The Iowa State football team arrived in Memphis Wednesday in preparation for the Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Cyclones also had their first practice at Rhodes College the same day. Cyclone Coach Paul Rhoads said there are various events scheduled for the team through the week along with the practices.  “The schedule by the Liberty Bowl is very accommodating, there are certain things that we’re involved with, but we practice in the morning to try and avoid those,” Rhoads said.

Today (Thursday) there’s an event that has them switching around the schedule. “So we’ve got to practice in the afternoon and have meetings in the morning, so there’s that kind of adjusting that you have to do. But our maturity I think will be able to handle that,” Rhoads said.

One event will have some players visit the St. Judes Research Hospital, while Saturday night the players will attend an NBA game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Denver Nuggets. The teams will wrap up practices with a walk-through and photo session at the Liberty Bowl Stadium on Sunday. Then it’s the game against Tulsa on Monday at 2:30 Iowa time. The 6-6 Cyclones got one of their victories against Tulas in the season opener in Ames. Tulsa went on to win 10 games and had only two more losses.

(Radio Iowa Sports)