22 BIG 12
IOWA STATE CYCLONES
Iowa State, Army closely matched
By Chris Cuellar Iowa State Daily
AMES, Iowa — With three games down and just 60 days of scheduled football left to play, the Iowa State football team and coach Paul Rhoads are starting another week of preparation for their 6 p.m. Saturday game against the visiting Army Black Knights.
Sitting at 2-1 following a 34-14 win that was underwhelming in the second half against a depleted Kent State, the Cyclones were pleased to come back to Ames, Iowa, with the victory, but the coaching staff is already preparing for the Black Knights and their unique schemes on both sides of the ball.
"They will be as disciplined as any football team we'll play all year, they will be as physical as we'll play all year." Rhoads said. "There will be no quit to them. If this thing goes five overtimes, they will be just as fast in the fifth overtime as they were in the first series of the game."
The Cyclones and Army have been similar on exterior statistics this season, with Army
scoring 23.3 points per game and allowing 22, opposing Iowa State's 23.7 per game for and 22 against. A deeper look shows Army gaining nearly 81 percent of its yardage on the ground, completing only 15 passes through three games. By comparison, the Cyclones are averaging more than 15 completions per game.
During his weekly press conference on Monday, Rhoads commented on the play of Jake Williams. Williams has seemingly come out of nowhere to be an impact player for a group of receivers searching for a rallying point.
Williams was a former walk on from West Des Moines Valley High School, and caught the first touchdown pass of his career against Kent State. His seven catches for 85 yards is good for third on the stat sheet thus far, and he should get at least another season to prove his mettle at Jack Trice.
"He continues to come to work,"Rhoads said. "He embodies what this program should stand for, a blue collar mentality, great work ethic, always bringing great preparation to the field and applying that with execution."
lowa State's Josh Lenz runs from Iowa's Andrew Schulze, right, while returning a punt during the second half of their game in Ames, Iowa. The Buckeyes won 35-3.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Victory gives hope to struggling team
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colorado running back attempts to escape a tackle from Wyoming linebacker Brian Henricks during their game Saturday. The Buffaloes shut out the Cowboys, 24-0.
By Brent Wilson Campus Press
BOULDER, Colo. — Your doctor found no trace of alcohol in your bloodstream. You're boring, moneyless and you have the appeal of a school bus on fire to all women you meet  and that's only part of what your mother said.
I'm guessing you feel pretty down, don't you? You're feeling a little bit sorry for yourself, right?
Please.
You want to hear real problems? Problems that would make a proctology exam look like a vacation?
Try Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Dan Hawkins.
He coached one of the worst-looking Buffs teams in recent memory for the first two weeks of the 2009 season. He coached a team that looked tired, timid and beaten. And that was before warm-ups. They never had a single lead during the first two games of the season, games they were favored by large margins but games they lost by those margins instead.
So, with the weight of the world bending their spines, they needed a break that would not cripple their season prematurely before Big 12 Conference play.
For crying out loud, they made Colorado fans anxious for basketball season. Yes, we have a basketball team.
And they did.
A 24-0 victory over Wyoming in front of 50,535 sighs of relief Saturday gave the Buffers their first win of the season.
The defense was on their game, Dan Hawkins coached with confidence and kicker Aric Goodman even got to sail three points of his own over his ex-team.
All around, a team win — yada yada, blah blah — but let's be honest. The Bucks' win should be contributed fully to the seemingly overnight maturity of the offensive line. It was a trench fight between men and ragdolls.
"They did unbelievably," said sophomore running back Rodney "Speedy" Stewart, who ran for 127 yards and two touchdowns. "I'm proud of every one of them."
Sure, it was against a run-of-the-mill
Wyoming defensive line, but this is the same offensive line that was mowed down by Toledo and Colorado State. In those games, the only running game the Buffs had was junior quarterback Cody Hawkins running backwards for his dear life.
But if you only saw Saturday's game you'd be convinced I am a liar and a jerk.
The Buffs' front five were overwhelming for the Cowboys. They gapped holes you could parallel park in and even gave Cody Hawkins' backside a day off.
Their offense was their defense. They kept Wyoming's offense on the sideline by winning the time of possession by more than 10 minutes thanks to the run game.
Now that's doing it all.
It was a plain, boring game with no tricks or traps. It was the type of game any Colorado fan, player and coach needed.
And for the first time in a while, Cody Hawkins didn't try to win the game with his arm and Dan Hawkins didn't try to win it with his mind.
If that doesn't give you hope, nothing will.
THE WAVE SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN