Iowa State quarterbacks, from left, Jerome Tiller, Steele Jantz and Jared Barnett will compete for the starting spot in fall camp.
Note: This is the second in a five-part series looking into the state of the Iowa State football program.
There is no litmus test for quarterbacks. No drill to see if someone is ready to run a college football team.
Iowa State University quarterback prospect Steele Jantz, however, may have found the closest thing to it.
“Everything you do at quarterback is for the time when a 300-pound defensive tackle is going to hit you and you only have a split second,” Jantz said. “Can you make the right read? Can you put the ball in the right spot? Can you make the play?”
Can Iowa State find someone to do that this fall?
Quarterback development is one of the biggest tasks a Division I football program faces. It can mean the difference between a losing record or playing in a bowl game, even as much as playing in a December bowl or for the national title.
With thee-year starter Austen Arnaud gone, developing a suitable replacement is a high priority in the football office.
Ensuring it happens may be the key to ISU’s achieving not only its short-term plans of getting back to a bowl game for the second time in three years, but also its long-term hopes of fielding a Big 12 championship team.
And it starts with getting a quarterback who can complete a pass with a defensive tackle about to plant him in the ground.
Offensive coordinator Tom Herman said, “You are training yourself so that in those 2.2 seconds you have there is no thinking — regardless of what’s happening.”
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Those 2.2 seconds have been a problem, especially when Arnaud’s not under center.
The Cyclones averaged 22.9 points in games Arnaud started the last three years. With anyone else, the offense sputtered along, averaging only 6.3 points.
“I don’t think we’ve come far enough with the development of the fundamentals, mechanics at that position,” coach Paul Rhoads said.
Rhoads said he isn’t placing blame on anyone for it. It’s just a numbers game at quarterback. Unlike wide receiver, where players rotate in and out all game long, only one quarterback can play and when you inherit a returning starter, he’s going to get most of the action.
It does create an issue when the starter graduates.
“You can do all the quarterback drills, all the individual practice time that you want, but when you are out there on the game field, when the lights are on and you have to make those decisions and make those throws, you develop so much more and our guys haven’t done that,” Rhoads said.
When the 2010 season ended, the coaching staff knew no one was ready to come in the next day and do everything they needed ISU’s quarterback to do.
That was a concern. Fixing it became a focal point.
Jantz, a City College of San Francisco junior college quarterback transfer, was brought in for the spring semester to compete with Jerome Tiller, James Capello and Jared Barnett for the job. (Capello transferred to Tiffin University after spring practice.)
Tiller, a junior, is the favorite and currently is No. 1 on the depth chart thanks to his experience — he’s started three games over the last two seasons — but must be more accurate.
Jantz, a junior, was signed because of his leadership and ability to make plays, but he needs to learn the offense.
Barnett, a redshirt freshman, has promise and potential, but is short on college experience.
Reps were evenly divided this spring, getting everyone as much experience, especially in scrimmages, as possible with the hopes of quickening everyone’s learning curve.
“We know strengths,” Rhoads said. “We know limitations. Now we’ve got to develop the strengths that we’ve been exposed to, and we’ve got to minimize what we can do with the limitations.”
Even though Rhoads and Herman repeatedly say they don’t ask their quarterbacks to win games, nearly everyone in the program, from coaches down to walk ons, believes in the football mantra that quarterback is the toughest, and possibly most important, position in sports.
Without Robert Griffith III, Baylor is a Big 12 cellar dweller. With him, the Bears made their first bowl game in 17 years. Before Cam Newton, Auburn was an eight-win team. With him, the Tigers won the 2010 national title.
“As a quarterback grows, the team also grows,” Barnett said. “You can’t have a bad quarterback and have a great team.”
Not having someone capable of making plays in those 2.2 seconds would severely limit a Cyclone offense that quarterback Tiller said “has more playmakers than ever before.”
“If your quarterback doesn’t develop, your team isn’t going to win,” Tiller said. “You aren’t going to move the ball up and down the field. If he isn’t consistent, it’s tough on a team.”
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Two summers ago Herman’s approach to quarterbacking changed.
