Blue-collar Cyclones

AMES - Iowa State safety Ter'Ran Benton fully embraces coach Paul Rhoads' working-class mindset.

But the blue-collar shirts coach commissioned for Cyclone players?

For Benton, sartorial style trumps rugged good looks when it comes to wardrobe.

“I've still got the ladies,” he said, smiling. “I've still got to look pretty, you know what I'm sayin'?”

Indeed.

Rhoads has masterminded a multitude of makeovers at ISU, including the first win at Nebraska in 32 years in 2009, the first victory at Texas - Saturday's 6 p.m. opponent - ever last season, and first win over Iowa in his relatively brief three-year tenure.

Doing more with less has become a Cyclone mantra under Rhoads, and that applies to the cottony contents of the closet as well as the Jack Trice Stadium turf.

“Everybody in the program has one of these,” Rhoads said this summer of the work shirts, which are festooned with an embroidered player's or coach's first name. “We believe we're a blue-collar program.”

Few would challenge that assessment.

Rhoads said his equipment manager, John Sedgwick, helped him find the basic short-sleeved canvas on which to place a first name on one side and the slogan, “All in,” on the other.

“We have hard hats,” Rhoads said. “And now we have these blue-collar shirts. Another reminder of what our program stands for.”

But has Rhoads ever worn the hard hat?

“I will, on occasion,” Rhoads said. “We always have one out at practice, we always have one out on the game field and all the kids have one that they'll occasionally carry themselves to practice. During training camp, a lot of days you'll see them carrying or wearing the hard hats.”

Gimmicky? Sure.

Pointless? Not.

“I think eventually you'll start to see them get dirty,” Roads said of the two-toned blue shirts.

Quarterback Steele Jantz provided the great reveal, shirt wise, after the season-opening win over Northern Iowa.

One breast pocket read, “Steele.”

The other side, “All in.”

“That's my style: blue collar,” Jantz said. “It's something we pride ourselves on and the shirts are just another example of that.”

And though Benton doesn't see anything slick in the design, he firmly respects the message behind it.

Even if it might not yet score points with “the ladies.”

“Like in Texas, we always had these people in the morning, they had their collared shirt and hard hat,” he said. “It doesn't look like I have gloves on now, but they've got the long gloves. They're ready to work. It doesn't matter if it's snow, rain, heat. They come to work.”