– It is a huge recruiting weekend for the future of Iowa State basketball. If you see these guys on Saturday, show them some love and let them know you want them to be Cyclones.
Visiting this weekend are:
Current commit – five star PF Craig Brackins (6’10, 220 lbs)
three star SF Andre McFarland (6-5, 210 lbs)
three star PF Kenton Walker (6-8, 215 lbs)
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| Iowa State Offense vs UNI Defense / UNI Offense vs Iowa State Defense Iowa State Special Forces vs UNI Special Teams / Overall Breakdown |
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Overall Breakdown: Iowa State Cyclones at UNI Panthers |
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| 38 | Scott’s Prediction |
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– Kickoff weather in Austin
93 degrees, feels like 101 degrees, 40% chance of thunderstorms
Announcers
Play-by-play – Mark Jones
Color – David Norrie
Sideline Reporter – Stacey Dales-Schuman
Football Scout Team Award Winners
Toledo Week
Offense – Bailey Johnson
Defense – Brian Carlson
Special Forces – Nick Campbell
UNLV Week
Offense – Zac Sandvig
Defense – Nick Harklau
Special Forces – Joe Conklin
Iowa Week
Offense – Nate Mechaelsen
Defense – BaileyJohnson
Special Forces – Joe Conklin
Basketball Visitors (September 30)
Craig Brackins – Committed
Kenton Walker
Andre McFarland
These are important recruits for Iowa State. Show them some Cyclone love!!!
– Another photo from the Houston Texan’s website.
– The Des Moines Register had a story on Austin Flynn and his girlfriend this morning.
Who is Austin’s girlfriend? Houston Texans cheerleader Janna Skrabanek.
Todd Blythe had some funny quotes on Austin and his girl. Here are a few:
“He’s out-kicked his coverage – by a mile-and-a-half. That’s the only reason I room with him on road trips – to see her,”
“From what we hear, she’s now dating David Carr,” Blythe joked about the Texans’ starting quarterback.
Click on the link for the full story from Randy Peterson at the Des Moines Register:
Here is a photo of Janna from the Texans website:
– Here is the coverage map from ABC:
– Iowa State Offense vs.Texas Defense
It is tough to find a weakness in the Texas defense and the Cyclones offense has yet to hit their stride. Iowa State likes to be balanced on offense, but the Longhorns are going to make that very tough on the Cyclones. Texas has made their opponents one dimensional by completely shutting down the running game. The Clones best bet is to go with four wideouts and stretch out the Longhorns defense. Todd Blythe is the playmaker for the Cyclones and Iowa State needs to find a way to get him touches. ISU will struggle to get the ball to Blythe again this week and the Longhorns defense will be too much for the inconsistent Cyclone Offense.
Advantage: TEXAS
Texas Offense vs. Iowa State Defense
Iowa State has been tough to run against this season, but they haven’t faced a team with a massive offensive line and two talented running backs like Texas. Iowa State will try to make the Longhorns one dimensional by stacking the box and forcing them to throw. If they can stop the run, the Cyclones may be able to hang around in this game. If Texas can run the ball effectively, which I suspect they will, the Cyclones will be in big trouble. Texas will have an advantage late in the game as they are big and deep on the offensive line and Iowa State is young and thin in the front seven. I expect Colt McCoy to have the best game of his young career.
Advantage: TEXAS
Iowa State Special Forces vs. Texas Special Teams
Texas has the advantage in Special Teams as well, in fact you could argue that Texas has the advantage in all phases of special teams. A big return could come from the Cyclones kick return team or the Texas punt return team.
Advantage: TEXAS
Iowa State Cyclones vs. Texas Longhorns
It is going to take a near perfect game from Iowa State and a poor performance by Texas for ISU to even have a chance in this game. Turnovers are the great equalizer, if the Cyclones are plus 2 or 3 in the turnover battle their chances for an upset increase exponentially. Texas is too talented and too deep and will win this game comfortably. I expect Colt McCoy to have a great game against the Cyclones inexperienced secondary.
Prediction: Texas 37 Iowa State 17
Click here for a full breakdown of the Iowa State Cyclones at Texas Longhorns game.
