CycloneReport.com - Dateline Campustown: Spring game wrap

April 18, 2009

Paul Clark
CycloneReport.com Publisher

It helped to be color blind at the Iowa State spring game, won by the Gold over the Cardinal by a 34-16 score. Because the Cardinal wasn't always wearing cardinal and nobody was wearing gold. Confused? It wasn't as bad as it might sound. To the attentive eye, it was easy to come away from the game knowing which units were the victors.

Here's the bottom line: Iowa State's #1 defense beat the #1 offense and the Cyclones' #2 offense beat the #2 defense. That's what you need to know coming out of the spring game. Ignore the final score, ignore the Cardinal and Gold team designations altogether: they don't matter. And according to head coach Paul Rhoads, you can ignore the final stats as well.

"I can take those down to the spare bathroom at the house, we can put them to use down there," Rhoads said when handed a sheet of final statistics after his first spring game as the ISU head coach.

Well put, Coach, well put. The stats matter about as much as the score, which is to say, very little. What does matter is that the defensive starters got the best of their offensive counterparts while it was the offensive reserves that had their way with their equals across the line. Whether that is good or bad is open to interpretation and discussion, but that is definitely what went down. It's often tough to tab winners and losers in a spring game but it was somewhat obvious Saturday in Ames.

Jesse Smith's interception return for a touchdown off a telegraphed pass by Austen Arnaud was the one play that best summed up the defensive starters' triumph on the day. For the second straight year, Arnaud was not especially sharp in the spring game. He threw behind receivers, especially in the first half, and was not able to generate much yardage with his feet, either. And no one after the game seemed overly concerned, especially Arnaud and Rhoads.

Like a year ago, one day does not an entire spring make and there simply is no quarterback controversy at Iowa State. Just like Phillip Bates was the no. 2 behind Arnaud in 2008, Jerome Tiller is the no. 2 behind Arnaud in 2009. A better spring game doesn't change that reality and Tiller did have a better spring game. Especially running the ball. He scampered 65 yards for a touchdown in a game where quarterbacks were downed by touch. So he was, literally, untouched on the play. Tiller also had the longest pass play of the day, improvising under pressure and throwing 46 yards to Houston Jones. On balance, however, Tiller threw the ball like Arnaud did: inconsistently. And he did it against defensive reserves.

Perhaps Saturday's exhibition showed that Iowa State has more depth on the offensive side but has a better starting eleven on the defensive side. That's a somewhat logical conclusion, but it's based on just 48 minutes of only semi-realistic football. So make it a measured conclusion at most. Because there's never been a spring game that told the whole story about a football team and that all-time trend certainly wasn't going to be bucked Saturday in Ames. It was what it was: a good workout for the team and a chance for fans to see and enjoy the Cyclones for the one and only time during the abyss that is these nine months between the final whistle of last season and the opening kickoff of next.

Nuggets and Notes

Cornerback Leonard Johnson left the game with a leg injury in the second quarter and did not return. Rhoads said afterwards that the injury was not serious and that it "spooked" Johnson more than anything else. He was held out for the rest of the game just as a precaution, according to Rhoads.

Grant Mahoney kicked the ball consistently for the Cardinal team while Zach Guyer was erratic for the Gold. Mahoney made field goals of 38, 22 and 20 yards and there was never any doubt about any of them. Guyer had a field goal blocked and hit the upright on a missed extra point try, but he did make two other PAT tries. Walk-on kickers Michael Romey and Chad Powell each made one extra point.

The Cyclones ran their variation of the "Wildcat" formation a couple of times on the day, with running back Alexander Robinson taking a direct snap from center while Arnaud splits out wide as a receiver. The ISU offense had to burn a timeout the first time it lined up in the Wildcat, eventually lining up in it again after the timeout with Robinson carrying for a short gain to pick up a first down. But the ISU defense stuffed Robinson the second time he ran out of the Wildcat, denying the first down on third-and-short. ISU also used an I formation on one short yardage play for the Gold team with tight end Carter Bykowski lining up in the fullback position.

Senior receiver Wallace Franklin dropped a sure touchdown reception in the third quarter. But he made amends on the final play of the game with a tough 25-yard over-the-shoulder catch in the deep left corner of the end zone.

Try telling Andrew Crenshaw that spring game stats don't matter. Andrew who? Exactly. The walk-on cornerback from Albany, Georgia, via Waldorf College made the most of his opportunity to play with the starters in the spring game and responded with five tackles to show up on the leader sheet.

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