Texas Tech Football Opponent Preview: Iowa State Cyclones

Photo by Kyle Kempt on Unsplash This may be the former Iowa State quarterback taking this terrific photo.

2019 in a Nutshell

Team: Iowa State
2019 Record: 7-6
Head Coach: Matt Campbell
Offensive Coordinator: Tom Manning
Defensive Coordinator: Jon Heacock

Upcoming in 2020

Scheduled Game Day: September 26th
Scheduled Location: Ames, Iowa

Best Players

QB Brock Purdy: Purdy is an all-conference type of player, throwing for nearly 4,000 yards last year while completing 66% of his passes for 27 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Purdy was also pretty good with his legs, rushing 93 times for 249 yards and had 8 touchdowns. Purdy runs the ball at least 7 times a game, so the fact that he has a net positive in terms of yards means that he’s making up for the times he gets sacked.

RB Breece Hall: Lose David Montgomery and just replace him with Breece Hall, a freshman last year from Wichita. Hall ran for nearly 900 yards, averaged 4.8 yards a carry, had 9 touchdowns, and averaged 75 yards a game. Hall also caught a couple of passes a game and would average about 11 yards a catch.

TE Charlie Kolar: Kolar is, hands down, the best tight end in the Big 12, he caught 51 passes last year as a sophomore, for nearly 700 yards, 7 touchdowns, and 13.67 yards a catch as a sophomore. I’d give anything to have a tight end like this on Texas Tech’s roster at some point. At 6’6″ and 252, Kolar is a ridiculous match-up for most teams, including Texas Tech.

DE JaQuan Bailey: Bailey had to sit out most of 2019 with an injury I think, but in 2018 he had 14.5 tackles for a loss and 8 sacks from the defensive end position. Just a ridiculously effective pass-rusher who wasn’t even available last year shows up and will probably do significant damage this year.

LB Mike Rose: The sophomore linebacker had 77 tackles last year, 9.5 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 3 passes broken up, 3 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble and an interception. A highly productive player for the Cyclones will probably just get better.

Scattershooting . . .

  • I had totally forgotten that Iowa State played Notre Dame in a bowl game and I also completely whiffed on the idea that they were absolutely blown out by the Fighting Irish, 33-9. I also would not have guessed that Iowa State only won 7 games last year, but as you’ll note below, some of those losses were really close  . . .
  • Of their 6 losses, Iowa State lost by one touchdown or less to Iowa, Baylor, and Oklahoma State, so they were primed to win some close games, but couldn’t get it done. I’d imagine that some of those will swing their way this year . . .
  • I should also mention that the Cyclones had an odd 3-point win over Northern Iowa last year, but 5 of their 7 wins were by 10 points or more, so they were taking care of opponents . . .
  • I think that Iowa State was better offensively than they were defensively and they were still good defensively. Quietly, Iowa State probably has a top 30 or so offense and a top 50 defense in the high-scoring Big 12, which is quite the accomplishment . . .
  • You would think that at some point, Iowa State’s defensive coordinator, Jon Heacock, would get a look for a head coaching job for how quickly he turned around that defense and the consistency that they’ve played with the past few years. I think it took him one year to get things turned around in a positive direction . . .
  • In addition to Bailey and Rose as being terrific players, safeties Greg Eisworth and Anthony Johnson are also all-conference types, Eisworth is from Grand Prairie, had 65 tackles last year, 3.5 tackles for a loss, 10 passes broken up and an interception, while Johnson had 60 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss 2 sacks, 10 passes broken up, and this was out of the defensive backfield. Heacock does a masterful job of sending pressure from all over the place . . .
  • For Texas Tech, they now start the season with the first two games on the road, at El Paso against UTEP and now in Ames against Iowa State. They’ll have their next three games at home, but that’s still a pretty tough way to start the season for Texas Tech, albeit, there is a chance that Texas Tech has a home game prior to these two, perhaps Houston Baptist is being bantered around. We’ll fill in that game when it happens.
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