By Rob Gray, correspondent
AMES — Jalen Travis stood tall amid the freezing throng of fans and beamed.
As Iowa State’s fans celebrated, the 6-7, 340-pound Princeton graduate-turned-anchor on the No. 16 Cyclones’ offensive line soaked in the scene, reveling in the frost-tinged afterglow of a 29-21 triumph over Kansas State that helped land his team in Saturday’s 11 a.m. Big 12 title game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Fans flooded the field in Travis’s last game at Jack Trice Stadium — and it was a new and wondrous experience for ISU’s accomplished left tackle.
“No field stormings at Princeton,” the grad transfer said with a grin.
Not even after a big win over Harvard or Yale?
“Right?” Travis joked. “Right?”
Preseason prognosticators would have considered it “wrong” to slot the Cyclones (10-2) and No. 15 Arizona State (10-2) into the Big 12 Championship, but there they are in what Las Vegas oddsmakers consider a pick ‘em game at the home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Sun Devils opened as 2.5-point favorites, so expect both teams’ fanbases to be wringing their hands deep into the fourth quarter with a spot in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff on the line.
“Our sport is a journey through 12 guaranteed weeks of a football season and finding consistency, which is why college football is so entertaining, because it’s so inconsistent to watch,” said ISU head coach Matt Campbell, who also led his team to the 2020 league title game before falling, 27-21, to Oklahoma. “You just don’t know what you’re gonna get every week. I think one thing I would hope when you turn our football team one, boy, every time they touch the field it may not always be perfect, but the consistency of attitude, effort and strain to go win the football game as a team, that’s been what we’ve kind of tried to build our foundation on.”
Consider that building a multi-level structure now, and a possible skyscraper by the time this season’s over. And it’s the quest for consistency that forms the brick and mortar of that construction process — and nowhere is that more evident than on the Cyclones’ offensive line.
Three of ISU’s players with the longest active starting streaks populate that hiking front five, led by senior center Jarrod Hufford, who will make his team-leading 46th consecutive start on Saturday. Senior right tackle Tyler Miller will start for the 25th straight time and sophomore guard Brendan Black has started 17 games in a row. Travis — who missed the first couple games off the season because of injury — has started a mere nine straight games, but his impact on a rebuilt offensive line has been massive.
“I think what he’s given us is certainly great flexibility,” said Campbell, whose team will face a Sun Devils defense that ranks second in the Big 12 in rushing defense at 116.8 yards allowed per game. “I think as Jalen got healthy, he steadied the ship of that offensive line, for sure.”
Campbell called Hufford, Miller and Travis “pillars” for that now deep and seasoned group, especially since a handful of injuries have forced ISU to rotate several players at the guard position.
“I think their confidence and their consistency’s allowed those young guys to settle in and play good football,” Campbell said.
How good?
Case in point: The running game. The Cyclones’ backfield trio of Carson Hansen, Jaylon Jackson and Abu Sama has helped ISU average its most rushing yards per game (164.6) since that 2020 season that featured Breece Hall.
“I think just this back half of the season, really just simplifying what our run game plan is,” Hufford said recently. “(Just) having a base couple of concepts and getting good at those.”
The Cyclones have been solid in pass protection, too, allowing the second-fewest total sack yards in the conference at 77. The addition of Travis, along with Miller’s growth, has been paramount to that success — a trend that must continue if ISU’s to make history again this weekend by winning its first Big 12 championship game.
“I think I got what I wanted and more,” Travis said of his single— and deeply extended — season as a Cyclone. “Especially when it comes to relationships and playing for a coaching staff that’s willing to believe in me, our into me, and help me grow. I think that has been a blessing that has been tenfold for me since I’ve been here. Obviously, the results are independent of all that. I’d be just as happy walking out of here if we didn’t have the same results because of the people and coach Campbell and the staff, and what they’ve been able to do for me personally.”
