It's been Matt Campbell's mantra since the day he stepped off the plane in Ames as Iowa State's head football coach. And he's been right almost every step of the way.
Saturday was another — although not perfect — example of this.
You may have heard, but the NCAA changed its redshirting rules. This is the first season where they've allowed freshman players to appear in four games and still redshirt. Prior to this year, an NCAA panel would take a case-by-case basis as to whether the athlete in question played a "significant portion of the season."
Iowa State's schedule isn't exactly loaded with cupcakes. So when a team from the Mid-American Conference — in this case, Akron — comes to Ames, you have to take full advantage of the snaps that could arise from a game that starts to get out of hand. And even when the game isn't completely out of hand, but your young guys can just keep the boat afloat, you have to take those opportunities.
That's what Iowa State did on Saturday while walking away with a workmanlike 26-13 win.
Outside of the offensive line, the Cyclones rotated heavily at nearly every position. Because of this, I wouldn't read all that much into the details of the performance. They won and got experience for the young pups.
In a non-conference game against a MAC team, your main goal is to win. Your next goal is to test lineups and get snaps for particular players while evaluating others. There were clear indications of a formed lineup, who is in the rotation, and who have worked themselves out of position.
For example, DeMonte Ruth started the game, alongside Braxton Lewis and Greg Eisworth, but Lawrence White took a healthy number more snaps — specifically after Ruth was beaten on a route for the Zips' only touchdown.
Also in the feeling-out process, teams will identify their layups. A layup, by my definition, is almost 100 percent. Hakeem Butler has established himself as the layup for the Iowa State offense.
Midway through the second quarter, ISU faced a fourth-and-five at the very extent of field goal range. But more importantly, they were tied and moving into halftime, less than satisfied. Butler was lined up as the No. 2 receiver (the second man in from the outside). There was only one option where to throw the ball on that play. Even as he faced pressure, Zeb Noland was only looking at Butler.
Any third down from that point forward, Noland tried to find Butler, no matter where he was.
ISU had 36 players record a statistic of some kind Saturday. That doesn't include any linemen or those who played but didn't show up in the ledger. You have more than half of Iowa State's active roster who played snaps in crucial portions of a one- or two-score game.
It wasn't all butterflies, though. Every position group had a significant amount of rotation except one ... the one group that needs to come together: the offensive line. There were only six linemen (by my count) who appeared in the game, and Will Windham only got some run because Colin Newell's helmet came off and he had to leave the game.
This tells me that ISU is confident with their team and their depth at every position except one.
"The process" showed up in the form of remarkable depth and a lack of dropoff when younger guys were put in Saturday. It may not have been sexy, but it was what Iowa State needed.
An opportunity for the process to reveal itself in a win in which many contributed — it was a win Saturday and for the future of the program.