The Walk Through

Iowa State will honor former Iowa player Tyler Sash with a moment of silence before today's game. Iowa State is, unfortunately, all too familiar with this pain. The Cyclones football program has laid to rest six players and an assistant coach since 2003.

Curtis Bray, a D-line coach on Paul Rhoads' staff from 2009-13, passed away from a pulmonary embolism in January 2014 at the age of 43. For the second season, the Cyclones are wearing a sticker on their helmets with the initials 'CB,” honoring Bray's memory.

Sash was found dead in his Oskaloosa home on Tuesday morning. He was buried in his hometown yesterday.

Iowa has replaced the Tiger Hawk on the left side of their helmets with the No. 9, Sash's number, for today's game.

Sash had many friends who attended Iowa State. He relished the rivalry and treated it with respect, never allowing it to become a personal crusade or anything like that. (This is from a couple of years worth of interviews with Sash on the rivalry.)

Here are his numbers against the Cyclones (courtesy of @mbenson6, Stats Inc, guy and 'Mad Men” mad man):

Games - 3 (3-0 record)

INT - 4

Tackles - 26

TFL - 3.0

Sacks - 1.0

Give some sincere thought during the moment of silence. It does matter. Tyler loved being a Hawkeye, loved being from Iowa.

- I've been told that true freshman wide receiver Jerminic Smith won't wear his No. 9 in today's game. I've heard No. 6, but I don't know that for sure. Obviously, this is in respect to Sash.

- The inside word from the Hawkeyes is it was a good week and they are locked in.

- . . . Will that matter. I really think Iowa State's defense is the great mystery of this game. After finishing 128th in the country, head coach Paul Rhoads went and found some jucos. Eight or nine played in the opener against Northern Iowa. ISU had six sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said during the week that, yes, that kind of made it a new preparation.

'Defensively, again, to your point, a lot of new faces, a lot of injection of good energy, and boy, they played well the other night,” Ferentz said. 'We're really in flux that way, it's almost like preparing for a first game, which this is Week 2, but still to your point, just because those are players that we haven't seen on tape before and we're trying to figure that out.

'Not only that, but what they're going to do, so it's really an interesting study.”

- Here's an item that I haven't written about this week, but I think we all need some clarity. Maybe that's the wrong word.

Basically, I asked Ferentz when we'll see running back Akrum Wadley again. He fumbled in the opener. That's four fumbles in his 36 carries as a Hawkeye.

I liked the point Ferentz made.

'I'm not a big doghouse guy,” Ferentz said. 'I think it was Earl Weaver (famous Baltimore Orioles manager), I think, said he didn't have a doghouse. And it's not the pros, we don't cut guys, ship them out and bring new guys in. This is college football. We're trying to develop our guys as best we can. He wasn't ready to secure the ball Saturday unfortunately, but hopefully next time out he'll do a better job.

'Somewhere in there, there's a good player, we've just got to get it out of him and get him really concentrating the way he really needs to to protect the football.”

OK, check back for updates. Cyclones out warming up right now.

- Iowa QBs and TEs came out.

Yes, junior TE George Kittle was out there. Earlier this week, Ferentz said Kittle would be a game-time decision with a knee injury suffered last week. Well, I'm not a doctor, but I thought Kittle looked great. Had a brace on his right knee, but did a lot of running around, not just standing there catching passes for true frosh QB Ryan Boyle.

- I spotted Trump in the binoculars. Iowa radio analyst Ed Podolak was trailing his entourage.

- Ferentz mentioned another player being a game-time decision. Don't know who that is.

- The politician stuff is kinda nutty here. Mike Hlas and Scott Dochterman are out there in that.

No, thanks. I'll stick to sportz.

- Iowa has officially announced that Jerminic Smith will be wearing No. 6 today. He's usually No. 9, but not today in honor of Sash. Smith will wear No. 6. He'll be the only No. 6 today, so that means fellow true freshman wide receiver Emmanual Ogwo didn't make the trip or is wearing a different number.

I'm not sure on that.

- Iowa kicker Marshall Koehn just bashed a 53-yarder off the right upright. There's a gentle breeze that doesn't seem to be a factor on this gorgeous day here in the heart of Iowa.

- Fox has announced kickoff will be 3:50.

- KF on the radio. Says ISU is pass-first, make you defend the whole field. Notes that Rhoads has called this the best OL he's been associated with. Different-looking defense. Veteran perimeter. LB and DL had a lot of guys in the rotation. They stayed fresh. Totally different team that way.

- Iowa State played eight defensive linemen last week.

- KF said Iowa's first-team defense was hit with just three or four missed tackles last week.

- Dolph asked KF what percentage Iowa might play nickel and dime defense against pass-first. Ferentz didn't bite, but I applaud Dolph's shot at trying to get some real info.

- It doesn't look as though sophomore RB Derrick Mitchell made the trip. He's not on the field. KF was asked about Mitchell twice this week.

Can he go? 'Hoping so. Hoping so. He's looking better.”

Is he healthy? 'He's looking better. We're hoping he's there.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com