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Cyclones have chance to play spoiler against Kansas

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By Steve Batterson | Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:04 AM CST | () comments

A much-anticipated matchup with Missouri and possibly an appearance in the Big 12 championship game are on the horizon, but the coach of Kansas’ fourth-ranked football team isn’t looking too far ahead.

Mark Mangino sees Saturday’s game at 2:30 p.m. against Iowa State as a possible trap situation for the Jayhawks (10-0), and he paints a picture of the Cyclones that doesn’t describe most 3-8 teams.

“Their record doesn’t come close to telling the story of that football team,” Mangino said Monday. “What I see is a team that is sound fundamentally and has plenty of experience on offense. Bret Meyer is throwing and running it well, and Todd Blythe and R.J. Sumrall have 50 receptions apiece and on defense, they’re very sound. There’s a reason they are winning games now.”

Iowa State takes a two-game winning streak into its season finale and in the past four games of coach Gene Chizik’s first season on the Cyclone sideline, he has seen improvement.

The same team that was staring a 1-6 record in the face a month ago after taking a 56-3 beating from Texas found a way to give rated Oklahoma and Missouri teams a battle before collecting wins the past two weeks against Kansas State and

Colorado.

Chizik has seen his team’s confidence grow from one week to the next.

“We’ve been playing good teams the last five, six weeks and each time, we’ve played a little better which I think has created a comfort level with what we’re doing that didn’t exist at the beginning,” Chizik said.

“Our players are starting to believe in their abilities and realize that they can compete with the top teams in our conference. It’s growth that has been good to see.”

The Cyclones have helped themselves.

After turning the ball over 20 times in the first seven games, Iowa State has committed just one turnover in each of its last four games and has averaged 26.8 points.

The growth of redshirt freshman Alexander Robinson at tailback has helped as well. Robinson has rushed for 337 of his 411 yards since stepping into the lineup three games ago.

“We’re giving ourselves a chance,” Chizik said, believing that not wavering from the program’s core beliefs has helped the Cyclones.

“We haven’t changed one thing, not one. Our roots are in the fundamentals and as we have become better at the fundamentals, we have grown as a football team and gotten better. We still have a long ways to go, a long, long ways, but we’ve made progress. That’s encouraging.”

Chizik credits his players and assistants for the progress that Iowa State has made.

“After the Texas game, things weren’t looking the best, but there wasn’t any panic,’’ Chizik said. “The following week, we went about business the same way as we had the week before and we just kept chopping wood. That’s the only way I know that a team can get better.”

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.