Malik Verdon stares at the field after Saturday’s Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Photo by Jacqueline Cordova.
ARLINGTON – On the main stage of the Big 12 Conference for the second time in five seasons, Iowa State fell short of its goal again in a 45-19 loss to Arizona State.
It insures that the program will have just one more game remaining in its most successful season ever by total wins, with its new goal being behind a bowl game rather than the new-look, 12-team College Football Playoff.
“It doesn’t get much more deflating than that,” coach Matt Campbell said after the game.
On Saturday, the Cyclones unraveled, rather than succumbing to a late heartbreaker of a mistake.
Clock management came into question late in the first half, while the Cyclones trailed 24-10.
Some coaches were calling for quarterback Rocco Becht to spike the ball with two seconds remaining on the clock,, when the Cyclones had timeouts to call. Somwhere around 15 seconds came off the clock before it, and it would have ran out had ASU coach Kenny Dillingham called a timeout to set up what would be a 16-yard run by Abu Sama, too.
But Campbell wanted to get to halftime.
“We were in a flurry of chaos there, and I wanted to settle the ship,” Campbell said. “That would be the last thing I wanted to do is turn the ball back over to them. It felt like we were getting the ball to start the second half, and there was three seconds on the clock. What are you going to do?”
Cam Skattebo got nearly every yard he wanted, both before and during the dismal third quarter where the Cyclones went from ‘behind’ to ‘finished.’
Abu Sama fumbled the ball on the Cyclones’ first drive. Then Arizona State drove down the field and scored. Rocco Becht’s next pass got deflected, resulting in a pick, and Arizona State scored three plays later.
Rinse, repeat once more with another Sama fumble and Iowa State was down by 35 points.
“I think the thing we prided ourselves on is our ability to take care of the football and our ability to create takeaways,” Campbell said. “We felt like that, especially that margin for both teams, they were plus 11, we were plus 9 coming into the game, I felt that was going to be the key to this football team, the ability to take care of the football. And our inability to do that in the third quarter was just paralyzing.”
To top it off, it opted to kick a field goal on the Arizona State 5-yard line, still down 35. There isn’t much more of a figurative white flag that can be waved.
“We’re a second-half team and today it just wasn’t clicking on all cylinders for us,” Becht said. “We had everything in our hands still. We just needed to execute.”
Contrary to what a play-call like that typically warrants, Iowa State’s players didn’t quit.
Jaylin Noel would score another touchdown – one that Iowa State would have to bring its offense back on the field late after realizing it was behind by 32 and mathematically needed four touchdowns with two-point scores to tie the game, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Becht exited the game after taking a direct hit to the helmet, resulting in a targeting call against ASU. Backup quarterback Connor Moberly entered the game and controlled a drive, but Becht was adamant that he could re-enter the field, despite being down by an insurmountable score.
“Obviously you know Rocco, he was demanding to get back in the game as soon as he was cleared,” Becht said. “I’m proud of him. But I think Rocco will be just fine moving forward.”
A postgame clip of Becht in the tunnel is the latest example of that leadership.
This is what kind or leader Rocco Becht is. Instead of running to the lockerroom after the 45-19 loss, he stood waiting in the tunnel and until he could say something to every single teammate. #Cyclones @KCCINews #Big12Championship pic.twitter.com/IZMCrKwx7K
— Scott Reister (@scottreister) December 7, 2024
And he intends to lead the team in whichever bowl game Iowa State is sent to, which currently looks like will be the Alamo Bowl, according to this report from The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman.
As do the rest of the seniors, at least from what was said Saturday.
“Yeah, it means everything,” Noel said. “The seniors are going to play in the bowl game. I’m going to play in the bowl game. Just to be able to have that last moment, it will be a defining moment for this program, to win 11 games and finish better than we did last year.”
“We’re still on pace to make history, right,” defensive lineman J.R. Singleton said. “Iowa State’s never won 11 games, so that’s still in the grasp for us. You’re going to get our all. We’re going to go back to the drawing board, and we’re going to win that game.”
I guess you can’t say too much other than that. J.R. really summed it up,” defensive back Myles Purchase said. “We have a bowl game, but we’re going to prepare for that game like it’s the playoffs. I’m going to give my best, and I know the seniors are going to give our best in that game.”
A disappointing result will sour the season for some Saturday, but as time passes, the season will be remembered as a special one.
Before then, it will feature one more marquee matchup.
“These guys put in a lot of work to get to where we did today, and it just didn’t fall out the way we wanted it to,” Becht said. “We’ve got to be better. We’re a team that I feel like can handle adversity really well. Today at some points we couldn’t, and we have to fix that.”
Goals will reset afterwards, no matter the result of the bowl game, and there just as lofty as they were coming into this season – and that’s a great thing for Cyclone fans.
“At the end of the day, I told everybody coming out of that tunnel, the ones that are coming back, remember this feeling,” Becht said. “We will be back in this game next year, I promise you that.”
