Iowa State hires ex-assistant

Just days after Auburn lured Iowa State’s head coach, Gene Chizik, to take over its football program, Iowa State has returned the favor, naming Paul Rhoads, Auburn’s defensive coordinator this season and a former Cyclones assistant, to succeed Chizik.

Rhoads, who will try to revive a program that is coming off a 2-10 season in which it did not win a Big 12 Conference game, has never been a head coach. Before joining Auburn last off-season, he was Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator from 2000 through 2007. He was an assistant with the Cyclones under Dan McCarney from 1995 through 1999.

Iowa State said Rhoads agreed to a five-year deal worth $5.75 million in guaranteed compensation, with incentives available to increase that total.

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Virginia Tech could be without three starters when it plays Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. Coach Frank Beamer said that left guard Nick Marshman is academically ineligible to play, and two defensive starters are questionable: Defensive end Jason Worilds has a shoulder injury and linebacker Brett Warren has a torn ligament in his right knee. . . . . Greg Micheli threw two touchdown passes to Cecil Shorts as Mount Union (15-0) regained its spot atop Division III, beating defending champion Wisconsin Whitewater, 31-26, in the Stagg Bowl at Salem, Va.