If Saturday night’s Iowa State/UNI matchup goes down to the wire it won’t be a surprise to Cyclone senior running back Jeff Woody. The Altoona native played in the 2011 game in which ISU scored late to edge the Panthers 20-19.
“The guys that have been around for that game — and even the game before when I think we only scored 13 offensive points and had two defensive touchdowns, the score was bigger, but it was an even tighter game — so when you play UNI and you watch the film on UNI, you know that there’s nothing close and there’s nothing easy about it. They are just as good as any team that we are gonna play,” Woody says.
Woody says UNI is tough to play against because they are “gritty” and have talent, are fast and athletic. He says they do all kinds of things defensively with slants and twists to confuse you on offense.
Woody says the key for the Iowa State offense is figuring out who to block on each play. He says their defense won’t play a straight gap and that is the thing they do well.
Woody says because of the variety of looks the UNI defense will give them film study will be even more important.