Iowa State vs. Texas Tech Preview: Remembering “The Run” as Iowa State Continues its Run

For Iowa State fans, Texas Tech doesn’t elicit the same kind of emotions as most other teams in the conference. It’s not an old Big Eight Conference rival that goes back 100 years. It’s not the big bad Texas Longhorns or Oklahoma Sooners. There haven’t been a ton of controversial or memorable games like when Iowa State plays Baylor or Oklahoma State or West Virginia. 

In my mind, any memories of playing Texas Tech in the past have to start with the 2002 game when a solid Red Raiders team came to Ames to face the No. 14 Cyclones. Iowa State was coming off an emotional win over Nebraska. Earlier in the season, Iowa State had taken storied Florida State, led by the legendary Bobby Bowden, to the wire in a first-game matchup at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The Cyclones had also come back from a 24-7 deficit to beat the rival Hawkeyes in Kinnick Stadium. And, they were led by Heisman Trophy contender Seneca Wallace at quarterback. I’m in my 25th year of being an Iowa State fan, and up until 2020 this was the most excited I can ever remember being during a season. It felt like Iowa State had a legitimate shot at winning the Big 12 and playing for a national championship. 

That excitement would dissipate quickly in the weeks ahead, but not before reaching its peak in the game against Texas Tech. Early in the third quarter, with the game tied at 3-3, one of the most memorable plays in school history occurred. 

Wallace went back to pass, faced pressure, ran backwards out of the defender’s grasp, turned the corner to tiptoe down the sideline, then cut back inside and ran all the way vertically across the field, picked up a key block from Michael Wagner, and walked into the endzone to complete what went into the record books as a 12-yard touchdown run, and became imprinted in our minds as “The Run.”

It's hard to believe, but someone in college today would not remember The Run, if they had even been alive. It has now been 19 years. 

Every Iowa State fan old enough to remember it probably remembers where they were when they watched it. My friend Charles was in the Cyclone Marching Band. At that time, the band stood in the south endzone bleachers during the game. The band was in prime position to see the play develop and cheer as Wallace ran right in its direction as he crossed the goal line. 

I remember approximately where I was, and it was not in Jack Trice Stadium, nor was it at home watching on television. No, I was a sophomore in the Pella High School marching band, and we were at a band competition that evening. In those days (I felt so old writing this), we didn't have smartphones. I couldn't check the score or update my phone every five minutes like I can now. It's possible the announcer at the marching band competition read the score at some point. I don't remember. It seems likely that I found out somehow that evening that the Cyclones had defeated Texas Tech. If not, I would have found out when I looked at the newspaper the next day. 

Regardless, I didn't have much comprehension of what The Run was. I seem to recall at some point my brother, who had watched the game, tried to describe it to me, telling me how thrilling it was. I remember as he finished trying to describe it, he said "I can't do it justice. You really just need to see it."

The problem was, it wasn't easy to just see it. The internet wasn't what it is now. There was no ISU Athletics Facebook account. I'm pretty sure you couldn't see highlights on ESPN.com at that point (I remember a few years later watching highlights of sports online and thinking "Wow, I can't believe this exists!").

I don't even remember when I first saw the play. I think I saw one angle of it on a college football highlight show at the end of the year (to which I think I remember my brother telling me it wasn't even the best angle). 

At some point, when YouTube became a thing, I found the clip. OK, now I see why they call it “The Run.”

I bet I watched the play 10 times, alternating between Pete Taylor's call and the television broadcast. I imagined how excited Jack Trice Stadium must have been at that moment. Fans were watching a top 25 football team play a prime time game where the Heisman Trophy candidate made a highlight-worthy play. The Cyclones went on to win the game 31-17 to move to 6-1, further building hype around their national championship hopes. I imagine that moment to be one of the best moments in history to be an Iowa State football fan. Knowing what we know now about how the 2002 season ended, it is probably easy to forget how that moment felt. But the fans in the stadium that night, and watching at home, and reading about the result in the newspaper the next day, had no idea what was to come. Those moments were college football bliss.

The other more recent game that lives in Cyclone lore was the 2016 game at Jack Trice Stadium. It was a cold November game when a 4-6 Tech team took on a 2-8 Iowa State team during Matt Campbell’s first year as Iowa State’s coach. When we entered the stadium, we went to our regular seats in the upper deck, and saw there was barely anyone in the visitors’ section in the lower deck below us. We decided to abandon our normal seats and sneak down close to the field. It was not a heavily attended game, and nobody stopped us. Given the fact that we weren’t really impeding the view of anyone behind us, and to help stay warm, we stood the entire game.

