Editor's note: In the first installment of a three-part series, The Courier analyzes Iowa State's first-year strength coach Yancy McKnight.

AMES - He's part preacher, part motivational speaker.

He's equal parts psychologist and scientist.

Meet Yancy McKnight, quite possibly the key to Iowa State football's hopes for a return to respectability.

Throughout his 13-hour work days this spring, the first-year head strength and conditioning coach has made the Cyclones well aware of the sense of urgency within their complex, spouting such adages as: "Football is all about running and speed. You've gotta get from point A to point B - and arrive with violence."

McKnight, the 37-year-old son of a Marine, exemplifies how a strength coach can have his fingerprints all over a college football program.

"It's the most important position on the staff. I say that without hesitation," noted first-year Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads, "because the strength coach spends more time around the players than anybody. He's got 'em year-round.

"He affects their mental toughness more than I do."

Due to NCAA restrictions, strength and conditioning aids are the only coaches on a football staff allowed 12-month access to players. Thus, there were days earlier this off-season where McKnight was the only coach in Ames keeping an eye on the current Cyclones, while his peers pounded the recruiting trail.

"That is a big responsibility," said McKnight, who, like Rhoads, speaks in a slight southern drawl. "There's a lot of trust between Coach Rhoads and his staff. The thing about being here is there aren't five sets of belief-systems in this building. There's only one.

"'All in,' that's our motto."

Strength and conditioning coaches monitor the progress of student athletes and also motivate them during grueling training - both in-season and out.

And, strength coaches are compensated handsomely these days. Iowa's Chris Doyle earns a base salary of $224,400 annually. This arm's race is all in the name of a quick fix in college football's ever-demanding culture.

McKnight, a Joplin, Mo., native, toiled at Rice in his last job. In comparison, the Big 12 feels like the big leagues.

McKnight's new office, in essence, is Iowa State's 10,000 square-foot Bergstrom Strength and Conditioning Facility. The Cyclones' weight room is lined with racks of dumbbells that run as large as 175 pounds. Two roughly 60-inch flat-screen Samsung TVs hang from the ceiling.

After a "nomadic" stint spent toiling in locales like Ruston, La., McKnight finally feels at home.

Now, he'd like to set up stakes. Of course, McKnight knows he must help spark a Cyclone resurgence to do so.

Fortunately, he has assets at his disposal with three football-only conditioning assistants, a budget that funds for "up to $50,000 a year" in dietary supplements for players, and - most importantly - Iowa State players instilled with a solid work ethic.

"The thing I see here is they have a will to work hard," the coach noted. "We're not at the top of the mountain, but we're climbing."

McKnight's immediate mission is to build leaner linemen, in the mold of the NFL's Denver Broncos, "so we can go on an eight-play drive that's rapid-fire tempo."

The results have already been eye-opening.

Sophomore offensive lineman Zach Spears, for example, lost nearly 30 pounds in winter conditioning, and now stands 6-foot-6, 306 pounds with more agility. At Rice, McKnight helped mold tight end James Casey into a NFL draftee that can currently bench press 410 pounds.

"With Coach Yancy," noted Iowa State senior guard Ben Lamaak, "a lot of the drills we did were football-specific stuff, geared toward our position. That'll make us better football players when game-time comes."

McKnight arrived in Ames near midnight on Jan. 26. The next morning, he met with his new troops at 6 a.m. In the fall, he'll work seven days a week, in the hopes of helping Iowa State morph from a 2-10 cellar-dweller into a bowl contender.

As hard as strength coaches work these days, they stare one inconvenient truth in the face every season: once the action starts each fall, job security is largely out of their hands.

"You'll hear a lot of strength coaches complain, 'Why did I not get retained? I had nothing to do with the on-field results,'" McKnight noted.

"But that's just part of it. This is the job we chose," added ISU's new weight-lifting guru.

"We need to get (players) ready for Saturday. And that starts on Sunday."