Iowa State aims to start faster against TCU

AMES - Here's the bottom line for Iowa State on Saturday:

The Cyclones must start off on the right foot and have a smaller speed differential if they want to go toe-to-toe with No. 3 TCU.

One offensive play for the Cyclones ultimately led to an early 10-0 deficit last Saturday at Texas Tech and the defense struggled to adjust to the speedy Tech offense.

The 35-point loss was a crash-course in what Big 12 offenses have to offer, and a reality-check that adjustments must be made.

'We don't turn the ball over, we make good decisions with what we're doing and we fit where we're supposed to as a defensive football team and play fast overall as a collective unit,” said Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads. 'That would send us in a direction to get a fast start.”

The Cyclones (2-3, 1-1) defense certainly had gaping holes that allowed Texas Tech to gain 776 yards of offense, but the ISU offense continued to under-produce with the chances it had.

Iowa State averages 421.6 yards of offense per game, but at 28 points per game, the offense is often left to catch up to its opponent. Three teams in the Big 12 - including the Horned Frogs (6-0, 3-0) - average at least 51 points, making the need to start with some offensive momentum even more crucial.

'Every week we just practice starting fast,” said wide receiver D'Vario Montgomery. 'We just try to start practices fast and come out with some enthusiasm and try to get everything going. We've had issues with it in our past couple games, but it's on us to get it working.”

Much of the responsibility to get the ISU offense started lies with fifth-year senior quarterback Sam Richardson, who had 10 completions and three interceptions last week. Richardson could feel himself pressing against the Red Raiders, and ISU offensive coordinator Mark Mangino saw his signal caller lose a sense of urgency.

'Every play needs total focus every time you do it,” Mangino said. 'It doesn't matter if you've run a play 100 times or 200 times, you've got to take the same focus each time you execute that play.”

Richardson's counterpart, TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin, meanwhile, leads the Big 12 in individual total offense with 411.5 yards per game and is looking like a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Richardson is thinking only about getting back to the basics and setting his receivers - and breakout running back Mike Warren - in favorable positions.

'I'm not going to sit there and yell at the guys that we have to get up on them or we have to jump out on them,” Richardson said. 'That's not the case at all because we don't want to press or anything. It's really about setting up what we want.”

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