Hines' Iowa State-North Dakota prediction: The manufactured mayhem of Cyclones football
AMES – The football practice fields outside Jack Trice Stadium can actually be quite serene. They’re tucked back behind the stadium and Iowa State’s practice facility, mostly hidden from view. Leafy trees line the west side of the field, further secluding it from the traffic along Beach Avenue.
If you stand there by yourself, it’s peaceful. Meditative, even.
That immediately ceases to be the case, though, once Matt Campbell and his whistle make their way out there.
“Coach Campbell does as good a job of anybody I’ve been around,” Iowa State defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said, “of putting chaos into practice.”
That practice plan every coach plans for and carries around during practice? Might as well junk it.
“That script you get to start practice – it's fake,” Heacock said.
Campbell as chaos agent isn’t a function of a short attention span, a volcanic temper or a soft spot for spontaneity. It’s deliberate disruption, which makes it more like manufactured mayhem.
“You’ve got to challenge your coaches,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to challenge your team. There’s a point in fall camp where you’re installing and there’s a point where you’ve got to be creative.
“Part of that creativity in football is chaos.”
It goes something like this:
The practice plan may call for, let’s say, individual position drills. But instead of taking that to its conclusion, Campbell will, without warning, halt everything to rush the field goal unit on to attempt a kick. Or, in opposition to that practice plan, Campbell will call for a "sudden change," which simulates a turnover and puts both the offense and defense on to the field without notice.
“It’s chaotic for everybody,” offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser said. “The other day was nuts.
“And it was great. “
The logic here is pretty simple. Football games are unpredictable, messy affairs in which attention to detail, swiftness and precision are required under the most trying and unplanned circumstances.
So, shouldn’t practice be that way, too?
“My job is how many different ways can I create chaotic opportunities and force guys – our players and our coaches – to respond to those within practice,” Campbell said. "The more you do it, the more you fail, the more you succeed, what worked, what didn’t work – the more you have confidence when you actually step on the field.”
Even in a game Saturday against North Dakota of the FCS (2:30 p.m.; FS1), there will be chaos. Maybe the Cyclones create it. Maybe it’s the Fighting Hawks. Maybe it’s the officials? An act of God?
Anyone who has watched Iowa State football knows not to count anything out. So Campbell doesn’t.
“Every situation you could ever think of,” Heacock said.
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If chaos is a ladder (Are we still quoting "Game of Thrones" or did we leave that back in 2017? Let's go with it.), Campbell wants his guys ready for the climb.
And the ladder in front of them ahead of the 2024 season looks like it reaches great heights.
The Cyclones have talent and experience, though to what extent of both will likely be the central question of the season.
Are the Cyclones good enough to win the Big 12? And if they are, can they be consistently composed and repeatedly resilient?
“You think you know, but until this ball gets kicked off and the lights come on and there’s 70,000 people in the stands,” Campbell said, “you don’t know.”
The chaos, though, can provide a hint.
“He calls it ‘Marauders,’” wideout Jayden Higgins said. “Marauders is someone that seeks chaos.
“So we have a couple (practice) periods where he’s just trying to cause chaos to help us be prepared more for the game.”
Campbell’s Marauders may sound like it should air after "Hogan’s Heroes" or "The A-Team," but its not a bad way to fashion a football team.
If you seek chaos, if you revel in it, thrive in its midst, then it stops being chaos. It becomes the air you breathe. You hardly even know it’s there, but it’s essential to survival.
“We’re in a world where we have a lot of fake confidence,” Campbell said, “but trying to give our kids real confidence. This fall camp, if you didn’t come every day, you were going to get embarrassed. You were going to get embarrassed by the game. You were going to get embarrassed by the opponent.
“That was rewarding to see.”
Sounds chaotic.
North Dakota (0-0) at Iowa State (0-0)
Time, TV, line: 2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1, Iowa by 22.5 points
Where North Dakota has the edge: The Fighting Hawks aren't going to have an advantage in any of the three phases of the game. Or in skill. Or physicality. Or speed. So that's going to make things tough for them. Where they may have the upper hand is in the stakes of the game. Saturday is a contest against an FCS team before playing Iowa for the Cyclones. It's a monumental opportunity for North Dakota.
Where Iowa State has the edge: The Cyclones are bigger, stronger, faster and more talented than their FCS opponent Saturday. At least they should be. And if the Cyclones are going to be a Big 12 contender, they should probably have the edge there by a wide margin. We've seen Week 1 swoons from Iowa State, so coming out and dominating would be a positive development for Campbell's Marauders.
Prediction: IowaState 49, North Dakota 7: The Cyclones have the talent and experience to make quick work of their visitors on Saturday, and I anticipate that's exactly what they'll do.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football prediction: Matt Campbell's chaos sharpens Cyclones
