The next year, after we beat them in Lincoln, they complained about our lineman trash talking and using profane language! No, really, totally serious.
Best ISU Football Team You've Watched
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The next year, after we beat them in Lincoln, they complained about our lineman trash talking and using profane language! No, really, totally serious.
Yeah, I don't either...
But invariably when the '05 Cyclones come up, some hawk friend or somebody will say "...well they would've just gotten curb-stomped by UT anyway..." and maybe that's true but those guys deserved at least a shot. And by that I mean it was some poor coaching that lost the MU and KU games.
But think of the energy that we'd have brought to the Championship game. It would've gone beyond what we did in SA and the Alamo Bowl. We would've crushed everything about it (if not, you know, the actual game...).
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Another thing on the 2005 team --
Say it goes 11-0 like it probably could have. It has KU's season from 2007. Not the greatest or most consistent offense, but our defense was truly terrifying.
The AP poll before the conference championships was...
#1 USC (11-0)
#2 Texas (11-0)
#3 LSU (10-1) -- lost in Deaf Valley to Tennessee early
#4 Penn St. (10-1) -- lost at Michigan middle of the season
#5 VT (10-1) -- lost at home to Miami (FL)
Would a 11-0 Iowa State have been #3 at that point? Would the Big 12 championship game been a de facto national semifinal against Texas?
I know our historical reputation is abysmal, but would that have been the focus of the ranking conversation? Or would it have been our defense being legitimate and the simple fact how can you rank one-loss high-major teams over an undefeated Big 12 team? What do we end up with for a bowl even if we lose to Texas and end up 11-1?
The Orange or Fiesta Bowl would have been fun.
Say it goes 11-0 like it probably could have. It has KU's season from 2007. Not the greatest or most consistent offense, but our defense was truly terrifying.
The AP poll before the conference championships was...
#1 USC (11-0)
#2 Texas (11-0)
#3 LSU (10-1) -- lost in Deaf Valley to Tennessee early
#4 Penn St. (10-1) -- lost at Michigan middle of the season
#5 VT (10-1) -- lost at home to Miami (FL)
Would a 11-0 Iowa State have been #3 at that point? Would the Big 12 championship game been a de facto national semifinal against Texas?
I know our historical reputation is abysmal, but would that have been the focus of the ranking conversation? Or would it have been our defense being legitimate and the simple fact how can you rank one-loss high-major teams over an undefeated Big 12 team? What do we end up with for a bowl even if we lose to Texas and end up 11-1?
The Orange or Fiesta Bowl would have been fun.
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Man, do I agree with this. That team SHOULD have been the best in ISU history. And, they had the easy South schedule. Meyer at QB, Blythe, Flynn, Davis at WR, Stevie Hicks at RB, Leaders, Curvey, Berryman, Moorehead and Cephus Johnson on the DL, Bowen, Dobbins, Robo at LB, Jackson and Hicks at CB, Moser and Paris at S. That's as good of a starting 22 as ISU has ever fielded. But, the OL was just decent at best (again) and there was very little depth behind the starters at most positions. Stevie Hicks got dinged up and Leaders and Curvey wore down as games went on. Seems like ISU would have a lead, Mac would go all conservative and we'd end up losing in OT.
If McCarney would have won just ONE of those OT games, we'd never see Chizik in Ames.
Hicks getting dinged up was huge. I believe our backup RB was the guy who fumbled twice on the goal line at home vs. Baylor, leading to the loss.
I'm not old enough to remember the 70's. So I would say:
1. 2017
2. 2000
3. 2005
5. 2018
kcbob79clone
Well-Known Member
1976 Nebraska game my sophomore year. Upper deck after camping out to get a good spot in line and racing to our seats once the gates were opened. No assigned seats just a mad dash. The crowd was amazing, upper deck was bouncing, incredible game. Loudest I ever heard at JTS.
2005. Every loss boiled down to one or two plays. Most of them had bad calls.
I realize that was a weak schedule (much weaker than '17 for example), but they really should have finished the regular season 11-0. You can't say that about any other ISU team in my life. They SHOULD have been 11-0. Let that sink in.
I realize that was a weak schedule (much weaker than '17 for example), but they really should have finished the regular season 11-0. You can't say that about any other ISU team in my life. They SHOULD have been 11-0. Let that sink in.
At some point, the continual choking against Iowa is an issue for Campbell. The Wadley run doesn't make for as comical of a gif, but it was as bad as the muffed punt this year.
11-0 would have been great, but the ranking probably wouldn't have been due to a combination of brand name and schedule. Somewhere in the #6-9 range is my guess. When you flip ISU's losses into wins, here's what the opponent records look like going into conference championship weekend:
2005 Opponents
Illinois State (FCS), Iowa (7-4), Army (4-6*), Nebraska (6-5), Baylor (4-7), Missouri (5-6), Oklahoma State (4-7), Texas A&M (5-6), Kansas State (5-6), Colorado (7-4), Kansas (5-6).
*Army lost to Navy on 12/3 and finished 4-7
Beating MU and KU would have taken them out of bowl eligibility, leaving just 3 bowl teams on the slate, none of which were better than 7-4.
A loss to Texas then leaves ISU at 11-1. All 8 BCS slots that year were automatic selections -- the 6 conference champs, Notre Dame (b/c of the ND rule) and Ohio State (b/c of the 3rd-4th rule). So, the #2 pick from the Big 12 goes to the Cotton Bowl, a game that BCS #15 Texas Tech (9-2) eventually lost to BCS #13 Alabama (9-2) by a score of 13-10.
DMac and Sage team that won the Insight Bowl... No stats to back it up, but that team came up with defensive stops when needed and I felt you'd COUNT on them to get the stops. Our recent teams have far greater talent but I still can't count on us to get the stop or pick up the 1st down when needed. It's coming though....
Agree with you, need to get that monkey off our back.
Both plays are absolutely embarrassing. Wadleys (catch and) run was a long, drawn out embarrassment, while the other happened in the blink of an eye.
Great analysis. Thank you.
So say we go 11-0 in the regular season.
Does a 12-0 Iowa State (with a win over Texas, yeah yeah I know fat chance against that superteam) get send to Pasadena to play USC?
More likely, if we were 11-1 and the losers of the Big 12 championship game, do we slide into Texas Tech's spot and play Alabama in Dallas?
I suppose some of that depends on how voters viewed our performance. If we played Texas tough and our defense distinguished itself, that might have "legitimized" us even if we lost. If we got blown out, we probably drop like a rock.
Imagine what the past three Campbell teams would have done to that schedule.
Who would they even lose to...?
Or are you assuming they have a "Park game" at some point?
I think you have a typo, but Texas was undefeated in 2005 not 11-1 going into the conference title game. Also we would have been top 5 ranked easily. Kansas did what we should have in 2007 and they were ranked that high before they lost to Mizzou.
Mac deserves the credit for getting the program from where it was to where it was. But he was never going make ISU a credible contender - he had taken us as far as he was going to get us, and 2000-2006 demonstrated that. People everywhere, not just ISU fans, but nationally, have historically been of the opinion ISU will never be a credible contender, so it was foolish to fire McCarney and Rhoads. But look where Campbell has us. Our recruiting has never been better, and there's the expectation that we could sneak past what is automatically assumed to be Texas to get into the Big 12 title game this year (assuming the season is played).
Good catch -- I had a few mistakes that I caught in self-editing from thinking Texas would have been 12-0 going into the Big 12 championship game.
I forgot the season was 11 games back then.
