Iowa State vs. Kansas State Recap: A Celebration Seventeen Years in the Making
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It can’t be real, I thought. There’s nobody around him! I was barely even conscious of the fact I had jumped out of my seat.
We had just settled in for the first play of Iowa State’s game at Kansas State on Saturday night. My wife, Paige, and I were in the stadium’s southeast corner, thirty-five rows up. Although there were a good number of Iowa State fans in the vicinity, we were surrounded on all sides in our immediate seating area by Kansas State fans. The row in front of us, behind us, and to each side. I told myself not to be “that guy,” the loud, possibly obnoxious guy that sits in an away team stadium and tries to outcheer the home fans. One of the first times I had gone to a road game as a non-band member, I had been “that guy.” I didn’t mean to be; I was just excited and cheering. It was only hours after the game, after reflection, that I realized I had probably been the annoying person that everyone around me was rolling their eyes at. I didn’t really want to do that again.
So on Saturday night in 2021 in Manhattan, Kansas, I was trying to mostly take my cue from the fans in my area. I figured I’d cheer a respectable amount when Iowa State had a big play, and other than that, try to blend in and be a good guest.
Which is what I was trying to do when Iowa State took the ball to begin the game and lined up for its first play from scrimmage. My adrenaline made me want to stand, but I took my seat those around me began to sit down and settle in. The next thing I knew, Iowa State running back Breece Hall was seemingly by himself, just beyond the line of scrimmage but yards away from anyone else on the field. There was nothing between him and the endzone. I could barely register what I was seeing, and I yelled “OH!” Next thing I knew, I was on my cheering feet for Breece as he booked down the field. “Go! Go! Go!” I was vaguely aware that throughout our corner of the stadium, hundreds of other Cyclone fans were having the same reaction. Hall outran the one defender close enough to chase him, scampering away from a diving tackle attempt around the ten-yard-line. The last few steps were a relaxing jog into the endzone. It was a seventy-five-yard touchdown run on the game’s first play, and Iowa State was up 7-0 after the extra point.
I was standing and clapping, taking in the scene of other Iowa State fans doing the same. Many were high-fiving. About ten rows in front of us, my longtime friend Jason turned around, locked eyes with me and gave me an “air five.” Paige, who does not have quite the same level of irrational passion about sports as I do, had not even been paying attention until she heard Iowa State fans yelling. “What just happened!?” she asked? “Breece just scored on the first play!” I yelled.
A few hours later, I didn’t need to worry as much about how loud I cheered. Kansas State fans had filed out of the stadium following a convincing Iowa State victory (which, as I’ll get to, still had me nervous until nearly the final play). The Iowa State fans had begun to congregate in the seats closest to the field as the teams shook hands after the game. Paige and I, along with Jason and his family, went down to join them. First came Iowa State tight end Charlie Kolar and special teams standout Rory Walling, running toward our corner. Then the rest of the team followed. The Iowa State fans in attendance clapped and yelled as the players waved and high-fived the fans closest to the field.
We had all just witnessed the type of performance many of us expected to see more of going into the season. The Cyclones had controlled the game in a 33-20 victory, winning for the first time in Manhattan since 2004. Seniors such as Kolar and Walling had been on the team during a heartbreaking loss in 2017 and a frustrating loss there in 2019. Fans had experienced even more heartburn in programs’ prior trips. This night, it had all come together.
It felt like Iowa State was hitting its stride. “Brocktober” was in full swing. The Cyclones had a rivalry win and a conference road win, which set up an even bigger game the following week.
I clapped and cheered with fellow fans and took a selfie with Paige. I wanted to remember this night for a long time.
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The bye week on the Saturday before Iowa State played Kansas State set up to be a fun weekend of college football. The Red River Showdown between Texas and Oklahoma would kick things off, followed by a top five matchup between Iowa and Penn State, and a number of other games worth keeping an eye on. It was the kind of day I could have sat and watched football for ten hours or more.
