AMES — Iowa State University football head coach Paul Rhoads minced few words about the Cyclone defense at the team’s annual Media Day Thursday.
“We have to get better in our front seven,” he said. “We feel like our secondary is going to be OK, but the guys up front need to make more plays.
“Our interior defensive lineman need to improve,” Rhoads added. “It is one thing to beat your guy, our fill in a gap, but it is another to push an offensive lineman back into the quarterback and make him move his feet, or force a play to stop and change direction and maybe push it outside. Those things have to happen more often.”
Iowa State was 2-10 last season and finished winless in Big 12 play. The Cylcones are just 5-19 the past two years and have not won a conference game since Nov. 20, 2013, with difficulties in the defensive line hampering the team’s efforts to raise their record.
Improved play along the defensive line — especially at the two tackle positions — will help keep blockers off the Cyclone linebackers, with former Perry standout Kane Seeley hopeful he will again be called upon to start in the middle, or “Mike” position.
Seeley, a 6-2, 239-pound redshirt junior, is competing for playing time with JUCO transfer Jordan Harris, a 6-0, 233 redshirt junior from Clarksdale, Miss.
“We have confidence in both of them,” Rhoads said of Seeley and Harris.
Seeley played in all 12 games last season, starting the final five, in which he made 45 of his 52 tackles.
“Once Kane took over you saw his production grow each game as he became more and more confident,” Rhoads said. “What he needs to do is become a faster linebacker. Kane can run fast, but he needs to be faster as a linebacker. That is accomplished by taking shorter, quicker steps as opposed to longer strides in getting from point A to point B.”
None of that is news to Seeley, who said improving his “quick twitch” had been a focus of his off-season workouts.
“I have been really putting in a lot of time on improving my reaction time, of getting to the ball faster,” he said. “I think the coaches are fine with my speed, but I need to be quicker. I know that, and am working as hard as I can on it.”
Cyclone defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said Seeley’s work ethic left little room for complaint.
“He works as hard as anybody and never complains,” he stated. “Hustle and devotion are never going to be an issue with him. He is as motivated as they come and we are looking forward to seeing him continue to improve.”
Seeley’s dedication extends to the classroom. He was a Big 12 First Team All-Academic selection as a freshman and earned Second Team honors as a sophomore. At least Second Team — and perhaps a return to First Team — is guaranteed for this year.
“He is the kind of young man we don’t have to lose any time worrying about, and it speaks well to the kind of person he is off the field,” Burnham said. “Kane is steady all-around and you know the worst you will get is his best effort, and that is all the coaches ask.”
