I recently watched Iowa State’s bowl game against Washington State and noted that their usage of 12 personnel was still ticking upwards at that point. I read on 247 that they spent 40% of the season in 12 personnel, which is quite a bit.
Over at Football Study Hall I took stock of their offensive situation, which is short on established skill talent but long on infrastructure pieces at OL, TE, and QB.
When you have a system and pieces like that in place that know how to attack defenses, then your skill talent doesn’t have to include a RB who can’t be tackled or a 6-6/220 pound TE who runs >4.5. I’m betting that Deshaunte Jones and Tarique Milton will do just fine as teams forget about them while trying to work out how to stay in sound fronts and matchups against the run game and multiple 6-5 TEs.
Don’t sleep on Iowa State going 6-3 again or better in league play next season.