In another year, maybe I would have done that. Given my journey of going to twelve games in thirteen weeks (at least) and traveling to four different time zones within this same timespan, it seemed like a good day to spend with family in my hometown of Pella. My brother and his wife, big Hawkeye fans, were on their way to Kinnick Stadium to watch the Iowa vs. Penn State game, and my dad was going with them. My mom was taking care of my niece, so I decided to keep them company and make a visit to my great aunt and great uncle’s house in the process.
While Texas was jumping out to a big lead over Oklahoma, I was eating lunch and catching up with my great aunt and uncle. When Oklahoma was making an improbable comeback with its backup quarterback, followed by Penn State jumping out to a lead over Iowa, I was watching The Addams Family 2 with my mom and niece at the movie theater. While Iowa was making its comeback, I was catching up with my mom. It was a compelling day of college football, and I didn’t watch a minute of it. But I couldn’t help but check scores often. Two of the biggest games of the day directly or indirectly affected Iowa State. If the Cyclones were to stay in the Big 12 title race, the Red River Showdown would very likely have an impact on tiebreaker scenarios. I didn’t have a strong preference who won, but had a feeling Iowa State would ultimately be better off if Oklahoma beat Texas, which is ultimately what happened in a thrilling game.
As for the Hawkeyes, I was feeling some complicated emotions. I bet a lot of Cyclone fans could relate. Iowa defeated Penn State to go 6-0, and would be solidly in the College Football Playoff conversation, with six very winnable games to end the regular season. The Hawkeyes and their fans were living the season we dreamed of just four weeks prior. I couldn’t help but feel impressed at what the Hawkeyes had accomplished, happy for my brother getting to see a big win, and yes, a little jealous. It was another reminder that no matter what you think will happen going into a season, you really can’t predict everything.
I again had to remind myself to enjoy the journey. Quit worrying about a rival winning and again start focusing on the experience of following my team. My working assumption from that point on was that Iowa was in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot. It felt like an almost foregone conclusion, so I might as well stop thinking about it.
It became easier to put on the backburner as we got into the K-State gameweek. The Wildcats were rivals to Iowa State in their own right.
The Iowa State vs. Iowa rivalry is a big deal in large part because the fans can’t avoid each other. Everyone is related to, friends with or works with fans from the opposite fanbase. For anything I do in the Greater Des Moines area, for example, I’m almost guaranteed to see both Iowa State and Iowa fans. The Kansas State rivalry was, in some ways, born out of longevity, necessity, and the age of social media. Both schools lost in-conference rivals when Nebraska and Missouri left the Big 12 in the early 2010s. The Cyclones and Wildcats, who have now played more than one hundred times in their history, naturally grew their rivalry at that point. Both schools have similar profiles, and there’s an aspect of fighting for spots in the conference pecking order. Kansas State, for most of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, was the program Iowa State aspired to be in the conference.
And social media has a way of fueling the rivalry. I don’t know too many Wildcat fans, but doing my normal scrolling through Twitter during a “Farmageddon” game week opened my eyes to the rivalry smack talk that was happening.
On Wednesday, Iowa State announced it would wear cardinal helmets, white jerseys and cardinal pants. A Kansas State fan account photoshopped a spoof graphic of Iowa State announcing it would wear purple jerseys. The joke was that, similarly to how Iowa State wore black jerseys (Iowa’s primary color) when it played the Hawkeyes, it would wear purple jerseys (Kansas State’s primary color) when it played the Wildcats. K-State fans pointed out variations of the argument that Iowa State wasn’t a legitimate program because it “stole” Iowa’s colors. Over the course of the week, I saw Kansas State fans make fun of Iowa State for the 2015 loss (when the team failed to take a knee). I saw Wildcat fans argue that somehow K-State did not commit pass interference on Allan Lazard in 2017 despite the defender literally hugging him. And I saw Wildcat fans express their annoyance that Iowa State fans would dare compare their program to Kansas State, or that we’d dare wish for coach Matt Campbell to be our school’s version of the legendary K-State coach Bill Snyder, who built the Wildcats into Big 12 champions and national title contenders. I even saw one K-State fan express dislike at how “cocky” Iowa State fans had gotten after a little bit of success the last four years. (He must not know the same fans I know.)
