No, it's not more bad news for Iowa State's athletics programs...

If you have taken a jaunt around the SBNation blogosphere, whatsoever, you'll have noticed that most of the blogs have upgraded to a newer, shinier platform. A couple of my favorites, SouthSideSox and StampedeBlue are already on the new platform.

So, a week from today, CloneChronicles will get a whole new look, as well as a whole lot of new features. I encourage all of you to take a look at some other blogs and check out the features. It'll provide a much cleaner setup from my end, as well as many more resources at our fingertips. Moreover, it will provide for greater fan interaction. You guys will dig it. For now, a sneak peek at what we've got prepared right now:

I've gotten to play around with SBN 2.0. If you visit some other blogs, you can too. It's pretty freakin' awesome.

The Ames Tribune focuses on assistant coach Scott Fountain and his view of the new H-Back position. According to Fountain, only Derrick Catlett and Taylor Mansfield are natural fits for the position, so chances are we'll see Collin Franklin only lining up at tight end for the time being.

The ISU football program will be picking up two walkons from the northeast corner of the state. OL Drew Davis of Dubuque Wahlert and WR Patrick Mulcahy both accepted offers to walk on in the fall. Davis is already huge at 6-8, 310 pounds, and is a lifelong Cyclone fan to boot. Mulcahy led 2A in receptions last year, and, at 6-6, is another large addition to the roster.

The men's basketball team is hosting something called the World Vision Basketball Classic on November 14-16. The Cyclones will host UC Davis, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Loyola Marymount.

The football team's tenth spring practice was full of offense. Let's hope that isn't a bad sign for our defense....

The stock of 2010 hometown recruit Harrison Barnes just keeps rising. He lives in Ames - he's a must get.

Cael Sanderson loses JUCO recruit Colby Covington to the Hawks.

So, here's a target for Cael - Byron Tate of Bettendorf.

Toccara Ross will get an extra year to play, meaning that the ISU women's basketball team will return their entire roster. Bad news for the Big 12.

Have an enjoyable VEISHEA weekend - if you like snow, that is. Try to refrain from rioting as well.

Cyclones.com released rough renderings of how Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum will look like post-logo switch this summer.

The football field and court will both look much cleaner and simpler with the new logo. My favorite of the new adjustments, however, is a rendering of a possible new mascot by wolverine68 at CycloneFanatic.

Dramatic improvment? I think so.

Just got an alert thru ISUAlert of an armed gunman at Willow Hall, where I used to live. I know there's not that many people on campus with Spring Break, but please take care.

EDIT: All clear sounded, suspect found in Willow. Great news.

Just a few notes today.

Iowa State's football schedule was tough this past year, but Phil Steele lets us know just how tough.

Overall Strength of Schedule: 11th
Opposing Pass Offenses: 3rd
Opposing Scoring Offenses: 1st

That's pretty impressive when you consider Iowa as part of the mix. Between the pass happy attacks of Tech, Missouri, Kansas and the like, our defense had a monumental task ahead of it, and, after the Texas game, they didn't do horribly. Rest assured, things get easier next year.

McDermott hates turnovers, but loved seeing a serious lack of them against the Sioux.

The Grand Forks Herald, for some reason, has a pretty good read on McDermott.

Five year later, Iowa State - one of the country's top programs - came calling. McDermott listened and answered the call.

Um, what now?

The article is a really good one, however, and it paints a picture of McDermott as a guy who feels that he's at the highest level now.

There really isn't much going on in the world of Iowa State athletics.

RockChalkTalk's interview with KU head baseball coach Ritch Price ends on a really interesting note.

Given events in Oregon, is there any reason for increased hope that Iowa State and Colorado will restart their programs? - "There are rumors about Iowa State."

Maybe Price has heard something, maybe he hasn't, but I can't imagine we'd try and tackle adding a baseball program back at this point.

The Big 12 is number 1 in the RPI. Looks like the conference will break into three groups, the good (KU, Texas, aTm), the questionable middle (OU, Tech, Baylor, Mizzou, KState) and the cripple fight at the bottom (OSU, Nebraska, ISU, CU).

Check out Cam Lee supposedly throwing it down at practice, making some poor guy his bitch.

Men's basketball plays Albany on Sunday. Hopefully the team can bounce back from the game against Alabama where they were simply just shot out of the building.

The wrestling team is at the Midlands this weekend, looking to capture their second straight title.

