Iowa State football: What are the expectations on offense and at quarterback?

It’s that time of the year where the sports calendar is about to enter the doldrums of baseball season. Since Iowa State won’t be fielding a team in that sport anytime soon, that leaves us with a longer gap to await and discuss the upcoming football season.

Of course, there’s been more news surrounding the men’s basketball program after it’s terrific run to the Sweet 16, completing its roster next season with transfers, and non-stop speculation on Fred Hoiberg and the NBA.

But that shouldn’t completely overshadow the exciting future of the Iowa State football program. Lots of changes have been made to avoid another season like last year, and Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register breaks down the FAQs heading into the summer.

Here’s the article in CliffsNotes form:

• After a great spring practice, Grant Rohach should be the guy you’ll see under center on opening day. Expect that to be public knowledge later in the summer.
• Iowa State is going to keep their lips tight on what the offense is going to be. Don’t expect mind-blowing changes or something you haven’t seen before. In fact, a lot of it could be the same, but it will be better under new offensive coordinator Mark Mangino.
• The Cyclones have another rough schedule ahead of them in 2014. Six of their nine Big 12 opponents and Iowa can be found on multiple preseason top 25 polls.
• Who’s going to fill the two spots on the defensive line left by David Irving and Rodney Coe? It’s going to be the most interesting battle in practice.
• Tom Farniok and Nigel Tribune are two of the most important players on the team this upcoming season. Farniok is the anchor of the offense at center while Tribune has the talent to become a “lockdown” defender.

It’d be hard to argue that Rohach isn’t the favorite to start at the quarterback position. He showed great improvement toward the latter part of the season.

Whatever offense they run, it would benefit everyone if the Cyclones were finally able to establish a threatening running game that could give any of their young quarterbacks more time to throw the ball.

The offensive line can’t get any worse than it was last year, and it knows it will have to be much better to keep Rohach in the game — he won’t be scrambling nearly as much as Sam Richardson did.