Oct 12, 2024; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell speaks with the media after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
AMES — Playoffs?!?!? Iowa State’s not even going to talk about the potential of reaching the Big 12 championship game. Not when the No. 17 Cyclones lost two games in a row when they fell into the trap of looking ahead — a stumbling block they plan to avoid in Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. regular season finale (FOX) against Kansas State at Jack Trice Stadium.
“Whatever happens next week happens,” ISU quarterback Rocco Becht said after leading his team (9-2, 6-2) on a last-minute game-winning drive Saturday at Utah. “But we’re just focusing on winning against K-State (8-3, 5-3). Focusing on that to get that 10th win.”
The Cyclones have never won 10 games in a season and doing so would almost certainly cement a spot in the Big 12 title game. There are a handful of outlandish scenarios based on other team’s results that could muddle that equation, but ISU’s not concerned with what anyone else does. That tunnel-vision even applied to Saturday afternoon, when Kansas beat Colorado, and Arizona State outlasted BYU to lift the Cyclones back into league title contention.
Becht and tailback Carson Hansen — who rushed for two touchdowns in the 31-28 win over the Utes — both said they didn’t pay much attention to those scores. Honest.
“I was just focused in on the game and our job of going in and there and executing,” Hansen said.
That’s a sound strategy, especially when taking any other tack often leads to a loss amid the chaos that is the 2024 Big 12 season. A staggering nine teams still have at least a remote shot of playing for a conference championship, so expect the unexpected — and control what you can control.
“Everybody counted us out, I think, two weeks ago,” ISU head coach Matt Campbell said. “We didn’t flinch, we didn’t waver, and we just (kept) fighting. We’ll be defined by who we are at the end of the football season,”“And we’ve got four more quarters to help define that, so we look forward to the opportunity.”
So do the Wildcats, who are one of those teams that retains a slim hope of playing for a conference title. Kansas State’s lost three of the past four meeting with the Cyclones, which adds an extra layer of motivation to the latest version of the so-called “Farmaggedon” game.
“(The seniors) have been the foundation for our program,” Wildcats coach Chris Klieman said after his team’s 41-15 win over Cincinnati. “They mean the world to me and I’d do anything for them. They’ve always had my back, (and) that is something that is so important when you’re going to have a player led program. The relationship between the head coach and those kids is so important.”
Sounds a little bit like Campbell, right? Iowa State’s head coach has lauded seniors such as Beau Freyler, J.R. Singleton and Jaylin Noel — all captains who have helped the Cyclones navigate choppy waters to record a modern-era team with nine regular season wins.
ISU’s poised to make history this week and beyond, but only if its collective mind doesn’t wander regardless of what could loom in the future.
“Unwavering,” Campbell said. “That’s the story that this group gets to write. Right now, they’ve got the pen and they continue to write the story, and I hope they’ll continue to write it the way they’ve got to ability to write it.”