Now Twitter, in my opinion, doesn’t represent an entire fanbase. My assumption is that only a fraction of fans are on Twitter, only a fraction of those fans are vocal, and only a fraction of the fans that are vocal give their opinion in a negative way. It just seems like those are the ones I tend to stop and linger on. It would be foolish of me to put too much stock into what some random Twitter users write, but it at least showed that these thoughts were out there. And it built up the rivalry just a little more in my mind. As long as it stays good-natured, which it seemed to, this is part of why I love college football. Rivalries are fun, and a little trash-talking can be fun. There’s enough serious stuff to argue about, so why not poke fun at each other over a game?
Since the game was a night game with a 6:30 kickoff, Paige and I left Saturday morning and made plans to stay at a hotel in Topeka on Saturday evening after the game. We left a little before 9 a.m., strategically placing us in Kansas City on the way at lunchtime. We stopped for lunch at Jack Stack BBQ, a favorite restaurant of ours. I first ate at Jack Stack before Iowa State’s 2014 Big 12 Tournament championship win in men’s basketball, and had eaten there before each one of the Cyclones’ tournament wins in Kansas City in the 2010s. I was used to it being full of Cyclone fans when I was there, and I was used to it being a precursor to a Cyclone win. This time, we were the only Cyclone fans I noticed, but it still led to good vibes.
We arrived in Manhattan a little after 3:00 p.m. and found a place to park north of the stadium. The tailgate lot was already mostly full. There were enough Iowa State fans scattered about to make us feel at home. We had made plans to meet some friends, who were not arriving until a little later. To kill some time, we decided to walk around the lots and over to the stadium. I grabbed a beer — A SingleSpeed Brewing Company Märzen called “16 Days” — and we began our walk.
Passing through the lot, we interacted with fans on both sides. The common refrain between Iowa State fans was “Go Cyclones!” For the Kansas State interactions, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I found the fans to be exceedingly friendly. “Try not to beat us too badly today,” one fan said, to which I replied, “I’m not that confident.” I had seen too many games go awry in that stadium. Multiple fans and stadium staff went out of their way to say “Welcome to Kansas State.” The scene felt a little bit like a game in Ames in terms of the layout. There were thousands of parking spots surrounding the stadium, with people setting up tents and grills and playing music. It was a festive atmosphere. It wasn’t quite as impressive as Iowa State, in my opinion, but I could be biased.
We walked by the northeast corner of the stadium, and saw a handful of Iowa State fans standing outside a stadium entrance. “I bet this is where the team is coming in,” I told Paige. We walked to the west side of the stadium and heard marching band sounds. The Kansas State band was putting on a mini-pep rally. We stopped to watch as they played a few tunes. They began the fight song, and played it a few times in a row. Just as I was questioning why they weren’t switching it up, I realized: The Wildcat team had arrived and were walking into the stadium. “They are huge,” Paige remarked.
We walked back toward where we came from and noticed the Iowa State team’s buses had pulled into the parking lot by where the group of Iowa State fans had been. We saw the last of the team filing into the stadium and made our way back to the car. On the way, we passed by a pair of K-State fans. “Corn sucks,” one said. Who doesn’t love a little crop-based trash talk?
We got back to the car and relaxed a bit as I caught up on some college football scores. I was surprised to see Oklahoma State, the Cyclones’ next opponent after Kansas State, had defeated Texas on the road. This meant the Cowboys would be undefeated coming to Ames the next week. What a big game it could be… if Iowa State could beat Kansas State. I also noticed Iowa, now ranked number two in the country, was losing to unranked Purdue at home.
