AMES - Iowa State’s depth chart is moving, and Makai Sat is the latest proof.
A few weeks ago, the 6-foot-2, 335-pound offensive guard wasn’t dressing for games and didn’t even show up on the Cyclones’ depth chart. Now he’s in line to make his third straight start Saturday at Baylor, a sudden climb for a player who arrived as a walk-on last season and was once viewed as a longshot JUCO prospect.
Sat’s rise fits the message head coach Jimmy Rogers laid out when he met with reporters in early August. The chart, he said, would never be fixed in place.
“It’s their job to go prove their truth,” Rogers said in early August.
That idea has played out quickly with Sat, who helped Iowa State earn a huge offensive night in last week’s 51-49 win over then-No. 24 Oklahoma State.
He did not allow a pressure on quarterback Jaylen Raynor, who threw for a season-high 308 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, including three through the air and one on the ground. Freshman receiver Jamal Polite Jr. caught 171 of those passing yards, while Aiden Flora kept rolling with 221 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Sat’s work has also helped protect the Big 12’s leading rusher. Flora is averaging 117.1 yards per game on the ground, and the Cyclones will need that same kind of support again when they face Baylor (5-3, 3-2) at 11 a.m.
Saturday at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas. Iowa State enters at 4-4 and 2-3 in the Big 12.
“What a neat story,” first-year offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl said. “For someone like that who came here and really (hadn’t seen) any playing time - we didn’t get a good evaluation of him in fall camp because he was hurt.
So we don’t know. And you just kind of jkeep watching, and let him do some good on good, and he just kind of flashes.
(And) in the bye week and it’s like, ‘Let’s roll with this young man. He’s playing with violence.
He has good leverage. He has high desire to compete - and that’s all we need up front.”
For Rogers, Sat’s emergence is exactly the kind of internal competition he wants to keep alive.
“I think our willingness to move the roster around and give people opportunities is (proof) you’ve gotta earn your keep every single day, just as we do as coaches,” Rogers said. “I think when you’re honest with people and you tell them the truth, and then you change things based on what people aren’t doing, and allowing people to have their own time to shine, it allows for a heightened sense of awareness at practice, which I think is where great teams separate themselves.”
Sat said the jump caught him off guard at first, but he adjusted quickly.
“It was a bit of a surprise for me,” Sat said of finally earning significant playing time. “It kind of shocked me a little bit when I first heard it, but I quickly tried to go with the flow and act like that guy, act like that role, and go on about it.”
That’s the path Iowa State is selling in year one under Rogers: no one is locked in, and no one is forgotten. Sat’s climb from the bottom of the roster to a starting role is the clearest example yet.
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