Iowa State football: Midseason report card

Coaching staff: B-

Oct 11, 2014; Ames, IA, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Paul Rhoads watches the action against the Toledo Rockets at Jack Trice Stadium. Iowa State defeated Toledo 37-30. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Sometimes, it feels like Courtney Messingham is still calling plays on the sideline. But Mark Mangino always tends to throw in some creative plays, and let’s hope that the up-tempo offense can succeed against these Big 12 defenses. With how calm and casual the offense looked during it, you can tell they practice it often.

There’s been lots of speculation on head coach Paul Rhoads and his job. Again, I don’t see any reason to make a change especially after he’s retooled his coaching staff — they are only six games in. His teams never quit even when things get away from them, and there has been improvement each week which he’d said there would be..

Iowa State’s overcome the storm of a rough first part of the schedule and even got a couple wins out of it. Now let’s see where the second half takes us.