Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads says this spring has provided a mental challenge as well as a physical one. The new staff is trying to intill a winning mentality in a program that has struggled in recent years.

Rhoads says there’s no hiding the fact that they lost 8 Big 12 football games, they’ve lost 10 straight games and have the longest road losing string in the country.

"Those things take a toll on you, you don’t go about your work and not be affected by that, so most definitely we’ve tried to establish a winning mentality for this football team," Rhoads says. He says they’ve tried to change things by doing drills that build a winning mentality and look to produce results.

Rhoads says they have made it a competitive atmosphere. From January 12th on he says there’s been a consequence for every action mentally and physically and he says they will continue talking about that through the spring, summer and into the fall.

The Cyclones’ spring game is Saturday afternoon.