Cyclone returns strong foundation at key positions

AMES — Hope spring eternal for any football team during spring ball, but a shroud of uncertainty always cloaks optimism with uncertainty.

That’s where Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell finds himself now — as usual, with more questions than answers coming off an unprecedented 11-win season.

“I think last year (we) were kind of in a similar boat at times,” said Campbell, who watched four of his star players from last season taken in the first four rounds of the NFL Draft this weekend. “The one thing you knew is you had some tough guys at the top, right? You had some guys that had declared that they’d been through the battles and succeeding and failing as the leader.”

Most of those leaders have now landed in the professional ranks. Wide receiver Jayden Higgins was taken by Houston with the second pick of the second round of the NFL Draft. Cornerback and special teams standout Darien Porter was selected by Las Vegas in the third round, as was two-time captain and receiver Jaylin Noel, who joined Higgins with the Texans. Offensive tackle Jalen Travis went in the fourth round to Indianapolis, and many other “tough” former ISU players such as NFL hopefuls Malik Verdon, Jarrod Hufford and J.R. Singleton also graduated.

“So you’ve got some new guys stepping into different roles,” Campbell said. “They’ve got to be the leader, or they’ve gotta be the guy that plays the most snaps, or, man, now it’s gonna be fourth and three, and you’ve gotta make this play — and are you gonna make it? My guess is we’ll probably succeed at some of them and we’ll probably fail at some of them, but that’s the only way to grow here. We’re not gonna go buy a team. We’re gonna go develop a team.”

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The Cyclones return a strong foundation at key positions, beginning with quarterback, where Rocco Becht will enter his third season as the starter. Higgins and Noel leave a gaping void in the receivers room, but ISU plucked Xavier Townsend and Chase Sowell from the transfer portal to complement top returners in the passing game such as tight ends Gabe Burkle and Ben Brahmer, and receivers Brett Eskildsen and Dominic Overby.

“That (receivers) group continues to grow forward in a good way,” Campbell said. “And I don’t know if there’s a tight end who’s come on the field who hasn’t had a good spring.”

On defense, two-time captain Beau Freyler and other key veterans such as Singleton and Joey Petersen have moved on, but star safety Jeremiah Cooper is back, along with a deep stable of experienced and talented linebackers let by Caleb Bacon and Kooper Ebel. Powerful defensive linemen such as Domonique Orange and Ikenna Ezeogu are also back, giving defensive coordinator a solid core to build depth around.

So as spring transitions into summer workouts, uncertainty will remain, but the picture for fall will become clearer.

“We’ve had some good days and some real tough days this spring, and my guess is we’ll have a couple more as we get into fall camp,” Campbell said. “We’ll see how crazy we can make it until we get to the first game of the season.”

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