Kansas State Wildcats cornerback Justice James (5) knocks out the ball ball from Iowa State Cyclones wide receiver Jaylin Noel (13) during the first quarter in the NCAA football at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES – Iowa State’s defense stood tall staring across the field at the faces of Kansas State’s offense, while fans sat on the walls surrounding Jack Trice Stadium waiting to storm the field should the Cyclones finish off the Wildcats.
Kansas State failed to convert on fourth down in the closing moments, and after Rocco Becht knelt with the ball to give No. 18 Iowa State the 29-21 win, the storm was on.
Let’s talk about how they got there in game 12 of a 10-2 regular season.
Iowa State caught its breaks
Kansas State put the ball on the ground on the first play of the game.
Instead of the opposing team driving down the field for a touchdown on its first drive as has happened in more than half of Iowa State’s games, an errant pitch landed on the ground and found the hands of senior Myles Purchase.
That put some pop into a Jack Trice Stadium crowd that hadn’t been as loud as it usually is until Purchase made that clutch play.
It was later topped by a blocked field goal by Darien Porter, who worked his way onto the roster and has become the elite of the elite in the special teams category.
“We were going to have to make those plays,” coach Matt Campbell said. “Darien helps knock the ball out and cause a fumble and he also blocks a field goal – how about the night he had? Just incredible. I think it’s a testament again, probably fitting for this team to win that way and finish the regular season.”
That was Porter’s fifth career blocked kick, a number that won’t be bested by anyone soon, not just in Ames.
“Obviously it was a very emotional night,” Porter said. “To be able to do something like that on Senior Night, in the last game at the Jack… I’ll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.”
We’ll get to the safety, and these were all big breaks, but it came down to execution as it has frequently in the 10-2 season.
Fittingly, tonight, it sometimes came from seniors. Other times? It was the unsung heroes paying their own way to be on the team.
It’s about everyone
Campbell — who’s in his ninth season as Iowa State’s coach — has said on multiple occasions that he and his staff take critical time to evaluate every player on its roster, and maybe even more on the preferred walk-ons Iowa State brings in.
During the third quarter of Saturday’s game, Iowa State found its offense stalling, with each of its first pair of drives in the second half ending before the Cyclones reached the 50, one of ‘those guys’ stepped up again.
Facing 3rd and 9 on Iowa State’s 26-yard line, Rocco Becht found walk-on wide receiver Carson Brown for a 14-yard gain and a first down, extending the drive and salvaging some of the momentum lost by what ended up being Kansas State’s final touchdown.
“Man, it was awesome,” Campbell said. “Carson’s always been one of those guys that’s done just a really great job of growing in our program. He had a couple of really great moments and then took a step back a little bit two weeks ago – and now, man, he’s come back and I think it just shows his character and resolve. He’s worked really hard to put himself in position to be critical of this football team.”
The drive continued down the field for the Iowa State offense, before it ultimately came to a close on the Kansas State 7-yard line.
That field position, just a few plays later, turned into a game-changing safety on Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson, who was chased into throwing a bad ball by Jacob Ellis – another former walk-on.
“It was a great call by Coach Heacock,” Campbell said. “It was really, really good. It was a pressure – we were able to get somebody loose right through the middle of the offense. Again, those are the moments.”
That goes without mentioning guys like Rylan Barnes, who led the team in tackles during the West Virginia game, and Kyle Konrardy, the kicker that booted the field goal to beat Iowa.
Iowa State needed every play that it got out of the 101 players that saw the field in the regular season and make history in the way it did.
The defense throws the red flag to close it out
When you see the red flag shown in auto racing, it typically means there’s been a wreck of some sort and also signals to drivers not involved to stop their cars.
Iowa State made the Wildcat offense do both.
In 12 fourth quarter plays, Kansas State netted one, single yard as it tried to complete the comeback.
Jontez Williams nearly had interceptions at multiple times. Ta’Shawn James probably played the best game of his career, laying a couple of big hits.
“I knew it was going to come down to us getting a stop,” senior defensive back and captain Beau Freyler said. “When the offense had the ball, I brought the defense up and I knew it’d be on us situation-wise. (I was) getting everyone’s minds right so we could really compete in that moment and finish the game.”
The group that was hampered beaten down throughout the year, and statistically down for a typical Heacock-led unit, was the one that closed it out.
“There are just huge moments,” Campbell said. “And then the ability to create a sack, we haven’t done that in a little bit here. I think those plays were huge for us. I thought we played great defense throughout the night tonight and really gave ourselves a chance to win a big football game.”
***
If there wasn’t enough chaos to be found in Iowa State’s first 12 games, Cyclone fans in and around Ames huddled aside TV’s hoping for a BYU win that would put their team into its second Big 12 championship game in the Campbell era.
Whether or not BYU could finish off Houston, it was a proper send-off to the senior class that Campbell credited to ‘saving the program.’
But BYU did, and the send-off for this senior class will be remembered for being as good as it gets.
Iowa State will play in the Big 12 Championship Saturday against No. 16 Arizona State.
