Reading and running the show

AMES - Iowa State quarterback Jared Barnett shrugged when asked why he's so adept at running the zone read.

“It's something I've been doing since high school,” Barnett said of the spread-based option play, which has helped him rush for 158 yards the past two games. “We ran it a lot and I got a lot of work in on it.”

The red-shirt freshman from Garland, Texas, will go to work in his second game as the Cyclones' starter Saturday in an 11:30 a.m. Big 12 matchup against struggling Kansas at Jack Trice Stadium.

And the zone-read option will likely again be a key factor in ISU's offensive success, or lack of it.

But what is the zone read? Let Barnett explain.

“You've got to read the defense, the back side end,” he said. “If he triggers on a runner you go straight downhill.”

Simply stated. Harder to execute.

In last week's eye-opening, 41-7, win at Texas Tech, Barnett moved the chains seven times with his feet - and frequently on zone read plays. Of those seven runs, three came on third down, two came on fourth down, and one resulted in the game's first touchdown.

“I think it's as much about his ability to run with it after the zone read that's maybe more productive for our football team right now,” Cyclone Coach Paul Rhoads said. “He still missed a couple reads in there that he should have kept the ball or he should have gave the ball ... But he has a gift, I think, as runner that you saw where he cut back against the grain. He one-cut people and made them miss.”

His shiftiness also helps those around him.

“I'd have to say it's a rhythm,” said running back James White, who ran for 138 yards and a touchdown against the Red Raiders.

Despite not missing a beat since taking over for Steele Jantz, Barnett shuns any hint of fanfare. That's thanks largely to his dad, Duke, who coached him in little league, middle school, and as a freshman in high school.

“He knows that some people around me are trying to hype me up,” Barnett said. “That's good, but then again, that's not what he wants me to be. He just wants to keep me level headed and humble.”

Mission accomplished.

“(Reading) things takes time, especially at this level, you have to be really good at it,” Barnett said. “I need to be a lot better at it.”

Good, but not good enough is a mantra Barnett has taken to heart.

“He was always, ‘Yeah, you did good but you can always be better,'” Barnett said about his dad. “That's what's pushing me to be the type of player that I am now; just the way that he's always pushed me. I know it's criticism in a good way, because he knows that I can take it.”

That's what also has allowed Barnett to position himself as a 19-year-old leader on an ISU team (4-4, 1-4) that seeks back-to-back Big 12 wins for the first time since knocking off Texas and Kansas in succession last October.

“I've got a feeling Jared Barnett has been that way for a long time,” Rhoads said. “It didn't come because of two years of quarterbacking his high school football team. I'll bet if you asked mom and dad, at (age) six he had those qualities as a leader and showed it by organizing hide and seek in the backyard or something of that nature.”