Iowa State coach Matt Campbell press conference at Tailgate Tour
Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell speaks with reporters at Cyclone Tailgate Tour
There’s no doubt the benefit the Iowa State football team derives from its spring practices. The Cyclones are actually able to play football rather than toil away in the film room or walkthroughs.
It’s invaluable for any program. Even more so for a team with plenty of youth, eager to build on a successful, though not fully gratifying, 2023 campaign.
When spring arrives, though, the work of strength and conditioning takes a backseat to on-field practices.
“By the time we got to the spring game, “Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said last month on the Cyclone Tailgate Tour, “we were ready for all those guys to get to the weight room.”
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The Cyclones return more production from last year than nearly any other team in the country, after largely relying on underclassmen last season. That means those returners remain quite early in their development – both on the field and in the weight room.
“We get to evaluate after spring ball,” football director of strength and conditioning Reid Kagy told the Register in a phone interview. “We all get to sit down as a football staff, as a performance staff, our sports medicine staff, our nutrition staff all the coaches get to sit down and we get to see gaps, we get to see where we can make improvements. We get to literally go over every single guy and talk about ‘Where can he improve? Where can he get better? Where is he really good and where does he need to go?’
“It’s great for us because now we know exactly where this guy needs to hone his focus. We get a little bit of period there after spring ball where we get them back in the weight room.”
Kagy was part of the Cyclones’ strength and conditioning staff at the start of Campbell’s tenure in Ames and returned last year to direct it.
“Just what you’ve seen in 18 months from his staff,” Campbell said, “and us being so young and us continuing to grow up, one area you can see youth grow is physically.
“There’s a whole other revolution here in this 12-week period before we get back to August that is so critical for our football team.
“You just can’t miss that step. “
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Iowa State’s offseason program is built on creating bigger, stronger and faster athletes, certainly, but it’s not about maximizing a bench press or squat.
“When you’re talking about a plan, you kind of reverse engineer what it requires to play their sport and what qualities they have to display on the football field that’s going to make them elite at what they do,” Kagy said. “The closer we get to the game of football, the better you’re going to be at football. I tell these guys all the time, ‘How do you get better at football? You practice football and you do the things you do on the football field.’
“It’s all part of the summer plan. It takes a lot of thought and preparation, but everybody is working toward the same goal, so it’s a fun atmosphere.”
That atmosphere is fueled by a youthful roster that tasted success last year. That group also experienced the adversity of a season that started 1-2 and finished with a Liberty Bowl loss to Memphis.
“This group is still so young,” Campbell said. “I don’t think anybody feels they’ve arrived. When you don’t win your last football game, that’s almost a great motivator going into the offseason.”
That motivation has been evident deep inside the Bergstrom Football Complex as summer begins.
“The most important thing about this team is they’re hungry,” Kagy said. “They know how to work. The standard here is very high.
“It’s going to be a player-driven program. It’s going to be a player-driven summer. We’re going to be here to help and guide that along the way, but I’m excited for the opportunity these guys have this summer because I know there are a lot of guys that are hungry to take on that (leadership) role and show what they can do.”
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.