Cykron

"The fighting Matt Campbells went 8-5 last season, but two of their wins were really impressive. On the defensive side of the ball, they are coached by Jim Heacock, who was regularly one of the top coordinators in the game when he coached at Ohio State." Surely he is joking, right? The Iowa State DC is Jon Heacock, former head coach at Youngstown State.

Here is an entire thread with videos and comments about the tornadoes. cyclonefanatic.com/forum/threads/weather-7-19-18

Too soon? Here is our part of our pregame at Jack Trice Stadium:

In the lore of Iowa State sports is the "tornado game" against Colorado. They evacuated the stadium before the game. Here is a video of a tornado going right over our central campus. That was a freaky day. A tornado passed about 1/4 mile west of our house, jumped over the house of a friend a mile north of us, and destroyed the house next door to them. http://www.espn.in/college-football/news/story?id=2222298

Yeah, it is pretty crazy. Here is a little video that shows a tornado forming (look between the houses) in this video taken by the publisher of our cyclonefanatic.com site. https://twitter.com/ChrisMWilliams?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

I sent you a message with the location of our tailgate. Hope you have a great time in Ames . . . but not too great during the game!

$ure, there are way$ to make thi$ happen! In the photo and map above, you will see three sections just south of the stadium (the map has north at the top and the photo has south at the top, sorry about that). However, the S-3 lot has been replaced by a Reiman Gardens "transition" between the Reiman Gardens to the south of the stadium (Reimans gave the first $25 mil for the new south endzone), so spots immediately south of the stadium are even harder to get. Essentially, if you want to be close, then you want any S-lot, 85W, 85E, or A-4, B-6, C-6, D-4 (the lots just across the street north of the stadium). As the Akron game is probably not the highest priority for some of our fans (unlike me), there will be parking passes for sale. You can find them on our CycloneFanatic.com site (there is a Ticket Exchange forum). Or I can put you in touch with the local guy who always has the best tickets (no, I'm not him, but I see him at every game). Parking passes are sold to season ticket holding donors, but given as individual rearview mirror hangers for each game (with the opponent's logo on it). This makes it possible to sell them for individual games. $50 would be a bargain for a good parking pass. I know of someone who sold a great S-lot parking pass last year for $250 for our first game. Expect to pay at least $100. If you are willing to park in the grass east of the stadium (G-7), you can probably get one for $50.

And this shows no grass lot parking (which doubles what you see), no parking around Hilton (BB), and no street parking. I recommend parking in the area at the very bottom of this photo (there is even more below the cutoff of the photo).

Recently heard from a Zips fan who is coming to the game and asked about local info, so I thought I would share it here. 1. Ames hotels will have game-day price-gouging. However, hotels within an hour (Ankeny, Des Moines, Story City, Boone, Newton, etc.) will be more normal in price. If you want Ames hotels, the Radisson and Best Western are walkable south of the stadium. GrandStay Suites is on 16th near Duff and is walkable, but longer. Most of the other hotels in Ames are on the southeast corner (near the I-35/US-30 interchange), northeast (on 13th Street near the I-35 interchange), or southwest (Hilton Garden Inn), but none of these are within walking distance of the stadium. 2. If you want a college town experience, stay in Ames and take Uber around town. If you want a more "urban" experience (at least as much as you can get in Iowa), stay downtown Des Moines (not West Des Moines which is suburban). If you just want a not-so-far hotel, stay in the Des Moines metro (Ankeny, West Des Moines, Altoona). 3. On Gameday, if you intend to tailgate on your own, there is plenty of public parking (free on city streets, $20 in lots near the stadium) which will be fine unless it rains and they close grass lots. I would recommend the paved and grass lots around Hilton Coliseum (our basketball arena) or the G-4 and G-5 grass lots southeast of campus. Avoid G-2 and G-3 unless you want to tailgate with drunk undergraduates. Tailgating is a big, big deal for us. A few years ago, we were quantified as the most loyal fan base (attendance over 3 years divided by wins) and it was largely because of the tailgating. We start on Friday morning when the RV lots open. Gameday lots open 6 hours before kickoff (and there will be a line) or 7am if you have a parking pass from a season ticket holder. 4. I would recommend that you park near Hilton and walk to our tailgate. We will probably be serving 150+ anyway. Some of you saw what we did in Lot 4 in Akron. It is that and much more in Ames. My hope is to be an Akron-safe-zone (as my wife is from Akron) with lots of you joining us. I'll give more info to anyone who wants to know the specifics of our location. 5. The campus is really nice. The athletic facilities are southeast of campus. I would encourage you to walk through Central Campus if you like that sort of thing. Lots of cool history too, such as George Washington Carver was a student and faculty. Let me know if you have any questions or need anymore local info.

I like this analysis. Good year to play the Fuskers. https://www.landof10.com/nebraska/nebraska-football-scott-frost-2018-expectations-record-schedule

What's the latest on the demolition of the Rubber Bowl? For instance, are they just going to leave the press box like this? I can't find any photos since the ones posted above. Rest-in-pieces.

The Northwestern RB coach is Lou Ayeni, formerly of Toledo (Kareem Hunt) and Iowa State (Mike Warren, David Montgomery). Great guy and a fantastic recruiter and coach.

Our (my) cultural fixation on football does not always lead to reasonable decisions. For instance, the notion of playing in the NFL has so little chance of coming true, even the really good players, yet it motivates so many, even much lesser players who are getting no objective support for the possibility.

Here's what I do: For possible bowls (and NCAA MBB regional sites), I book award flights for several destinations because I can cancel without penalty the ones I don't need.

R.I.P. Sorry to see it come to this.

Nope. I don't care about the national championship. I care much more about the Akron/Iowa State game!

We have extra season tickets this year. I refer to them as the "best cheap seats" in the stadium. I'll sell them under market value to ZN fans. Let me know if you are interested.

Here is a set of podcasts related to Iowa State published by Cyclone Fanatic. I want to draw your attention to the fourth one on the list. It is long, personal, casual, and almost silly at times (which is the charm of our Friday-After-Work FAWcasts). You might be especially interested to hear him talk about leaving Toledo. Our AD played it perfectly. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cyclone-fanatic/id396542314?mt=2 Also, the second one on the list is a fascinating discussion of the people that Iowa State fans love to hate, including some fine hatred for Aaron Craft.

Only tearing down part of it. Why not all? Seems like it will be quite a monument to forsaken past if they don't clean it up entirely.

Indeed. All Zips fans are welcome (even you jerks who gripe about me being on your site). Tons of food, drink, games. We set up an RV on Friday morning! Glad to provide logistic info for anyone coming.

"I Love the 90's" is the perfect theme for a season that includes playing a game in Lincoln, Nebraska! Those fans remain arrogant as if the 90's were yesterday.

Fusker fans make Buckwheat fans seem humble! They live in the past as if those great teams have any relevance to today. I love your chances in Lincoln.

Buffalo will also play in Columbus (in 2020, I think). Looking forward to wearing blue in that sea of ugly red in order to cheer on my nephew QB!

His comments about how he was taking coaching jobs for the wrong reasons makes me doubt whether he has really changed. Guys with problems love to tell you they have solved their problems. Over/under on years at FAU for Kiffin is 2.5.