Some guy named Patrick Mahomes was playing quarterback for Texas Tech that day. We had no idea that two years later he would be an NFL Most Valuable Player or that he'd lead Kansas City to the Super Bowl win in the 2019 season. Joel Lanning was the quarterback for Iowa State, and he had a day to remember.

Iowa State jumped out to a 7-0 lead as Lanning ran for a 24-yard touchdown. Texas Tech, meanwhile, managed only a field goal in its first two drives with Mahomes leading the way. Iowa State grabbed a 14-3 lead a little while later. 

I'm trying to decide when I really believed it was going to be a blowout. I don’t think I quite felt that way even when Allen Lazard caught a 34-yard touchdown pass, or when Lanning ran for his second touchdown of the day to make it 28-3 early in the second quarter. Iowa State bad developed a habit of jumping out to a lead and then trying to hold on (unsuccessfully) as the other team stormed back. Already in 2016 the Cyclones had blown leads of 14 points in the fourth quarter to Baylor and 17 points late in the third quarter to Oklahoma State, and the year prior had lost big leads to Oklahoma State and Kansas State.

It became tougher to doubt the Cyclones as they continued to stop Mahomes and took a 35-3 lead after a 39-yard catch by Hakeem Butler. All doubt was removed when Mahomes had a pass intercepted by Kamari Cotton-Moya and returned 48 yards for a touchdown to make the score 42-3. For good measure, Iowa State added a field goal just before halftime to make it 45-3.

In the second half, Lanning ran for touchdown runs of 19 yards, 35 yards and 10 yards to cap a 66-10 win. It was one of the more satisfying blowouts I had watched the Cyclones play, and a turning point in the Campbell era. Even with all the success the team has had since then, this game still gets brought up fondly by many Cyclone fans. 

Campbell has not lost to Texas Tech, and all but one of the victories has been fairly comfortable. 

This year, Texas Tech got off to a strong 5-2 start, but after a loss to Kansas State, the Red Raiders decided to part ways with coach Matt Wells with the four toughest teams in the conference still on the schedule. The Red Raiders are now led by interim coach Sonny Cumbie, and just days before the game announced that Joey McGuire would take over as head coach at the end of the season. It’s an unusual circumstance to have a coach fired with four games to play, and have a new coach waiting, but to still have an interim coach leading the team for the rest of the season. 

Texas Tech is coming off of a blowout 52-21 loss to Oklahoma in its first game post-Wells. I’ve been trying to decide if it makes me feel better that Texas Tech has an interim coach, or worse. Sometimes these can be just the type of situations that seem to galvanize a team to pull an upset.

And yet, I feel confident in Iowa State. In fact, it’s the most confident I have felt about any of the Big 12 road games Iowa State has played so far. I had major nerves going into the Baylor, Kansas State and West Virginia games (West Virginia game was the least confident I had felt about a game all year, and unfortunately my hunch played out). Iowa State is rolling after winning four of its last five games, including the win over previously unbeaten Oklahoma State and the dominant wins over Kansas State and Texas. The West Virginia loss feels like a blip. 

My gut feeling is that Iowa State will be locked in, ready to go. At 4-2 in the Big 12, Iowa State is still very much alive for the conference championship game. 

I have to admit, when the schedule first came out, the trip to Lubbock was at the bottom of my list. Lubbock is off the beaten path, so to speak. It’s not a place I likely ever would have chosen to go to if not for seeing Iowa State play a football game, and it’s not the first road trip I would have chosen for a Cyclone game. This would have been an easy road trip to try to find a way out of. 

Now that the game is here, I’m feeling significantly more excited. The Cyclone Club of Dallas-Fort Worth is having a pregame tailgate, I get to meet up with my friends Adam and Nicole, who I met in Waco, and my friend Charles is making the trip from Minneapolis. 

I don’t know exactly what to expect in terms of the gameday atmosphere. My impression is Texas Tech fans are passionate about their team, and I almost imagine Texas Tech to be the “pro team” of northwest Texas, similar to how Iowa State fans feel about the Cyclones in Central Iowa. I’m not totally sure whether to expect a raucous crowd excited to see their team try to pull an upset, or a somewhat sleepy crowd given the mid-season coaching change.

Either way, it’s another de facto elimination game for the Big 12 Championship. A loss would all but end Iowa State’s hopes. 

If Iowa State can take care of business, however, it will set up an even bigger game ahead.