Cyclones Complete Practice No. 3 On Warm Saturday

AMES, Iowa - For Iowa State defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, the 90-degree temperatures ISU players practiced in Saturday were like a long lost friend.

"This is the first hot day I've experienced since I've been in Iowa," said Burnham, who came to the state in February.

Indeed, mild temperatures have graced central Iowa all summer.  For a coach that has worked his players at South Florida, Florida State and South Carolina, the balmy weather was welcome.

"It is important that our players get safely tested by the weather," Burnham said. "It is good conditioning and our guys were tired late in practice today. "It would be like this every day during August in Florida and it will be a factor during the season."

Burnham said progress is being made.

"Our veterans are improving," Burnham said. "The young guys are being tested.  You can tell that the older guys are getting back to implementing what they learned this spring."

Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads remembered fall practice that preceded the 1998 season at ISU.

"It had been a cool summer, like this," Rhoads said. "Then we opened the season against TCU and just wilted in the second half. I don't want that to happen again."

The Cyclones will be back at it Sunday.