The Miami Hurricanes have interviewed Dan McCarney for their DC position.

Lucca Staiger says he's not too worked up about not being able to play this year, in a very poorly edited article from the Des Moines Register.

Toccara Ross will try for a medical hardship redshirt.

I'm out the door!

The week starts a hell of a lot easier after you realize, hey, maybe we don't suck.

To start out, ISU-Kansas has been picked for ABC at 2:30 p.m.. Our last two games really excite me. There's no reason we can't win over a Colorado team that was handled pretty easily by Kansas State and does not have a North win this year. I honestly think that we could win by two possessions if things break right.

As far as Kansas, we'll get a better read on them against Oklahoma State in a game that shouldn't be a cakewalk. I also fully expect Iowa State to give them a decent challenge.

Chris Singleton has been named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for his two-pick, one-touchdown game on Saturday. He joins Bret Culbertson as ISU's two Big 12 award winners this year. I've always been on Singleton for having talent but not being able to tackle or make plays. It really looks like he's starting to thrive in Bolt's system.

Other fun stuff from the Big 12's weekly release:

    Iowa State can still finish ahead of Nebraska in the North. Heh.

    ISU is 8th in average home attendance, ahead of Kansas State, Kansas (!), Oklahoma State and Baylor.

    Chris Singleton is tied for second in the Big 12 with four interceptions.

    Alvin Bowen is 8th in the conference in tackles with 85. Failure.

    Kurtis Taylor is 2nd in the Big 12 with 6.5 sacks.

Scoring Offense: 12th
Rushing Offense: 10th
Pass Offense: 11th
Total Offense: 12th
Scoring Defense: 10th
Rushing Defense: 7th
Pass Defense: 6th
Total Defense: 6th

I wonder where our issues lie?

McDermott thinks that both Rahshon Clark and Jiri Hubalek will be ready for the Cyclone Challenge on Friday.

How do you close out a team? The ISU women did it with a 42-2 run yesterday against Iowa Wesleyan in a 101-38 exhibition win. Yeesh.

This week's BlogPoll ballot. Criticisms and general....well, you know.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Oregon	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Missouri	4
5	LSU	--
6	Kansas	3
7	West Virginia	--
8	Boston College	6
9	Virginia Tech	1
10	Arizona State	4
11	Georgia	1
12	Southern Cal	1
13	Florida	2
14	Alabama	1
15	Michigan	1
16	Connecticut	--
17	Auburn	2
18	Texas	1
19	Hawaii	1
20	Tennessee	2
21	Clemson	3
22	Virginia	4
23	Kentucky	3
24	California	2
25	Penn State	1

Cyclones.com

Apparently, we're not just stopping with uniforms.

Iowa State University Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard will unveil a new football helmet, drawings of home and road uniforms and a graphics identity for the athletics department at a news conference. All elements will be implemented in 2008-09.

Sounds like the new logo isn't just for football helmets. It's going to be interesting to see what comes of this. Whatever we pick, I hope they stick it on a gold helmet, not white.

The Kansas City Star has a nice little preview of the Toledo game.

Iowa State's secondary has improved, but it's still kinda bad. Sounds like Caleb Berg will miss another game, too.

The Houston Chronicle gives us one little fact about State, but at least it's interesting.

Iowa State used five field goals from Bret Culbertson to beat intrastate rival Iowa 15-13 for Gene Chizik's first victory as a head coach. The last time the Cyclones won a game without scoring a touchdown was in 1948 — 2-0 against Drake.

Tom Dienhart says something nice about Iowa State. I think. Wait....maybe?

Andrew Long, wrestler from Creston, likes the draw of the Cyclone program and commits.

"Cael Sanderson asked me if I liked it there, and if I had a good future in mind there," Andrew said. "I said, ‘yeah, most likely.’ Then later (assistant) Tim Hartung said it feels great to be a Cyclone, doesn’t it? I said, ‘it sure does!’ I watched them practice, and I met with the wrestling academic counselor."

Meh, I hate Hawk fans with access to mass media.

Gene Chizik celebrated the Iowa win in the coolest way possible.

So Gene Chizik went home and rested Saturday.

"I ate pizza with my kids and went to sleep," said Iowa State's head coach. "I watched a bit of football. It was an awesome night. I slept good, slept good Saturday night."

Cyclone fans are just going to learn to love this guy more and more.