name Givens or Watson, because I agree with others that the secondary overall has been a pleasant surprise (but then so has the d-line). But again, there are too many people stepping up bigtime to just name two.

**ISpyCy** · 10-13-2012, 07:51 AM

#1 - toss-up between Broomfield and Givens. They've really come into their own at that position. I had some concerns about how that position would be filled after LJ left...those questions have been answered.

#2 - Jantz. For a man who won the offseason QB battle (twice) and had "made improvements" since last season, he hasn't really shown it.

**Cincyclone** · 10-13-2012, 08:21 AM

Givens and Brun have surprised me on the positive side. Negatively, I expected Bykowski and Jantz to be better.

**reignofthetiger** · 10-13-2012, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by St810s

McDonough and Givens. Was pretty scared about our line and secondary, but these guys have stepped up.

Yes. For everyone saying Young, I strongly disagree. He's done really well in 2 games, but then has had 0 catches in the other 3 combined. I understand a lot of that has to do with the QB, but I need way more consistency from him.

**CyCloned** · 10-13-2012, 09:07 AM

Young and Lenz have had a couple of good games, but also disappeared for some games too, Barnett played well last week, but was scary bad against WLU, so the word is still out on him. Hopeful the TCU performace without the bad INT will be the norm. In reality Jantz has improved a lot, but he still was killing the team with TO, the thing that needed the most important. I would probably go with Watson, and George, as they were guys that were contributing last year and are playing very well so far this year.

**clonedude** · 10-13-2012, 09:23 AM

Offensively, I'd go with Ernst Brun. We really haven't had many unexpected surprises on the offensive side of the ball IMO, but if I had to go with one, I'd say Brun. He's had a really good year thus far.

Defensively, I'd say McDonough, although I'm not sure how big of a surprise this was? I thought he'd be good this year, but he's been downright dominate. We might miss him more next year than we will Klein and Knott? Either way, losing these 3 guys on defense is going to be almost impossible to replace.

**TheBentStick** · 10-13-2012, 09:26 AM

I agree with the OP on Willie Scott - nice surprise with his effort. Concerning Chris Young; he's certainly played well at times, but since he was one of the rare ISU 4-Star recruits it isn't really a surprise, and actually I am hopeful for more.