UNI Football..

[RealisticCy]

.....Only saving grace is that the OL did improve as the season went on last year, but so will every other team we play too.

This is a big reason for my optimism this year on offense. OL development was dreadful under the cheerleader. Campbell and Manning took his guys, added Bobek, and had essentially spring and fall camp to unteach anything bad from the last 3-4 years/teach them how they wanted things done. Then they lost the only returning lineman with more than 1 career start at ISU for the season, and still turned them into a pretty damn serviceable unit by the middle of the season.

Now they will have had an entire extra year of a staff that has proven they can develop linemen; all the redshirt freshman have only ever been coached by this coaching and S&C staff. Campos returns and Good-Jones has an entire year of Big 12 experience. A line of Foster, Knipfel, Good-Jones, Oge, Campos would average 6-6, 306, and if Campos pursues a medical redshirt every one of them would be back for 2018. Garcia and Meeker have been talked up in spring ball and fill out the two deep with Windham, Kodanko, Curtis, and Mueller.

Defense up front may be another story, but our biggest question mark on offense is also the position group that made the most progress by far under this staff last year. Skill positions will go as far as the OL will let them, and an offense that stays on the field is a defensive lines best friend. Dammit, I'm out of kool-aid...

 

[ruxCYtable]

The Cyclones looked visibly confused in last year's game. They simply had not learned the new system yet.

I hate to sound like a Hawk fan, but this fall I expect the series to return to "how it should be." Like 41-0 "how it should be."

 

[CyArob]

If we lose to UNI again, everyone should be fired and the university should be shut down.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

I like playing UNI, and I feel like these games are part of what makes CFB special. However, I wish those guys in IC weren't too big of pansies to do so also. Instead of a meaningful in-state game, they schedule a MAC or Sun Belt "little sister of the poor." If you're going to schedule easy wins, which every program ideally wants, you should keep it in the family. It would help keep UNI athletics relevant (and afloat). Instead, they're associated with us for God knows how long, making our schedule monotonous, and we carry the sole burden of supporting their program.

I'm not a fan of the Big 10's recent policy, which does serious damage to respectable FCS programs like UNI. And it's just more conference realignment ******** that doesn't respect tradition or the fans. It doesn't affect Michigan or Ohio State, so the Big 10 went with it.

 

[TheJackWePack5]

This is a big reason for my optimism this year on offense. OL development was dreadful under the cheerleader. Campbell and Manning took his guys, added Bobek, and had essentially spring and fall camp to unteach anything bad from the last 3-4 years/teach them how they wanted things done. Then they lost the only returning lineman with more than 1 career start at ISU for the season, and still turned them into a pretty damn serviceable unit by the middle of the season.

Now they will have had an entire extra year of a staff that has proven they can develop linemen; all the redshirt freshman have only ever been coached by this coaching and S&C staff. Campos returns and Good-Jones has an entire year of Big 12 experience. A line of Foster, Knipfel, Good-Jones, Oge, Campos would average 6-6, 306, and if Campos pursues a medical redshirt every one of them would be back for 2018. Garcia and Meeker have been talked up in spring ball and fill out the two deep with Windham, Kodanko, Curtis, and Mueller.

Defense up front may be another story, but our biggest question mark on offense is also the position group that made the most progress by far under this staff last year. Skill positions will go as far as the OL will let them, and an offense that stays on the field is a defensive lines best friend. Dammit, I'm out of kool-aid...

Not to knitpick, but Meeker will be one of the top linemen on the team. He will start.

As for UNI, they return a pretty good QB, a few OL, some good DL and LB's, and some decent DB. WR will be an issue per usual for them. Losing Bailey won't hurt them, he was pretty rough throwing the ball. The Smith kid at RB is also gone and he was a load.

It'll be another undersized but gritty UNI team that will hold the gaps, stunt, and force you to beat them or beat yourself.

 

[CyCloned]

It'll be another undersized but gritty UNI team that will hold the gaps, stunt, and force you to beat them or beat yourself.

ISU has to find a way to run against UNI. OL has been a lot of the issue, but the Cyclones have never done a good job of making UNI LBers play pass defense, so they can be very aggressive against the run. Need to use the TE or shallow drag routes across the middle to get those guys to at least think about taking drops. A couple huge runs would help too, but, for whatever reason, ISU just does not get those against UNI.

 

[CyBlitz]

This is a big reason for my optimism this year on offense. OL development was dreadful under the cheerleader. Campbell and Manning took his guys, added Bobek, and had essentially spring and fall camp to unteach anything bad from the last 3-4 years/teach them how they wanted things done. Then they lost the only returning lineman with more than 1 career start at ISU for the season, and still turned them into a pretty damn serviceable unit by the middle of the season.

Now they will have had an entire extra year of a staff that has proven they can develop linemen; all the redshirt freshman have only ever been coached by this coaching and S&C staff. Campos returns and Good-Jones has an entire year of Big 12 experience. A line of Foster, Knipfel, Good-Jones, Oge, Campos would average 6-6, 306, and if Campos pursues a medical redshirt every one of them would be back for 2018. Garcia and Meeker have been talked up in spring ball and fill out the two deep with Windham, Kodanko, Curtis, and Mueller.