Our friends arrived a few minutes later. Jason is a former coworker of mine and someone who I have kept in close touch with over the years, usually in some way related to Iowa State sports. When we worked together, I would go out of my way to stop at his office and rehash the latest game until we felt we had successfully analyzed all angles. He had made the drive with his wife and adult children. As we approached their family, I noticed something a little out-of-the-ordinary.
Jason had a mustache.
That mustache, quite frankly, did not do Jason any favors. Although he is a grown man with adult children, the mustache looked about like what you’d expect to find on the face of a teenager trying to grow facial hair for the first time. In Jason’s own words later, the ‘stache was thin and wispy. I knew he wasn’t trying to make a fashion statement.
“Did you lose a bet or something?” I asked.
He explained the story. After Iowa State lost to Baylor, he said he wasn’t going to shave his mustache until Iowa State won another game. Since the Cyclones played Kansas the following week, one of the worst teams in the entire country, he was confident Iowa State would win and he’d only need to keep the ‘stache for a week. Iowa State did, of course, defeat Kansas handily. But it couldn’t be that easy.
During home games, Jason sits next to a fan who brings a helmet to every game, and has earned the affectionate nickname “Helmet Guy.” During big plays, people take turns banging the helmet on the bleachers to create more noise. Helmet Guy is a diehard fan, and apparently wasn’t about to leave anything to chance. Toward the end of the Kansas game, he told Jason “You can not shave this mustache until Iowa State loses.” So there we were, two weeks later, and Jason still had that ugly mustache. I began hoping the ‘stache would last for a long time!
We caught up, each enjoyed a drink, and watched much of the fourth quarter of the Iowa game on my phone, as Purdue shockingly pulled off an unexpected upset. Those complicated feelings I had earlier about Iowa’s success turned into complicated feelings about seeing Iowa lose. I legitimately felt bad for the Hawkeye fans I am close to; I know how I would have felt in their shoes. And yet, I’d be lying if I said we weren’t a little bit relieved that our rivals were no longer undefeated. (I’m sure some ISU fans had stronger emotions than “relief.”)
That said, we still had our own game to play, and nothing else would matter if Iowa State lost to Kansas State.
We began our walk back to the stadium. “Go State!” I said to one fan, before Paige reminded me that both teams today were “State.” “OK fine, go Cyclones!” I corrected myself.
Standing in line to get into the stadium, I was again struck by just how friendly the Kansas State fans were. Everyone was jovial. We were joking with each other. It was a rivalry, but a friendly rivalry.
Paige and I said goodbye to Jason and his family and found our seats a few rows up from them. I had purposely tried to purchase tickets that would be near other Iowa State fans. I had an idea of where the visitors section would be but was not completely sure exactly how many Iowa State fans would be there and how close we would be to other Cyclones. As the stadium began to fill in, I noticed a good number of Cyclone fans in our section. Two sections over, right behind the goalposts, there was a block of about ten-to-fifteen rows of Cyclone fans. The seats immediately surrounding us, however, were occupied by Kansas State fans.
The atmosphere began to ramp up in the stadium as the band came on the field and played its fight songs and the national anthem. Kansas State also has one of my favorite college football traditions. The band plays the song “Wabash Cannonball” and the fans sway back and forth to the beat. It’s especially impressive when you watch the student section do it.
The crowd was ready to go for kickoff. K-State fans were loud. Bill Snyder Family Stadium holds the sound in well, and Kansas State fans know how to create it. Iowa State took the kickoff and lined up for its first play. The fans around me yelled “OHHHHHHHH.” And then Hall silenced everyone not wearing Iowa State gear with his seventy-five-yard run. A few rows behind us, a group of Iowa State fans had lifted one of their friends up and were doing push-ups with him as they counted to seven.
The run set the tone for the entire game. I later read in Jared Stansbury’s Cyclone Fanatic article that even though coach Matt Campbell usually chooses to kickoff first when given the choice, this game he decided to give his team the ball first. It was the first time he had made that decision. Campbell saw it as an opportunity to seize momentum. It worked. Iowa State had all the momentum.
