Iowa State Cyclones football head coach Matt Campbell hi-fives with fans as entering the field before the game against Texas Tech in the week-10 NCAA football at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES — Feel it. Flush it. Forget it.
In Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell’s football program, there’s no brooding, grousing, nor gnashing of teeth.
The Cyclones grind on — even after absorbing the effects of Saturday’s 23-22 loss to Texas Tech, which knocked them from the ranks off the unbeaten.
“We’ve got big goals,” said senior defensive end Joey Petersen, who notched a career-high seven tackles and his second sack of the season in the setback. “We’ve got high expectations, high standards. And I feel like tonight we didn’t really play to those. So learning from it and going into (Sunday) with humility, and then just flushing it like we do every game — you’ve gotta flush the wins, you’ve gotta flush the losses.”
ISU (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) committed a season-high eight penalties against the Red Raiders (6-3, 4-2), converted just 5-for-17 third down opportunities, and gave up the game-winning touchdown with 20 seconds left.
This one, as standout quarterback Rocco Becht said, “hurts,” but the Cyclones’ long-term goal of playing for a Big 12 championship remains — as long as they win their last four regular season games, or get ouse help along the way.
ISU’s now tied with Colorado for second in the conference standings with idle Colorado, as No. 17 Kansas State suffered an upset loss at Houston to fall into a tie for fourth place with Texas Tech.
“I (couldn’t) care less if we’re undefeated,” said Becht, who threw for 299 yards, two touchdowns and one interception on Saturday. “I just want to win a Big 12 championship for this team, so however we need to do that, that’s the way we’re gonna do it. So while I’ve gotta be better, a lot of guys — we’ve just gotta be more on point, and we’ll get better from it.”
That remains to be seen, of course, with a game next weekend against struggling, but talented Kansas looming at Arrowhead Stadium. The Cyclones can’t lose multiple turnovers as they have in consecutive down-to-the-wire games, nor can they fail to execute when the game’s on the line as they did in the final two minutes on Saturday.
The only way those recent travails can be addressed and solved is by looking at why they’ve been happening, and adjusting accordingly.
“You own it,” Campbell said. “You grow from it and you move forward. I think the reality of it is, you’re gonna lose football games. That’s part of the journey, but how you respond is no different than how you respond when you win. That’s the great thing about our program. We don’t flinch with results. We look at the process. Where can we be better? And let’s do a great job of understanding accountability to what maybe didn’t allow us to be our best in the moment. Whether we won the game or lost the game, (I would have) had a similar message (for the team), to be honest.”
If and when the Cyclones can rectify those detail-oriented issues, they’ll likely need to do it with a banged-up team down three starting-caliber linebackers, their top tight end in Ben Brahmer — who was on crutches on Saturday — and a handful of other prime contributors.
“It’s been a huge stress on everybody,” Campbell said of the spate of injuries that have beset his team since spring ball. “It’s not an excuse, because we’ve been able to respond to it, but the reality of it is, I think anytime you’ve got a rash of situations that we’ve had, it’s been a major challenge for our football team. Our kids have done a great job of responding to it. That was not the issue tonight. Our detail was the issue.”
Petersen said that issue led him to feel “heartbreak” in the moment. Hence his feel it, flush it and forget it mantra, given that all of the Cyclones’ primary season-long goals remain within reach.
“Everything we want is still ahead of us,” he said. “It’s gonna be a hard road and it’s always been a hard road. So it’s just moving forward, keep learning and keep growing.”
