Dec 28, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; Iowa State Cyclones wide receiver Jaylin Noel (13) celebrates after beating Miami Hurricanes in the Pop Tarts bowl at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
AMES — Jaylin Noel hungrily grabbed the Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy, refusing to let it go.
Iowa State’s two-time senior captain and record-setting wide receiver would not be denied after his 18th-ranked team’s stunning 42-41 comeback win Saturday over No. 13 Miami in Orlando.
But an official told him he couldn’t cart the heavy hardware off to the locker room.
Noel’s emphatic response?
“Naaaaawwww.”
So he left the postgame interview stage with the trophy in tow as standout sophomore quarterback and Pop-Tarts Bowl MVP Rocco Becht joined him, sharing the prize as the past merged with the future, and they walked out the door side-by-side.
Noel, unlike a handful of other players on both teams, didn’t opt out of the bowl game that extended the Cyclones’ single-season record for wins to 11. He remained all-in — a stance that typified the likely NFL Draft pick’s four seasons with the team.
“To be able to be a leader on this team, and guys trusting me, and listening to me, I had to play for them,” said Noel, who caught eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown in his swan song in Cardinal and Gold. “Those guys come in every day and look up to me and if I wasn’t gonna play then, that’s just not what leaders do, I feel like. So to be able to play in this game and go out there one last time with this team, means everything to me.”
Noel and fellow seniors such as safety Beau Freyler — who was knocked out of the bowl with a leg injury — formed the bedrock of what ISU head coach Matt Campbell called among the best leadership he’s ever been around. Defensive lineman J.R. Singleton and Joey Petersen, center Jarrod Hufford, and cornerback Myles Purchase, among others, helped lead the Cyclones to an historic season replete with “firsts.”
“It was leadership for the ages for us,” Campbell said. “You saw (it) every step of the way, and you got a chance to witness it (in the bowl win).”
All of those steps — last-minute wins over Miami, UCF and Iowa, along with a last-minute loss to Texas Tech — provided the narrative structure for what turned out to be by far the most successful season in terms of wins and losses in ISU’s 133-history. But Campbell often says, his team’s aren’t defined by that all-or-nothing ledger. Not by him and his staff, anyway.
“Obviously, it’s great that we won but the relationship we have in that locker room, man — this sport is a unique sport, and the reality of it is we’re dealing with somebody’s children,” said Campbell, who agreed to contract extension through 2032 earlier this month. “They are 18- to 22-year-olds, and our job is still — we have all forgot it — but our job, our responsibility is to (help) a young man become a man.”
Noel, Freyler, and the Cyclones’ latest crop of full-grown men leave a legacy that’s not only unmatched from a win-loss perspective. They left an indelible mark by persevering through a 4-8 season, a now-problematic gambling probe that took several starters from the team, and navigating through the stratospheric expectations that sprang from a 7-0 start.
And even though they’ll be moving on, even brighter days could lie ahead for the program Campbell once termed “a laughingstock.”
“I feel a lot of people forgot the guys that are injured and coming back,” Singleton said. “Like, this team is gonna be really good. And I think people are gonna sleep on this team until they touch that field in (August) in Ireland. They’re gonna surprise a lot of people.”
Not Noel, who eventually had to let the Pop-Tarts bowl trophy go to the team’s trophy case, but never relinquished his firm grip on leadership.
“I just want to leave (the remaining Cyclones) with the mindset that you can’t settle,” he said. “If you settle to be average, that’s what you’re gonna get on the field: Average. So, never settle, always push each other, and hold guys accountable. Because if you can do those small things, everything else will come along by itself.”