FOOTBALL: Sneak peek

Annual spring game gives fans first look at 2007 Cyclone football

Grant Wall/Daily Staff Writer

Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Sports

ISU football coach Gene Chizik talks to the football players at the end of the first practice of the spring on March 21 at the Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility.

Spring practice wraps up this weekend for the ISU football team at the annual spring game in which fans will get a preliminary look at the 2007 Cyclones.

Football coach Gene Chizik said after weeks of closed practices the coaches and the players are both more than ready to get out and perform for the fans.

"We're very excited as a coaching staff and players," Chizik said. "I know there's a lot of interest from just talking with people in the community and being able to visit with people. The players are excited to actually beat on each other with somebody watching."

Chizik said that overall, spring practice has been a success for the team with progress being made at key positions. Although some positions are still very much up in the air, Chizik said there are definitely areas where players have asserted themselves as favorites to start.

"There's starting to be some separation in there without naming any names," Chizik said. "After three weeks we've had nine or ten contact practices. We have a lot better idea of where we are right now. There's some separation at some positions and there are some that are neck and neck and that's how we thought it would go.

"Fans will be able to see who is playing and who isn't and will be able to make their own opinions," Chizik said.

"I'm sure I'll hear about what we're doing wrong or should be doing after the game."

As for exactly what fans will see Saturday, it will be a departure from what has been the norm in years past.

This year's game will fit more of the billing of a "spring practice," Chizik said. The game will follow the format of the Cyclones previous two scrimmages this spring, with offense versus defense and no kickoffs.

"We're going to use Saturday as a fourteenth practice for ourselves," Chizik said. "It's not going to be a bells and whistles type of situation for our team. Obviously we very much appreciate everybody that's interested and is going to come out to the game and we're excited about that. But we're using this as another practice. It's a situation where we have to get work done."

The game will even have its own scoring structure, in which the offense can score points by accomplishing certain goals like gaining a first down or scoring a touchdown, and the defense can score various point values for turnovers, three-and-outs and other tasks.

Chizik said the team has used the scoring system in both of Iowa State's previous two scrimmages as well as everyday in practice.

"We have a scoring system we use everyday in practice," Chizik said. "We never go out to practice without keeping score. We keep score and we have a scoring system in place for the offense and the defense that we think is fair.

"As I've told our football team there's always a definitive winner and loser in everything we do."

But yet, for all the talk of there being winners and losers in everything, Chizik seemed to have a faulty memory when it came to who won the other two scrimmages.

"Boy, it was really close," Chizik said. "I can't even remember who won."

Offensive lineman Tom Schmeling remembered, however, and spilled the beans after Chizik's press conference.

"The first two scrimmages went to the defense," Schmeling said. "The first one was heavily won by the defense. The second one was pretty close."

The spring game festivities begin at 10 a.m. Saturday with a one-hour team autograph session in the Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility and the game itself is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

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