Cyclones leave first practice healthy, try out 3-4 defensive scheme

AMES - Throughout the two-plus hours of its first fall camp practice, Iowa State football coaches saw the rust start to get knocked off their team.

More importantly, they didn't have a repeat occurrence of last year's first day when backup center Ben Loth was lost for the year with an MCL injury. That was the easiest way to put a smile on coach Paul Rhoads' face.

'I was going to lead with that,” Rhoads said with a chuckle following practice. 'Nothing (was injured) coming off the practice field. (Defensive coordinator) Wally (Burnham) got bumped early, but finished the day.”

In between the bumps from players Burnham orchestrated some defensive variations fans might see from the Cyclones this season at the line of scrimmage.

The strength of the ISU defense lies in the secondary, but it appears Iowa State will try to strengthen that position even further by using a 3-4 scheme. With two defensive ends and a defensive tackle up front, the Cyclones ran sets with four linebackers and four secondary personnel throughout its practice.

Burnham said schematically, Iowa State has practiced using a nickelback, a weak-side linebacker and two middle linebackers to comprise the middle group. The Cyclones gave up 246.3 yards per game on the ground a year ago, but will likely employ blitz packages out of a 3-4 formation to compensate.

Jay Jones, Jordan Harris, Kane Seeley and Levi Peters make up that four-linebacker core based on the fall camp depth chart and would run with the first team in those scenarios.

'If we can, we'll get more linebackers on the field,” Burnham said. 'You can't rush three all day so we'll play our four-man front and three-man front. You can drop eight and do some different kinds of blitzes and things like that. At the same time we can't get the same pass rush.”

Although the defensive line will be shuffled up with some tweaks in schemes, the offensive line will return five players with starting experience. The key to success will be finding the replacement for the departed Tom Farniok at center, but two names have been in the mix since spring.

Redshirt senior Jamison Lalk started 11 games last season, mostly at left guard, and filled in for Farniok briefly in the season opener. Patrick Scoggins is entering his first season in Ames as a red-shirt junior, and has been second to Lalk on the depth chart at center since he arrived.

Lalk has received the nod to this point because of his ability to snap in the shotgun formation, but Scoggins has been practicing primarily at center as well to improve in that area.

'Jamison has had a great winter,” said offensive coordinator Mark Mangino. 'I think he's gotten stronger, he's gotten quicker and to this point he's shown he's ready to go. Right now we're working him at center because he has the most dependable snaps to the quarterback, but certainly in no way shape or form have we written off Patrick.”

Iowa State struggled with consistency on the offensive line last season with Daniel Burton as the only returnee to start every game last season on the team. Rhoads hopes the development at center and their ability to play other positions on the line will be a benefit once the season begins.

'We've got to see how far along Patrick came with his summer work of snapping and stepping,” Rhoads said. 'Which is not an easy task to do when you haven't done it in the past. They have different skills when it comes to blocking after the snap, but if you can't get started accurately that way, it's hard to have good offensive plays.”

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