Iowa State coach Gene Chizik says for the first time this season nothing positive came out of a game. The Cyclones fell to 1-5 with a 42-17 loss at Texas Tech, a game in which they trailed 21-0 in the opening quarter.
Chizik says it’s the first time he could says they didn’t have any growth in the football team, "I didn’t know if we were ever going to get out of Lubock..You know I thought that we were never in it. I thought we were a bad football team in every way shape and form."
With the next three games coming against Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri the Cyclones figure to be substantial underdogs in all of them. Each week, though there have been stunning upset across the country. Chizik says it has happened with upsets that are "crazy" and he says it shows there’s more parity with players, and it gives you hope.
Chizik says it is important to be ready to play ever week. Chizik spent the past two years on the Texas staff and hopes his familiarity with the program helps in their preparations. He says he probably has more insight than someone who hadn’t been there.
Chizik admits it will be strange coaching against the Longhorns as he has a lot of great friends and players that put it on the line for him when he coached there. Chizik says it will be a strange thing until they kick off. But he says his main goal is to get his team back on track from a game that was "disastrous" in his opinion.
Chizik says there could be some minor changes for this week’s game but the key for the Cyclones in the second half of the season is to just get better at what they do. He says you can’t just scrap everything, but he says they have to get better at some of the things they do.