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Congratulations to Iowa, I felt like both teams played well and as I expected the teams were evenly matched. In my opinion the difference in the game were the halftime adjustments that Iowa made. ISU had no trouble moving the ball up and down the field through three quarters and then the Hawkeyes completely shut down the passing game after that point. On offense Iowa exploited the Cyclones secondary by spreading the ball to wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. Iowa needed some young guys to step up and they really did. Dominique Douglas and Andy Brodell had their best games as Hawkeyes and Tony Moeaki made a huge play on a touchdown catch.
A moron (Lou Holtz) questioned Mac’s decision to go for it on 4th and 10 late in the fourth quarter, but I actually agreed with Dan’s decision. Meyer has to know where he is on the field and make sure he gets the ball past the first down marker. The decision that I have a problem with was at the end of the first half. ISU should have went for a score at the end of the first half. There was over a minute on the clock and ISU had all three timeouts. Iowa hadn’t slowed down the Clones all day long but Mac still decided to run out the clock. Dan needs to show some confidence the offense, I think that decision took some wind out of the Cyclones sails.
Iowa State’s offensive line played a tremendous game, the Cyclones rushed 36 times for 170 yards. Bret Meyer and Stevie Hicks both ran with the ball effectively and it was great to see Jason Scales get some quality carries and do a good job. The defensive line also played really well holding Albert Young to 57 yards on 18 carries. ISU also won the turnover battle and the kickoff team did a much better job today. It was great seeing Griebahn get a couple kicks in the end zone.
I am happy for Mike Klinkenborg. He played a great game today after the rough week he has had.
Side note: Directv just about lost a customer today. I didn’t get the game until there was 3:00 minutes left in the first quarter. The excuse they gave us when we called was that the game was blacked out due to the ticket sales. Are you freaking kidding me? This game was sold out before it was ever put on sale.
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Well, I think the game has already started, but that’s the great thing about Tivo. I’m not as confident as I was last year (yes, I was one of the few) but I just can’t see myself ever picking the squawks. We continue our recent dominance and make it 7 of the last 9. Shaggy comes through in the end and we pull out a 23-20 thriller.
Iowa State 23
Iowa 20
Go Clones!
– I hope I don’t have to go on about this all season. Here’s my gripe… Are you telling me that the multi-million (billion) dollar industry that is the NCAA can’t come up with 7 guys to referee a game? First let me say ISU’s game last weekend was the worst officiated game I think I’ve ever seen at the college level (Vikings in Lambeau a couple years ago with 8 admitted blown calls is the worst NFL game). How these clowns actually keep their jobs is beyond me. And how they miss and blow so many calls is beyond me too.
There is really only two conclusions to make, either they are corrupt or they are incompetent. I’m not saying they are corrupt, I’m just saying well, that’s what it looked like it. I’ll explain further in a minute. Yeah, I know that’s a pretty harsh accusation to make, but I’m not the first to make it. Check out what Baylor assistant coach Bill Bradley had to say about the same officials.
So if you think there is no way they could be corrupt, then they are for sure incompetent and don’t deserve to be on a college football field. These officials (Gerald Wright, Kevin Matthews, Tim Podraza, G. Arredondo, Terry White, Tom Beller and Craig Falkner) need to be the example once and for all that the NCAA needs a better system to evaluate their refs and put people out there that have respect for the game and call it the way it should be called. These officials weren’t even close.
Calls of the Game
Rather than keep rambling on, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Here are some shots from the game with my take on things. Below is one of the ‘controversial’ plays in which the UNLV defender is trying to take home a souvenier…Jon Davis’ jersey!
All I want is for each team to have a fair shot at winning. The refs shouldn’t even be mentioned or noticed. I know they are all human like us, but if I did my job like the refs this past Saturday night, I’d be out of a job. As Scott also mentioned, having officials from the same conference as a team call a game is ridiculous. Why do they do it then? My guess it saves the NCAA money on travel. I won’t stop harping until something is done. Join the fight and go Clones!
Here’s to the game being decided by the players today and not the refs! Gulp.
Later Clones!
B. Fuller
