By Rob Gray, correspondent
AMES — The ghosts of the past can haunt or inspire. Long-lost setbacks can create present doubts, but also invite elucidating introspection — and prime opportunities for growth and redemption.
That’s the delicate but potentially powerful emotional equation that No. 16 Iowa State’s grappling with as it prepares for its second-ever trip to the Big 12 title game Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Cyclones (10-2) enter the arena against No. 15 Arizona State (10-2) clear-eyed and level-headed, intent on delivering for a full 60 minutes or more as a chance to attain a first-ever league crown hangs in the balance.
“Any coach, I think, man, you always reflect back on, never the wins, but you reflect on the losses,” said Cyclone head coach Matt Campbell, whose team lost to Oklahoma, 27-21, in the 2020 conference championship. “That game, that moment, was a great learning opportunity for all of us.”
Saturday’s game kicks off at 11 a.m. ABC will carry it nationally. The Sun Devils aren’t underdogs, but they are upstarts; picked to finish last in their first year in the league, and now a slight favorite to win it all.
“We’re gonna go into an environment that a lot of people haven’t been in before,” said ISU wide receiver Jaylin Noel, who joined fellow senior Jayden Higgins as a 1,000-yard receiver this season in last week’s win over Kansas State. “There’s gonna be bright lights. It’s gonna be a big stadium. It’s gonna be very loud, so just keeping our poise and not letting the moment get too big for us — our mindset is, It’s just the next game.”
Discipline. Determination. A firm grasp of what matters in each moment.
These principles guide the Cyclones — and outside of a two-game hiccup — they’ve executed that ongoing gameplan with aplomb and precision. ISU is 4-1 in one-score games and quarterback Rocco Becht’s led the team on game-winning drives in the fourth quarter three times this season. All of that, along with the Big 12’s best scoring defense (19.3 points per game allowed), has propelled the Cyclones into a rarefied airspace they haven’t been since that 2020 season that most fans couldn’t enjoy in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was kind of a crazy season,” ISU’s veteran defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said. “And I think our guys were just, man, it was the first time, and it’s a big game, and I felt like we were in the game and maybe didn’t play our best, or get ready to play our best. I’ve tried to share some of the scars that we have from that game.”
And learned from them. The passage of time has smoothed the surface of those disfiguring marks, but they remain visible — and instructive — for those willing to truly look. The Cyclones trailed the Sooners, 24-7, at halftime in that 2020 title game, but stormed back to have a chance to win at the end after Heacock’s defense limited Oklahoma to three second-half points. Record-setting quarterback Brock Purdy drove ISU to the Sooners’ 34-yard line with 1:05 remaining, but on 3rd and 11, he was flushed from the pocket and forced to loft up a prayer that Oklahoma intercepted to seal the outcome.
Execute one more block, and perhaps Purdy has time to get a first down. Execute a few more plays, and maybe the Cyclones reach the end zone and emerge victorious, 28-27. They were that close, which makes the loss hurt even more, but as Campbell said, teachable moments were etched in that painful history.
“That one, obviously you sting because you felt like, man, you played pretty good football that day but not good enough,” Campbell said. “I think that was another great lesson of what did you learn? How do you grow? And if you ever get an opportunity to be back in that moment, what can you do best to continue to grow forward?”
Every team is different, he added. And this team has embraced those “scars” and made them badges of honor; guideposts along a path that remains gilded with glittering opportunities as long as those hard lessons have been fully absorbed.
“I didn’t know my life would bring me to this moment,” graduate transfer offensive tackle Jalen Travis said. “To have a chance to compete on that very same stage that I was watching on TV four or five odd years ago, it truly is a dream come true for me.”