The decision to take the ball first also meant that Iowa State would not risk Kansas State getting a big play right off the bat. Two years ago, K-State’s Joshua Youngblood returned the opening kickoff ninety-three yards for a touchdown, putting Iowa State behind the eight-ball early. In 2021, Kansas State again had a strong kick returner. Malik Knowles had returned a kickoff for a touchdown in each of Kansas State’s last two games. Iowa State had already given up a touchdown return in 2021. It was the kind of storyline that made Iowa State fans more than a little uneasy, which is why when the kickoff following Hall’s touchdown was fielded by Knowles at the three-yard-line I cursed under my breath. I then held my breath as he took it thirty-two-yards before finally being brought down.
Over the course of the first quarter, we got to know a few of the people around us. Paige struck up a conversation with the fans to our right. I conversed with one fan who was to my left in the row behind me. He told me how he had been to Ames for the Iowa State vs. Kansas State game in 2014. He was so impressed with then-ISU coach Paul Rhoads that he wrote a letter to Rhoads asking for an autograph, which Rhoads actually sent him. “That’s so cool,” I told him. “I just loved how you guys would fight so hard every game, even when you were underdogs,” he said. I agreed.
“I also think you guys have a special coach in Matt Campbell. He seems to really have things rolling,” he said.
“We love him,” I replied.
A little while later, the video board showed scores from around the Big 12. Texas had lost to Oklahoma State. I turned to the Kansas State fan and said “Horns down! That’s something we can all agree on!”
Over the course of the game, I heard him refer to the final play of the 2017 game and how exciting it was when Kansas State caught a pass in the back of the endzone on the game’s final play to pull off the improbable comeback against Iowa State. I just stared straight ahead. It was still too painful. At another point, the conversation turned to Rhoads’ last game against K-State in 2015. I couldn’t help but turn around. “All we had to do was take a knee!” I said. Six years later, we could all laugh about it.
On the field, Iowa State forced K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson into an interception, and capitalized with a forty-four-yard field goal by Andrew Mevis to go up 10-0. The group behind us had picked another person to lift up this time, and pushed him into the air ten times. On the ensuing kickoff, Mevis again kicked it short, setting up Knowles for a thirty-yard return. Iowa State again avoided the really big play, but K-State used the good field position to score its first touchdown, a forty-yard pass from Thompson to Phillip Brooks to make it 10-7. Iowa State went three-and-out and was forced to punt, and the Wildcats again began to drive as the first quarter came to a close.
Given Hall’s big run, an interception and a 10-0 lead to begin the game, I was a little shellshocked that K-State had the ball with a chance to take the lead. It looked like that was going to happen when one of Thompson’s passes was scooped up for a big gain inside the ten-yard-line. However, a replay review clearly showed the ball hit the ground before the receiver could catch it, negating the play. Iowa State held the Wildcats to a forty-three-yard field goal attempt. I knew the kick was no good when I saw the Cyclone fans behind the endzone cheering. Iowa State had held onto the lead.
The Cyclones capitalized with an impressive drive of their own. Iowa State converted three third downs, ran thirteen plays in just more than seven minutes and scored on a one-yard-run by Hall to go up 17-7. (Followed by seventeen push-ups by the Iowa State fans behind us.)
Mevis’ kickoff went into the endzone to force a touchback this time, prompting many Iowa State fans to give him a standing ovation. I saw Jason leading the cheers a few rows down. “Are you guys serious with that cheer,” a fan behind me asked. I had to explain the general lack of confidence a lot of fans had in the kickoff game, coupled with the propensity for Knowles to return kicks for touchdowns.
“A couple weeks ago we gave up a kick return touchdown against Baylor,” I said.
“Yeah, I saw that,” he responded.
Iowa State held K-State to a three-and-out and got the ball back for another seven-play-drive to end the half with a Mevis forty-one-yard field goal. I was feeling good as Iowa State took a 20-7 lead to halftime.
