State of the Football Program

[dualthreat]

Hardly anyone in the Big 12 has a good defense.. the best maybe 2-3 do, but everyone else can just outscore the opponent. Iowa has a good D, yet they would get killed in the big 12 with their offense the way it is.

[Ficklone02]

The thing that gets to me about our defense is all the blown coverages. Supposedly the way Chizik teaches his Tampa 2 is a very simplistic manner that is easy to pick up....so that the guys do less thinking out there and more reacting knowing they are in the right spots to make the plays. If that is true, then why all the blown coverages...especially if the strength of our defense is allegedly our cb's. I know part of this is the d-line creating next to no pressure on the qb...but still, sometimes there are guys catching passes without a defender within ten yards.

[Wesley]

Nobody should be surprised that our defense is struggling. We lost 3 NFL players from our defense a year ago, and we should have known going into it, that there were not a lot of guys ready to go behind them.

Who do you think has NFL potential coming back next year? Just a question for the group.

[Wesley]

I think the big question is whether our defense looks better from the 1st game until the last. I'm far from a defensive guru but it doesn't look any better to me. If these players are not getting better as the year goes along what makes people think that these same players will all of a sudden be good after 8 months?

On the other hand, I think our offense has been looking better.

Just trying to be honest here since the season is almost over.

The offense became better once AA recovered and McF opened up offense. Yet 20 and 28 popints in the last two games is not a big improvement from 18 points a game last year. Our five yards in plays are terrible, just terrible and need a medic. Next year I can see 30 points a game.

However, the defense was lost at the start of the game. I saw three arm tackles and foot slips on the first three plays. The game was over essentially before the second quarter started because we show no ability to stop the Bg 12 passing game. We missed a lot of tackles last night and we played soft defense compared to Missouri. Why? We were the home team. Looks to me like we lack stars on defense all over the field. Again, we can intercept and recover loose balls. I just saw little progression of the defense this year as opposed to last year when we had three NFL stars. I ask who will be improving in the group. Leadership is needed. JS and LJ? We need a tough fast active tackler somewhere on the defense. Hope to have one by next yea.

Special teams holds its own. Thank god.

I just think we lose 40-30 next year unless something changes on defense. Bolt has his off season work cut out for himself. Actually, so does McFarland because we need to score 40 at home and not fieldgoals. The pressure will be on them. We still need a legit Berryman. Our defensive line looks undersized by 20 pounds. I noticed no one had double digit tackles last night. The tackles were spread around again.

[cycloneML]

Who do you think has NFL potential coming back next year? Just a question for the group.

lj

[cmoneyr]

lj

Based on one year of above average play on a below average defense? Surely you jest.

[kurecabinboy]

I think a lot of this discussion goes back to what we've been used to seeing over the last 5 years. Honestly, ISU was blessed to have Scledaney (sp?) at defensive coordinator under McCarney. He did wonderful things with some pretty good talent on a regular basis. We're used to seeing a solid defense and a weak offense, which has been reversed this year.

Now, we have a head coach known for being a defensive guru who seems to have talent at the corners, but doesn't trust them to play one-on-one with the receivers and blitz the hell out of our opponents to make up for our weakness up the middle. I don't get it.

On the other side of the ball, we have the best offense on the field at ISU in six years and that's what's putting the fannies in the seats. Our offensive coordinator is doing a great job of calling our games and the young talent we have on the field will start to really deliver next year and put up some points, especially with Bo in the backfield next year!!!

I'm pumped to see our offense next year and I trust Chizik enough to come up with enough improvements in the defense next year to make us competitive.

[Omaha Cy]

I hate to be the poo-poo guy in this thread, but only 1 cyclone(from last year) is playing in the nfl. Tuba made it....bowen is in nfl purgatory as he is a Buffalo Bill, but on injured reserve. Banks was cut late in preseason. did he get re-signed and i didnt hear about it?

Bowen has yet to play his way onto an nfl field.

[Erik4Cy]

Did anybody realize that if we win next saturday, we will not be last in the big 12 north? I for some dumb reason just came to that. 5th place and K-State being the one with the huge losing streak would be a tiny victory to end the year. Plus ending the conf. & road losing streaks would be nice. I think the older guys could've used a win for senior day. no such luck. but it's okay. I think the YOUNGER guys need this win at the end to keep them as optimistic about the future of the program as the fans are. BTW - I was VERY proud of the support by the Cyclone faithful at least at the beginning of the game. JTS was not a sellout of course, but very good showing. I must say as fans, we DO deserve better. And it will come in time.

[Stormin]

Our safeties are bad. Linebackers can't cover the TE and backs out of the backfield. Corners blow coverage. DL have trouble getting pressure on the QB but other wise our defense looks great. (sarcasm) On offense we are pretty good except we can't convert a 3rd and 1 or 4th and inches to save our soul. We haven't broke a long pass and had someone open all year for a long TD. What happened to Jason Carlson? And Sedrick Johnson I thought would make a greater impact.