Father and son coaching defense together
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AMES — It’s just a little more special this season for Wally Burnham, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for the Iowa State football team.
For the first time in his veteran coaching career, Burnham has his son, Shane, on the sidelines with him as defensive tackles coach.
“It’s great,” Wally Burnham said. “We have a good time. When he walks in that room and I walk in that room, we’re coaches. We’re not father and son. It’s been a great experience — something I never thought I’d be able to do, but I’m enjoying it.”
Wally Burnham will be leading a youthful defense this season. On the front four, it’s senior Rashawn Parker at right end, juniors Stephen Reumpolhamer at nose guard and Patrick Neal at left end and sophomore Jake McDonough at defensive tackle.
“They are so young — inexperienced,” Burnham said. “Even the guys that have played a little bit on the front four, they haven’t played a lot of football. That’s a concern. We need them to be a lot better than last year.”
Parker suffered a knee injury last season against Army.
“He’s up to speed, but I don’t if he’s up to the daily grind — you just don’t know until you get out there,” Rhoads said of Parker. “He’s full speed as we start.”
Iowa State was fifth in the Big 12 Conference last season by giving up 21.8 points per game, but both the rush and pass defense were 10th out of 12 schools.
Cyclone football coach Paul Rhoads stresses being a better tackling team.
“When I coach tackling, I want to be the best tackling football team in America,” Rhoads said. “There is no statistic for that, but every week we chart game-by-game how many missed tackles we have as a football team. If you can have that number in single-digits over the course of 60 minutes, you are one of the top tackling teams in the country.”
On defense, Iowa State lost twice as many players than on offense. Outside of Parker, Neal and Bailey Johnson at nose guard, the Cyclones return right cornerback Leonard Johnson and strong safety David Sims.
“We’re young, and we’re inexperienced,” Rhoads said. “We’re going to have to practice our way through that. It’s a group that I think must improve daily and will improve daily.”
Moving from the line to the linebacker, the Cyclones will feature sophomores A.J. Klein and Jake Knott, along with junior Matt Tau’fo’ou.
“It’s got to happen fast — we’re thin at the linebacker position,” Rhoads said. “I don’t think we’ve had a hungrier and more intent group of players than that linebacking core. It’s the position that has to improve the most. I think that group will do exactly that.”
Klein played all 13 games last year as a freshman.
“I’d like to be a leader — who doesn’t?” Klein said. “I know I spent a lot of time in the film room this summer and caught up on the learning curve. Hopefully I can put it into action now.”
The linebackers, like most of the defense, is pretty inexperienced, and Klein realizes that.
“The more we can improve, the better we’ll be,” Klein said. “Coach (Wally) Burnham always says two percent better every day. If we can do that, we will come out a better football team, and we’ll be more prepared to win some football games this year.”
Cornerback will feature junior Leonard Johnson — a two-year letterwinner — and Ter’ran Benton, also a junior.
“He’s a very focused young man right now,” Rhoads said of Johnson. “He does not feel he played up to his level a year ago. He just began to learn how to play cornerback in the last year in my opinion as a former defensive back coach. I don’t have any doubt he’ll have an outstanding fall camp.”
Filling out the defense will be Sims and senior Michael O’Connell at free safety.
The Cyclones will be without one of its returning five starters when the teams opens up Sept. 2 against Northern Illinois. Sims will be serving a one-game suspension after being charged with a misdemeanor after unlawfully charging nearly $600 to a credit card that had been reported stolen.
There is one common theme for the defense this season — getting a youthful bunch to get bette day-by-day.
“We’re going to take it real slow here in camp,” Burnham said. “We’re going to install one or two defenses each day, one or two coverages each day. Then we’re going to start all over again — make sure we got it down.”