He visited Northwestern. He studied under Wildcat offensive coordinator Mick McCall.
He learned about McCall’s saying: Timing and ball placement never lose. A new appreciation of accuracy was born.
“There is no coverage, no scheme, no ‘my guy is better than your guy on defense’ where timing and ball placement won’t win out,” Herman said.
Timing and ball placement. It’s a big part of how Herman judges if his quarterback does the right thing when that defensive tackle is about to hit him.
Consistently putting the football in the right spot, at the right time, is the end result Herman seeks in quarterback development.
“You can’t survive in today’s game without it,” Herman said.
But getting there doesn’t happen overnight, even if the Cyclones needed their signal callers to get their quickly.
Quarterbacks must memorize new playbooks, adjust to the pace of the college game, learn to read defenses and hone leadership skills, all while working on their fundamentals.
Tiller is in his third year in Herman’s spread offense and says he is still a work in progress. Barnett feels comfortable with the offense, but is working on his arm strength.
And Jantz wants as many reps as possible so he can feel comfortable running the plays.
“Playing quarterback in the Big 12 is a pretty difficult thing to do,” Rhoads said. “It takes time and a lot of study.”
Even for the coaches.
The staff searches the country for someone with an accurate arm — “As I sit there I want to see the quarterback throw the ball on the spot,” Rhoads said — who makes good decisions and is a natural leader.
The precision passing is easy to notice. Talking to high school coaches answers the decision-making questions.
The leadership takes some digging. Herman likes to talk to the counselors, English teachers or even study hall monitors who “won’t give you the party line.”
“If you do your job in recruiting the rest is easier,” Herman said.
Herman thinks of quarterbacks like snowflakes. No two have the same imperfections. The development of each one is a unique process.
He tries not to change the throwing motion of his quarterbacks unless their mechanics are out of whack.
But he does work on footwork. He believes it is the most underdeveloped skill in high school quarterbacks because they don’t need it. Most can make plays without it.
“There is a progression to everything we do,” Herman said. “It’s all tied to your feet, and your feet will tell you when to throw the ball. We are a rhythm throw offense. So it’s not just take three steps and bounce around until you find someone open.”
Improving decision making is simple in theory, but harder in practice. It requires memorizing coverages, protections, hot routes and what to do if something is shown to you.
It’s a lot like an algebra problem. If X (a defense plays man) and Y ( a cornerback blitzes) happen, you do Z (you throw to the running back in the flat) .
And if it all works out, the ball ends up in the correct location at the right time.
“I can help with the feet and the brain,” Herman said. “The arm part is something that is usually ingrained.”
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Despite all the work Herman does, there are some things he can’t develop.
Making a play once the designed play breaks down is one. The “it” factor is another.
Different coaches call it different things — charisma, leadership, an ability to always make the right play — but it is always used to describe the same player, a successful signal caller.
Herman thinks “it” quarterbacks can be like finding presidents.
The Republicans knew they had one in Ronald Reagan. Same with the Democrats and Barack Obama.
Herman’s still looking for his.
“The real successful guys may not be the smartest, may not be the most talented, but they are the ones that have that factor, that leadership, drive, whatever the case may be,” he said.
Herman’s seeing if he can develop “it” — or at least develop leadership skills.
During the spring, he made the quarterbacks read John Maxwell’s “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader.” Each practice, the Cyclones would try to embody qualities such as being a great communicator or listener.
“We would go around the room and talk about each chapter and talk about how it applied to football,” Barnett said.
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Test day is almost here.
Fall camp opens Friday. The first game is Sept. 3.
The quarterbacks will get a few weeks to show how much they’ve developed. How much they’ve improved their accuracy. How much they’ve grown as decision makers.
How well they’ve learned the offense, and how much they can help it.
“This is a big opportunity,” Jantz said.
Not just for the quarterbacks, but for the offense, for the program.
And the one that passes the test, that gets named the starter, will be the one who makes a play in the 2.2 seconds he has before the defensive tackle hits him.
“If you can do that, you can do anything,” Jantz said.
Bobby La Gesse can be reached at (515) 663-6929 or rlagesse@amestrib.com.
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