First Look: Iowa State Cyclones

vs.

7/6 BAYLOR (3-0) at NR/NR IOWA STATE (1-2) Sept. 27, 2014 | 7:20 p.m. CT Ames, Iowa | Jack Trice Stadium (55,000) TV: FOX

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OPPONENT: Iowa St. Cyclones
ODB GAME HUB: Baylor Bears vs. Iowa State Cyclones 2014
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: Cyclones.com
CYCLONES MEDIA GUIDE: Click for .pdf
CYCLONES DEPTH CHART: vs. Baylor
LAST MEETING: 71-7 Baylor win in 2013 | Baylor vs. Iowa State 2013 Game Hub
LAST GAME (for ISU): 20-17 win over Iowa
SB NATION BLOG: Wide Right & Natty Lite
SPREAD: Baylor -21.5 (Open: Baylor -23.5)
TV COVERAGE: FOX
WEATHER FORECAST: High Saturday of 80F, low Saturday night of 55F. Clear skies throughout. Low winds.
BAYLOR UNIFORMS: Unknown, but Baylor just went full Stormtrooper for Buffalo and is unlikely to repeat.

SBNation Iowa State Preview
BaylorBears.com Preview
Bears vs Cyclones coverage

A Word about WRNL

For just the second time this year, Baylor is playing a team that also has a blog here on SB Nation: Wide Right & Natty Lite. It is a wonderful blog run by great folks that love their school just like we do ours.  My expectation is that should you make the short internet trek over there, you'll represent us well while doing so and refrain from malicious trolling.  That is their home as this is ours, and they deserve your respect.

Iowa State's 2014 Schedule

After their win a week ago that claimed them the 2014 Cy-Hawk Trophy, the Cyclones stand at 1-2 on the young season with losses to KSU and North Dakota State.  Neither of those is one to laugh at; KSU probably should have beaten Auburn this past week in Manhattan and North Dakota State has won every FCS championship in recent memory.

A year ago, Baylor welcomed Iowa State to Waco and utterly dominated the game, surrendering only the late TD against the #2 defense, scoring over 70 points (including a kickoff return that just added insult to injury in the last minute of the game) and racking up over 700 yards of offense.  Sam Richardson started that game for ISU before yielding to Grant Rohach, and both are now back this season as a junior and sophomore, respectively.  Richardson is the undisputed starter so far this season and has thrown for 591 yards on 66/98 passing with 3 TDs and 3 INTs.

Injury News:

One thing we need to get out of the way right now is the injury news for both sides.  Because I haven't paid tremendous attention to them, I'm going to have to reach out to WRNL for help on their injury situation, so check back.  I know they are missing WR Quenton Bundrage.  For Baylor, we obviously know a little more.

As of last week, it appeared that Baylor might get three of our four injured wide receivers back this week as well as RB Devin Chafin, who has missed all of the last two games.  According to Briles today, Chafin is about 75% ready to go as of today, while WRs Antwan Goodley and Corey Coleman are both about 80%.  Briles apparently believes both of the latter two will play, but has not said the same about Chafin. There is no new information about Clay Fuller, who is coming off a broken collarbone, and the lack of mention makes it appear that he is not expected to play this week, after all.

Now back to ISU, starting with their individual stats:

Quarterbacks

Running Backs/Receivers

Richardson leading the way in rushing yards for the Cyclones is a bit of a red flag, since I'm not sure that's what most ISU fans would want.  Baylor fans who have paid any attention to this series at all in the past recognize Wimberly, since he apparently took advantage of the Brady Heslip exception to play 12 seasons at Iowa State.  He's a smaller guy at 5-9, 177 pounds that you have to keep contained on the inside.

In addition to the above, Iowa State is #67 in FootballOutsiders' combined F/+ metric, where Baylor is now 11th.  S&P+ likes them significantly less than that, placing them 104th.  That's one spot behind #103, Buffalo.  The real problem for the Cyclones is their defense, which is ranked 105th by S&P+, whereas their offense is 78th.  That could be a problem against a team like Baylor fielding the #2 offense in the land.  That's in contrast to the absolute rankings above where ISU ranks 112th in total offense vs. 86th in total defense.  That defensive ranking is heavily influenced by the fact that the Cyclones give up an average of 221 yards on the ground.  The one place where ISU ranks highly is in punting.  There, Colin Downing is apparently a superstar in the making.

Question Time!

• FIRST -- Assuming Antwan Goodley and Corey Coleman return, who do you start at WR in this game (2 WRs, 2 IRs)?  Assuming the same, who leads Baylor in receptions?  Yards? (Yes, this is a holdover question.  Still valid.)
  
• SECOND --Who leads the team in rushing this week?
  
• THIRD -- Ames at night.  U scared, bro?
• FOURTH --Give me a turnt rating from 1-10 coming off the bye week.  1 is Mark Mangino at a salad bar.  I'll let you define 10 yourself.  Use gifs, if you like.
  
• FIFTH --It appears that ISU is starting a freshman at RT in this game.  O/U on sacks for the entire Baylor defense: 4. 
  
• SIXTH -- ISU has two guys named Sam Richardson on their roster.  Give me your best pitch for a buddy cop comedy starting both Sams Richardson.