Randy Peterson
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December 29, 2024
Iowa State’s football program is in the best shape it’s been in.
Ever.
The future looks so promising, that if I’m athletics director Jamie Pollard, I’d consider selling season tickets for 2025. I mean, BYU, Kansas, Arizona, Arizona State and Iowa are coming to Jack Trice Stadium next season. That’s as marquee as it can get. Open the box office while football buzz is at an all-time high.
Immediately.
While you’re at it, don’t tell me the outcome of Saturday’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, a 42-41 last-possession victory against 15th-ranked Miami, meant nothing. The game, and how it played out, emphasized what those of us who know the program well, already knew:
Iowa State now has the championship-level program that you, your neighbor, your stylist, your bartender, and your alleged expert of choice, didn’t think would be possible.
It showed that Matt Campbell’s program has become everything that everyone said it’d never become.
"When we took the job and we came to Iowa State -- I think people said, 'Man, you're going to the coaching graveyard,' Campbell told reporters after the seventh bowl game since the Campbell regime stated in 2016.
Well, the program has risen from that metaphorical grave. A school-record 11 wins after the third bowl success under Campbell. Two conference championship game appearances in Campbell’s nine seasons. No longer a Big 12 patsy. Smack dab in the middle of college football’s playoffs discussion until the final day.
The Cyclones – they have risen . . .
Indeed.
And with so, so many underclassmen playing major roles this season – and especially Saturday – this program looks to be even more on the rise, assuming the current roster remains intact. Isaiah Alston, the little-used transfer from Army, was very good during his breakout game Saturday. Iowa State’s top three tacklers – Marcus Neal, TaShawn James, and Jontez Williams -- are freshman-freshman-sophomore. Drew Surges, with the game-clinching interception, is a sophomore. You’ve got to like the Carson Hansen-Abu Sama (sophomore and sophomore) running back combo.
And let’s not forget that Campbell is newly signed through 2032.
Meaningless game?
Tell that to players in Iowa State’s locker room – then run for cover. Would senior Jaylin Noel have played (and caught eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown) if this game didn’t mean something?
When you’ve been giving every ounce of energy and blood that your body can give since last January – there’s no such thing as meaningless.
That word isn’t in Rocco Becht’s vocabulary, either. The Cyclones’ quarterback has been working for a year with new offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser. Together, four times this season, they came up with last-minute, game-winning drives, including Saturday’s 15-play, 84-yard gem that Becht and place-kicker Kyle Konrardy culminated with less than a minute remaining.
I texted Mouser shortly after the game. I wondered just what words of advice he had for Iowa State’s offensive leader, as he ran onto the field with 6:31 left and the ball at the Cyclones’ 16-yard line.
“I told him “You’ve been at your best all year when your back’s been against the wall,” Mouser texted me. “Now, go do your thing.”
Meaningless exhibition?
Not for the guys who have now passed the baton to the next generation of Cyclones – the ones that very well could be as good, if not better, than the team that just established itself as the school’s best.
“We’re fortunate, because you have guys like Rocco and guys that got great experience this year,” Campbell said Saturday night. “I think the fool's gold is, “Oh, man, you have guys that played, but do you have guys that can lead like this every day? Do you have guys that show up in January and February and March and April and May and June and July when nobody is watching?
“That's where greatness lives. We'll see if we've got it.”
(Randy Peterson can be reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close)