Iowa State set to leave behind win against Hawkeyes
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By Steve Batterson | Tuesday, September 18, 2007 |
In the aftermath of his team’s 15-13 win against Iowa on Saturday, first-year Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik has a couple words of advice for his team’s fans — party on.
He also has a couple words of advice for his team.
“Move on,” Chizik said Monday. “That game is way over for us. We’re done talking about it, and it’s time for them to move on.”
Chizik said he appreciated everything about his introduction to the instate rivalry, from the atmosphere at Jack Trice Stadium to the outcome.
“It ranks right up there with any of the rivalry games I’ve been involved with,” said Chizik, who previously coached in Auburn-Alabama and Texas-Oklahoma and Texas-Texas A&M games as an assistant. “It was a neat thing, and I felt lucky to be a part of it. It’s a great game for this state.
“I hope our students and fans do hang onto it. For the next 365 days, I want them to celebrate it and enjoy it. I hope they’re fired up about it, but as a team, we have to move on.”
That started Sunday, a day for the Cyclones, which wasn’t any different than the Sunday which preceded it.
Chizik and his staff broke down tape of the Iowa matchup with the team as they did following the previous week’s loss to Northern Iowa, and they began to talk about the challenges presented by this week’s opponent.
Iowa State has its first road test of the season Saturday, traveling to Toledo for a game at 6 p.m. and Chizik said preparations should have a familiar look to his team. The Rockets enter the game 0-3 after losing to Purdue, at Central Michigan and at Kansas.
“We’ll keep our guys grounded in the same way we kept them grounded after we lost the first two games,” Chizik said. “There are so many highs and lows during the course of a season or even during a game that I don’t think you can change the way you go about things.
“We didn’t change the way we practiced last week, we didn’t do anything differently Sunday and we won’t do anything different this week. The approach has to stay the same.”
That is one things the Cyclones will realize quickly this week.
“If we go to Toledo and don’t play well or lose, everybody will be saying we had a hangover from the Iowa game. I don’t agree with that. If that happens, it will be because we didn’t execute the way we needed to or the way we had prepared to execute,” Chizik said.
Chizik said tapes of the win over Iowa showed his team that it still has work to do.
“We could practice 8 hours a day and not get done all the things we need to get done to become a better team,” he said. “I hope our guys understand what gave us the chance to win last week was the way we went about our business, and the way we prepared.”
Chizik said he appreciates the improvement he saw from his team compared to its previous efforts.
He liked the improved physical play he saw from the Cyclones’ line and the improved consistency in execution he saw all over the field.
Iowa State turned the ball over once in Saturday’s game, and while pleased with the reduction from previous games, he said the Cyclones’ third-quarter fumble provided a clear illustration for his team to watch on tape.
“It was one turnover too many and it gave us all a good look at the devastation that can be caused by a turnover,” Chizik said. “Our guys were able to see how the momentum swung quickly and I think it gave them a better understanding of how three or four could take away any chance you had to win a game. There is a lot we can learn from that win and I’m hopeful we will.”
Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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