Week 10 Player To Watch: David Montgomery

Kansas (1-8) is certainly no giant in the college football world, which ruins my David and Goliath metaphor before it even gets started. Kansas is no Goliath. Honestly, I was just trying to find a creative way to introduce David Montgomery. Now that I’ve failed to do so, let’s just get to the point.

Kansas is bad. Very bad. Perhaps the worst. This is good news for Iowa State, who hopefully will prove to be less bad in a game against the Jayhawks that very few people will probably watch. There isn’t much viewing appeal for the average fan in a game between two 1-8 teams, but there are plenty of interesting things to watch for as Iowa State fans.

The Park-Lanning experiment will continue, but that’s not the only place on Iowa State’s depth chart that features the “or” designation.

Mike Warren has been an interesting case this year. He leads the team on the ground with 530 yards on a team-high 124 carries, but that’s a far cry from the success Warren saw last year. It also seems that Warren has found himself in Matt Campbell’s dog house a few times this year.

Regardless of what may or may not be going on behind the scenes, it’s likely that we will see all three RBs hit the field this weekend. In his weekly presser, Matt Campbell said Mike Warren is cleared and practicing. He also said he is comfortable with all three guys and that he sees each player as a positive for Iowa State.

With Warren’s production and workload being something of a mystery at this point, David Montgomery becomes this week’s player to watch. He’s third on the team in rushing (behind Warren and Lanning) with 53 carries for 222 yards, which is significantly more touches than Kene Nwangwu has gotten (17 carries for 62 yards).

Iowa State’s offensive line has been torn apart this season, but there is no excuse for not finding success on the ground (and, really, everywhere else) against this Kansas team. I’m interested to see the workload each running back gets, and how Matt Campbell and Co. decide to use them.

All three should be primed for success this weekend. It sounds like all three will get opportunities — it’s just about who makes the most of them. In that respect, we just might see if David Montgomery becomes the Goliath of Iowa State’s backfield.

Which, I guess would be a bad thing because it means he’ll get beaten out by some other David? I don’t know. This attempted metaphor really, really did not work. Just rack up a bunch of yards, and maybe a few scores, Mr. Montgomery.