Iowa State's quarterback depth took a hit Thursday evening when true freshman quarterback Zeb Noland suffered a non-contact knee injury while rolling out in the pocket, effectively ending his rookie season before it started.

The 6-foot-3 Noland was in a heated competition with JUCO quarterback Jacob Park for the No. 2 quarterback spot behind starter Joel Lanning before he injured his knee in the eighth practice of fall camp. Iowa State hasn't yet determined the severity of Noland's knee injury, but says he will miss the 2016 season before returning next spring.

"[It’s] a non-contact injury," Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. "He will be out for the season. We look forward to having him back. He should be full strength by the time we start spring practice.

"It’s just one of those things that’s part of football and fortunately we’ve got depth at that position. Zeb was really playing well for us and doing some great things, but it’ll give him a chance to kind of sit back now and really take some time to study. The silver lining in all of this is he’ll come back, he’ll be 110 percent when he comes back and it’ll be nothing that has longterm effects on Zeb and his performance going forward, so that’s huge for us."

Park will now cement himself as Iowa State's backup quarterback while JUCO walk-on Kyle Kempt will likely move into the third-string role for the Cyclones this fall. Kempt, who enrolled at Oregon State in the 2013 class, arrived at Iowa State from Hutchinson C.C. in January as a walk-on. He went 5-of-7 for 45 yards, including a 24-yard pass to Hakeem Butler, during Iowa State's spring game.

"I think Kyle has been really good," Campbell said. "I think we’ve all been fortunate that we’ve had Kyle Kempt. Kyle had a really good spring for us. Even in the spring game I thought his reps were quality reps. He’s really done a nice job, so I think that’s huge to have a guy like Kyle Kempt as potentially your third guy right now, a guy that has the ability to run our offense and do what we need to do.

"It’s football and we’re lucky we have great depth there."

Noland was the No. 57-ranked pro-style QB in the class of 2016 according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.