When he found out a new coaching staff would be coming in for his senior season at Iowa State, Cyclone linebacker Alvin Bowen talked to his friend Terry Washington to get his take on the situation.

The two had been teammates at Garden City (Kan.) Community College, and Washington, a cornerback, had just spent his senior year playing in Dan Hawkins' first season as coach of the Colorado Buffaloes.

"I didn't want to end up in certain situations he told me happened," Bowen, who declined to divulge what situations Washington spoke of, said this week. "At first, it kind of made me afraid of the whole new coaching staff thing.

"As a person who's been here you worry you'll be put on the back burner. After speaking with the coaching staff, I got enough info from different people to give them a chance. I gave it a whirl and here we are."

With former Texas defensive coordinator Gene Chiziknow running the show, where the Cyclones are is about where the Buffs were at the same point last season: new coaching staff, new system, new ways of doing things on and off the field, plenty of close games but few positive results. Then again, there's also reason for optimism in the Cyclone camp, just as there was for the Buffs a year ago.

After an abysmal start to the season that included losses to Kent State, Northern Iowa and Toledo, the Cyclones have played three straight competitive games. They lost by just 10 to Oklahoma and went toe-to-toe with Missouri before losing by 14. Last week, they beat Kansas State 31-20.

The Buffs' only two wins last season came against Texas Tech after an 0-6 start and against Iowa State in the 11th game of the year. Entering Saturday's clash with the Cyclones in Ames, this year the Buffs are 5-5, one win shy of contending for a bowl bid and already with a win over a top-10 opponent under their belts.

"It's a good situation for me to just look at and understand that there was a progression there just like there will have to be a progression here," Chizik said of the Buffs on the Big 12 coaches conference call Monday. "They've done a great job with it and they're a bowl contender and a team that's night and day better than they were the previous year."

Chizik, who's sought plenty of advice from his former boss, Texas head coach Mack Brown, said there's been no magic formula he's used to get his players to buy in and stay engaged through tough times. He said it's merely been a balancing act of putting pressure on players to improve and correct mistakes while still staying positive and not berating them to the point that their self-esteem goes in the tank and they stop believing they can win.

"It's easy for you to come into a place your first year, and especially if you're not winning, I'm sure it would be easy for a coach to say, 'We need better players,' " Chizik said. "And we've never done that. This is a family deal."

CU cornerback Terrence Wheatley recognizes the parallels between last year's Buffs and this year's Cyclones, and remembered that it took time for the Buffs to adapt to the new coaching staff. Many players, especially veterans, were set in their ways and had a tough time letting go of what they were used to. The Texas Tech victory, he said, was the Aha! moment.

"We finally got it," Wheatley said. "It's kind of hard to buy into something and understand changes when it's not working. But as soon as it works, you're like, 'Oh it does work. Cool, let's keep doing it.' "

Bowen, a 6-foot-2, 218-pounder who leads the Cyclones in tackles this fall, decided early on that he wanted to be part of Iowa State's solution. Still, at 2-8, there have been plenty of tough times.

"Losing hurts, especially as a senior" Bowen said.

But despite his collegiate career drawing to a close, Bowen sees plenty of reasons to avoid packing it in. In addition to simply still getting to play the game he loves, the Cyclones are finally starting to get it.

"Some people would say, 'Oh man, my senior year went down the drain as a rebuilding year,' " Bowen said. "I don't look at it like that. I look at it as we're propelling this university to great things to come."

Reports say Morriss

out at Baylor

WACO, Texas — Baylor coach Guy Morriss won't return for the remaining year on his contract after being unable to produce a winning record in any of his five seasons, two newspapers reported Thursday night.

Morriss, 18-38 at Baylor, will coach the final two games of the season for the Bears (3-7, 0-6 Big 12), the Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News reported on their Web sites in stories citing sources. Baylor plays Saturday at fourth-ranked Oklahoma.