AMES, Iowa — Iowa State is on the brink of treading turf that few observers figured the Cyclones were capable of a couple months ago.
Picked as Big 12 bottom scrapers before the season, the Cyclones have won four games heading into today’s 11:30 game at Nebraska. Two more victories in their final five games would leave Iowa State bowl eligible for the first time since 2005.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to win a bowl game,” Iowa State center Reggie Stephens said. “That’s what we’re all about. I’m not saying we’re looking ahead because we’re really trying to take each game as it comes.
“At the same time, that’s our goal.”
The chance of Iowa State making a postseason appearance smacked of fancy in the days leading up to this season. The Cyclones were coming off three straight losing seasons, the last being a 2-10 campaign in 2008 in which they failed to win a Big 12 game.
They had a new coach but many of the same players. Such a combination usually isn’t an equation for success, but Iowa State has shown signs of progress in the first seven games under Paul Rhoads.
In fact, the Cyclones are a couple of plays from being 6-1 entering today’s game. In addition to their four wins, they lost by a point to Kansas State when the Wildcats blocked a point-after attempt with 32 seconds to play on Oct. 3. The next week, a possible winning touchdown pass from Austen Arnaud sailed inches out of the grasp of the intended receiver late in a 41-36 loss to Kansas.
“You don’t want to talk about what you could have been, but we know we had a chance to be 6-1,” tight end Derrick Catlett said. “We could be a great football team, and now we just have to go out there and prove it.”
After today’s game, Iowa State faces a stretch run that will see it play at Texas A&M Oct. 31, at home Nov. 7 against Oklahoma State and Nov. 14 against Colorado and at Missouri on Nov. 21.
The games against Texas A&M and Colorado fall into the winnable category. A Cyclone optimist might even slip the Missouri game into that class.
But Rhoads says his focus, and hopefully his players’ focus, hasn’t strayed past the Huskers.
“I think we go about our business the right way,” Rhoads said. “It’s a cliché that you work one day at a time, one play at a time, one game at a time, but I’m blessed and fortunate that I have a group of young men that have really bought into that. They don’t have grandiose thoughts.”
The approach has helped Iowa State end a number of dubious streaks this season. The victory over North Dakota State in the season opener snapped a 10-game losing skid. A mid-September victory at Kent State ended a 17-game road losing streak.
And last week’s 24-10 win over Baylor was Iowa State’s first Big 12 victory since 2007. The Cyclones had lost 11 straight conference games.
The Cyclones have a chance to end another long skid today in Lincoln. Iowa State hasn’t beaten Nebraska in Memorial Stadium since pulling off a 24-21 victory in 1977.
Defensive tackle Nate Frere insists that game, and not the possibility of playing into December, is all the Cyclones are worried about today. At the same time, knowing that there are possibilities out there makes for a better situation than Iowa State has faced in the closing month the past several seasons.
“We’re just focusing on improving ourselves and looking forward to playing Nebraska,” he said. “You want to win all of them. We know that we have to get at least two.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve struggled. ...We’ve been in a lot of games that we lost at the end. We’ve been close. This year it feels different.”
Contact the writer:
679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
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