Iowa State football seeks answers on defense ahead of Oklahoma State
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AMES – Iowa State football coach Jimmy Rogers and defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit aren't used to seeing these types of stats.
During the preseason, Iowa State set a goal to hold opponents to 14 points or less, a similar benchmark that Rogers and Bobbit had since their days at South Dakota State. They were a part of back-to-back FCS national title runs in 2022 and 2023 and much of that success was built on defense.
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The Cyclones' offense has gotten some warranted criticism, but their defense hasn't come close to reaching that 14-point goal in over a month. Not since they clamped down on Bowling Green, 55-7, on Sept. 19.
Iowa State has given up 400-plus yards in each of its last four games. In two of those contests, it gave up 500 or more.
"I haven't been coaching for a crazy long time, but I'll go back just to last year," Bobbit said. "I think we had a couple games stretch there where we gave up back-to-back 59-point games. We started out strong and finished the year strong last year at Wazzu, but back-to-back weeks, we gave up 59 points and one of them was to North Texas (who was led by current Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris), which is the squad we're about to go against.
"So when you look at that, was that frustrating? Yeah, it's frustrating, it's frustrating for everyone. We're all in this together, players and coaches alike."
Last year, while Rogers, Bobbit and much of the Cyclones' current defensive coaching staff were together at Washington State, they hit a rough patch early in the season where they allowed 59 points to North Texas and Washington in consecutive weeks.
They were able to regroup to finish 7-6 and win the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The defense finished allowing 20.25 points per game.
Even then, that was only a two-game skid. Now Iowa State's calling card has vastly underperformed in four straight and the Cyclones are desperate for answers. They intend to generate a similar response to how the Cougars' defense regrouped after allowing 118 points in two weeks.
"I said we cannot control facts, we can control our response in what we are going to do as a defense," Bobbit said of how Washington State bounced back. "Every opportunity we get to take the field, we should have taken that as a positive. Yeah, there was five turnovers in the first half (of last year's loss to North Texas), we got more series than we expected. Do we want to play football or do we want to sit on the sideline? That was kind of the message and then win the opportunities that you have.
"... In the bowl game, when I was the interim (head coach), I was on the sideline for the first time in a few years and so there were a couple turnovers in that game in the first half, back-to-back actually, but our guys were taking the field with smiles and joy and having fun with the mentality of we get to take the field again and try to be one of the best defenses in the country, prove it this play, this series and finish. That was the difference, and that's being worked on here and we need to get back to that."
The North Texas loss was one of the experiences that generated a change in mentality for Washington State. Iowa State is trying to use its upcoming Halloween showdown with Oklahoma State as the beginning of an upswing for the Cyclones' defense.
There is some familiarity between Iowa State's coaches and the players at Oklahoma State. After back-to-back winless stretches in Big 12 play, the Cowboys hired Eric Morris to succeed longtime coach Mike Gundy. Morris previously coached at North Texas, where he romped Rogers, Bobbit and Washington State last season.
Morris took 17 North Texas players with him to Stillwater, most of them key players in a high-powered Mean Green offense that led the country in scoring and total offense. So far, they've stuck the landing after making the jump to the Big 12.
The Cowboys will present multiple problems for the struggling Cyclone defense. Headlined by potential NFL first-round draft pick Drew Mestemaker at quarterback, running back Caleb Hawkins and receivers Wyatt Young and Justin Bowick, the Cowboys are averaging a Big 12-best 40 points and 529.1 total yards per game.
Mestemaker leads the Big 12 with 2,326 passing yards and 20 touchdowns. Iowa State will need to cut down on defensive mistakes and quickly find solutions.
"This is gonna be a tough challenge; there's no doubt about that, but as I told the team, what else would you want?" Rogers said. "We can say, this is the toughest schedule or we could go out and embrace the fact that we have another great opportunity to go out and compete versus a top 25 team.
"If we wanna go play the people of the poor, we should go play in a different conference. This is what we all came here to do. The conference is excelling at a high rate. How exciting is that then to be in the Big 12 and to prove that you can be one of them?"
How are Iowa State players responding to the coaches' messages and critiques this week? It's easy to be positive in the middle of the week, but will it culminate in a win for the Cyclones (3-4, 1-3 Big 12)? Given the caliber of the opponent, if Iowa State isn't up to the task, it could be deja vu for the Cyclones' coaches and Cougar transfers.
"We'll find out on Saturday, because you could just yeah, yeah me, and run around with energy or you can embrace all of this," Rogers said. "There is no hiding from this anymore. Nobody's coming to save us. I don't want anybody to save us. We base our identity around being tough. ... I think this team is mature. It's just, this has been a long season for us a little bit with a lot of things. At the same time, this is the challenge that we all came here to embrace and so we're not hiding from it now. Nobody's going to save us. We got to go out and compete."
Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football seeks answers on defense ahead of Oklahoma State