Defense up front may be another story, but our biggest question mark on offense is also the position group that made the most progress by far under this staff last year. Skill positions will go as far as the OL will let them, and an offense that stays on the field is a defensive lines best friend. Dammit, I'm out of kool-aid...

Is campos eligible for a medical redshirt?

 

[The_Gent]

Is campos eligible for a medical redshirt?

No. You have to miss two seasons due to injury if you have already taken a redshirt year.

 

[ameslurker]

I feel better about ISU's chances this year because of the turnover volume on the UNI staff this off season along with ISU's improvements through the year. Give them a winter to get everything in line and I think the Clones take this one. Of course, we will see how that goes. My girlfriend is a UNI grad and she loves to remind me of the score. Need to win this one.

 

[RealisticCy]

No. You have to miss two seasons due to injury if you have already taken a redshirt year.

Good call. My bad...

 

[Beyerball]

But Campos can certainly apply for a 6th year Medical Hardship...which he prob will unless he has an incredible year.

 

[Beyerball]

ISU has to find a way to run against UNI. OL has been a lot of the issue, but the Cyclones have never done a good job of making UNI LBers play pass defense, so they can be very aggressive against the run. Need to use the TE or shallow drag routes across the middle to get those guys to at least think about taking drops. A couple huge runs would help too, but, for whatever reason, ISU just does not get those against UNI.

Totally agree with this..in past you are correct they always stunt, twist, hit gaps and cause problems running ball. I want to see us come out in double TE sets with Allen and Schoener and pound rock with some play action TE drags etc.

 

[theshadow]

But Campos can certainly apply for a 6th year Medical Hardship...which he prob will unless he has an incredible year.

In order to get a 6th year, he'd have to prove that he sat out his freshman season due to injury and not just a regular redshirt.

 

[clonedude]

ISU has to find a way to run against UNI. OL has been a lot of the issue, but the Cyclones have never done a good job of making UNI LBers play pass defense, so they can be very aggressive against the run. Need to use the TE or shallow drag routes across the middle to get those guys to at least think about taking drops. A couple huge runs would help too, but, for whatever reason, ISU just does not get those against UNI.

Bingo. If we can't run the ball against UNI, then it will be another 3 win season at best. Mark it down.

I knew we were in deep s**t last year when UNI forced us to throw on nearly every down. Some ISU fans near me said not to worry because we want to throw the ball a lot.... that's just what we do. Well, we all saw how that turned out in the end.

If you can't impose your will in the trenches on both sides against UNI, then you will be in BIG trouble the rest of the year.

 

[nfrine]

I have learned not to bet on this game.

 

[clonedude]

I have learned not to bet on this game.

That's smart. And not to be cocky going into it too. We've been burned far too many times.

 

[madguy30]

Bingo. If we can't run the ball against UNI, then it will be another 3 win season at best. Mark it down.

I knew we were in deep s**t last year when UNI forced us to throw on nearly every down. Some ISU fans near me said not to worry because we want to throw the ball a lot.... that's just what we do. Well, we all saw how that turned out in the end.

If you can't impose your will in the trenches on both sides against UNI, then you will be in BIG trouble the rest of the year.

Can't agree on it being what dictates the rest of the season. 1st games are generally tricky to predict and UNI unfortunately for ISU shows up to win against the big boys. They've been *this* close to beating Iowa a couple of times and gave Wisconsin all they could handle a few years ago in Madison, and those are programs where everything begins on the line.

That said, it would be disappointing to see ISU struggle against an FCS team coming off of a losing season and they'd have to turn it around and do something like win 6-7 games the rest of the away to convince me of improvement. CPR got rung up by UNI and NDSU and it was simply a sign of how bad things really were.

 

[CyCloned]

CPR got rung up by UNI and NDSU and it was simply a sign of how bad things really were.

Depth was always an issue with CPR. One guy gets hurt and suddenly the whole unit is crap or ISU would hang tough for 3.5 quarters and then lose by two TDs. The OL was a particularly troublesome spot for him, with a lot of guys leaving and a lot getting hurt. I put most of that on just bad luck. Hopefully Campbell will have more depth and luck.

 

[madguy30]

Depth was always an issue with CPR. One guy gets hurt and suddenly the whole unit is crap or ISU would hang tough for 3.5 quarters and then lose by two TDs. The OL was a particularly troublesome spot for him, with a lot of guys leaving and a lot getting hurt. I put most of that on just bad luck. Hopefully Campbell will have more depth and luck.

Bad luck, bad recruiting, bad planning and/or lack of vision for what he wanted a program to look like.

 

[dualthreat]

Depth was always an issue with CPR. One guy gets hurt and suddenly the whole unit is crap or ISU would hang tough for 3.5 quarters and then lose by two TDs. The OL was a particularly troublesome spot for him, with a lot of guys leaving and a lot getting hurt. I put most of that on just bad luck. Hopefully Campbell will have more depth and luck.

If relying on luck is in any part of the equation, you've already lost