The Football Brainiacs

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I’m thinking it’s probably fair to presume most of you haven’t spent a ton of time watching Iowa State football this season. So with that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to throw out some names to know (hence the not so clever title of this post) as Saturday approaches. Might even toss in an OU name or two just for good measure.

* Sam B. Richardson – If there is one guy on this team even a casual OU fan may be familiar with, it would probably be Richardson. He’s a junior, been the starter off and on in years past, and he’s the kind of guy just athletic enough to keep a play alive and turn nothing into something. As you might expect, he’s not having the most stellar of statistical seasons but is completing over 60% of his passes and is also the team’s leading rusher.

* E.J. Bibbs – This is a name OU fans who follow recruiting should remember as Bibbs was believed to have a final two of the Cyclones and OU at the time of his commitment. He came into the year as the Big 12’s most talented tight end and while he might not be having quite the season some expected, he’s still an incredibly difficult match up for any defense in this league. Mark Mangino will move Bibbs around quite a bit, split him out often, and look for that mismatch to exploit.

* Aaron Wimberly – Second leading rusher on the team behind Richardson and averaging just over four yards per carry. Not a big guy at 5’9″ 177 lbs but they do a lot of stuff with both he and Richardson off the zone read, which helps to create creases in the defense. And if Wimberly can hit a crease, he’s more than capable of picking up big chunks of yards.

* Allen Lazard & D’Vario Montgomery – These guys both stand 6-foot-5-inches tall and give Richardson two big targets on the outside. Both are also coming off one of if not their biggest games of the season against a Texas pass defense that, at the time, was No. 3 in the country. Julian Wilson should be relatively fine given his size, but it will be interesting to see if this is another match-up Mangino can exploit when either are lined up against the much smaller Zack Sanchez.

* Keith Ford – As most of you know by now, Ford returned to practice this week and is expected to see his first action on Saturday since the Tennessee game. It will be interesting to see just how much action he gets in this game, because one would think he shouldn’t be needed all that much. But at the same time you want to try and work him back in to prepare for the big Baylor game next week and the season going forward.

* Jevohn Miller – ISU’s middle linebacker, leading tackler, and arguably their most important player in the middle of that defense that should be tested early and often on the ground by this OU offense. I’d be pretty surprised if he doesn’t put up a somewhat gaudy total tackles number on Saturday, but that could be as much a product of what OU is doing offensively (as we OU fans have seen with some of the stats Dom Alexander has put up at times) than it is anything else.

* Charles Walker – Another OU player making their return from injury, Walker hasn’t actually played since the Tulsa game in which he suffered a knee injury. Like Ford, I’m not expecting to see Walker get a ton of snaps if for no other reason than my assumption is after all the time he’s missed his conditioning won’t really be where it needs to be to warrant a bunch of snaps. But the kid is also a physical freak, so I’m probably wrong and he’ll get a ton of action.