Daley rises up receiver depth chart for Cyclones

AMES - It wasn't during a face-to-face meeting with his coaches or talk among his teammates.

Dondre Daley learned he would be starting at wide receiver Saturday through a medium that initially surprised him.

'Twitter,” Daley said with a laugh.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound sophomore was elevated to a starting role for the Cyclones' season opener Saturday against North Dakota State. Daley was slotted as a third-team receiver on the fall camp depth chart, but jumped past sophomore P.J. Harris and junior Tad Ecby.

Offensive coordinator Mark Mangino saw Daley 'really develop his skills” throughout fall camp.

'He's a very intelligent guy, a smart guy,” Mangino said. 'He's not a guy that you have to tell the same thing over and over. We look for big things from Double-D and we think he's going to be a guy for us that makes a lot of plays.”

Coaches are seeing Daley progress and pick up from where he left off after last season. The Tarpon Springs, Fla., native played in all 12 games a year ago and started the final five, recording 13 catches for 127 yards.

In the first week of spring practice, however, Daley went down with an ankle sprain, forcing him to miss those reps in the off-season. While it was frustrating at the time to not be on the field, Daley said all he could do learn as much mentally about the new offensive system as he could.

'I was just watching every play that was getting called,” Daley said. 'In the meeting room, I watched everything they were teaching us so I could be on pace when I came back healthy.”

Now healthy, Coach Paul Rhoads said Daley is showing coaches exactly what they were hoping to see last spring.

'Dondre Daley has good body control, Dondre Daley can run, he's got good length, he catches the ball and goes after it aggressively to catch it, has been extremely coachable as we've gone through fall camp,” Rhoads said.

Daley believes it may have even been the injury that pushed him into this position.

With a receiving corps that includes Quenton Bundrage, Allen Lazard, Jarvis West and D'Vario Montgomery, Daley is optimistic about what the Cyclones can do. He's also expecting his name to be right in there as one of Iowa State's more reliable receivers.

'I feel like everybody's going to be able to chip into the offense,” Daley said, 'and make it good this year.”

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