Nearly 4,000 miles from home, No. 22 Iowa State continued its shift worlds away from the program’s also-ran history.
Nothing better reflected the attitude shift in the Cyclones’ 24-21 win over No. 17 Kansas State on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, than Rocco Becht demanding to punch in one more score on the final possession.
“The quarterback’s yelling at me because he wants to score at the end of the game,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell told reporters in his postgame press conference. “[Taking a knee at the 1-yard line] is situational football at its best. … [But] I just told all these guys, ‘You were yelling at me at the end of the game to score a touchdown. I think that [mentality] is how you got the win, right?’”
Right. It wasn’t always, or even often, the most well-executed football. Both teams trudged through a sloppy first half, tied 7-7 at intermission, looking very much like new rosters that traveled across an ocean for their typically regional matchup.
And when Campbell called for Becht to kneel at the 1-yard line rather than score in the waning moments, it’s entirely plausible the coach wanted to avoid a repeat of Abu Sama III’s first-quarter fumble.
With second-and-goal at the Kansas State 1, Sama lost possession for Iowa State’s second turnover of the game. The failed possession squandered a prime opportunity set up when the Cyclones special teams forced a takeaway of their own at the Wildcats’ 8-yard line, coming away with Dylan Edwards’ muff of an initial punt on a play that knocked the spark-plug running back out for the day entirely.
Even once Iowa State got rolling in the second half, the Cyclones still finished with just 2.8 yards per carry. Campbell pointed out the average was hurt by early-game tackles for loss, but that’s an issue of a different sort. Becht threw for a pair of touchdowns to go with a rushing score but went just 14-of-28 passing overall.
But winning under circumstances that were not exactly perfect encapsulated how Iowa State has transformed in recent years.
Before Campbell’s arrival in 2016, Cyclones teams won nine games in a season twice. One of those two campaigns was in 1906, the first season featuring a legalized forward pass.
The 2024 Cyclones established program records with 10 and 11 wins, surpassing the benchmark the 2020 Iowa State team reached going 9-3 with a Fiesta Bowl victory. However, it was the 7-6 2023 team that Campbell referenced in Ireland when reflecting on his squad’s ability to win close games.
“If that group of guys [in 2023] didn’t believe in [the coaching staff’s mission],” Campbell said, “boy, it could have really went the other way fast.”
Two years ago, Iowa State opened 1-3 with gut-wrenching losses of 20-13 to rival Iowa and 10-7 to Mid-American Conference opponent Ohio. Adding a 50-20 blowout to Oklahoma, the Cyclones were facing a second straight losing record after an unprecedented six in a row finishing on the right side of .500.
Iowa State’s 4-8 finish in 2022 cooled Campbell as the hot name in the annual empty-speculation coaching carousel; a similar season in 2023 might have cooled Cyclones fans and brass on the coach, too.
Given Iowa State’s lack of historic success, the timing of such a downturn coming in the wake of restructured transfer rules and NIL opportunities for players might also have pointed to the Cyclones being incapable of competing in the new landscape.
But since that point one month into the 2023 season, Iowa State is now 18-6 after Saturday’s win with a Big 12 Championship Game appearance. Despite losing a bevy of talent from the 2024 squad, most notably at wide receiver, the 2025 Cyclones offered indicators they’ve reloaded.
Dominic Overby’s 23-yard touchdown catch and Brett Eskiidsen’s 24-yard score won’t make anyone in Ames forget 1,110-yard receivers Jaylon Jackson and Jayden Higgins, but those difference-making plays coming against a top 20 opponent isn’t a bad start.
And if there’s anything this version of Iowa State football has shown, both on Saturday in Ireland and since that 1-3 start two years ago, the Cyclones are adept at finishing better than they start.