I went to the concourse to try to find some dinner, but the lines were packed. I decided it wasn’t worth the wait as I didn’t want to miss any of the game, and figured I’d grab food at some point in the third quarter after the rush subsided. My decision paid off as Iowa State forced a punt on Kansas State’s first possession of the second half. A Wildcat punt was downed at the seven-yard-line, setting up Iowa State in poor field position. If Kansas State was going to flip momentum, this was the time to do it.
The Cyclones had other ideas.
Iowa State began the possession with a six-yard run by Hall. Quarterback Brock Purdy then found tight end Chase Allen for twelve yards and a first down at the twenty-five. Phew, at least we are out of our own end, I thought. The next two plays went nowhere, setting up a third-and-eleven and getting the crowd to its feet. Purdy’s pass was broken up, but Kansas State was called for a penalty for having too many players on the field. Iowa State had another shot, and this time converted a third-and-six with a seven-yard pass from Purdy to running back Jirehl Brock.
A couple plays later, Iowa State again faced a third down, this time third-and-four. Purdy scrambled for seven yards to the Iowa State forty-nine and another first down. Even if we don’t score here, it’s still exactly the drive we needed to flip field position, I thought. This is what veteran teams do. They weren’t done. Iowa State again faced a third down, this time third-and-one, and Hall broke through for five yards. By this point, I was deeply impressed with the drive Iowa State was putting together, and also noticed the game was now past the halfway point of the third quarter. The more the clock ticked when Iowa State had a two-score-lead, the better. Kansas State fans seemed to notice too. The noise level had dropped considerably since the first third-down-play of the drive.
Purdy found Kolar for thirteen yards and a first down before facing another third down on the next sequence. Iowa State needed five, and Purdy found Kolar for six. First down Cyclones. Finally, Iowa State faced a third-and-eight from the eleven-yard-line. With the third quarter clock now below three minutes, Purdy threw a strike to Sean Shaw Jr. near the sideline in the endzone. Shaw was covered well, but Purdy placed the ball away from the defender and into an area where only Shaw could find it. Shaw turned his body away from the defender and made a spectacular catch as the defender tried helplessly to stop him. Touchdown, Iowa State. The Cyclones had taken a commanding 27-7 lead.
It was perhaps the most impressive drive I had ever seen a Cyclone football team complete. Eighteen plays, ninety-three-yards, more than ten minutes of game time. For Iowa State fans, it was a thing of beauty, the kind of drive that future drives will get compared with. For Kansas State fans, it had to be deflating. Iowa State had taken the air out of the stadium. Except for, of course, the Iowa State fans behind us lifting their friend in the air for twenty-seven pushups.
By this point, I was really wanting some food. Remembering how I had left the stands right when Baylor returned a kickoff for a touchdown just a few weeks prior, I decided to wait until after the kickoff. This time it was a touchback. “Don’t let them score,” I told Paige. I walked up to the concourse and noticed quite a few Kansas State fans making their way out of the stadium. They believed the game was over. I felt comfortable, but had seen too many improbable K-State comebacks in this series to count it as a win just yet.
As I waited in line for a sandwich, I watched the in-stadium video feed and listened to the crowd cheer as Kansas State picked up first downs on five straight plays as the third quarter ended. I got my sandwich and watched from the concourse as Kansas State scored a touchdown five plays into the fourth quarter. K-State missed the extra point, keeping it a full two-touchdown lead for Iowa State at 27-13. When I got back to my seat, I looked at Paige. “I told you not to let them score!” I said jokingly. “I know! At least they missed the extra point,” she said.
Still, with more than twelve minutes left, the comfortable victory I was envisioning was hanging in the balance. Hall made another monster play to begin the next drive, this time taking it forty-three-yards to the Kansas State thirty-two-yard-line. A few plays later, Mevis knocked in a forty-one-yard field goal to give Iowa State a 30-13 lead. The Cyclone fans in the endzone cheered as the kick sailed through. I breathed a little easier. Behind me, the Iowa State fans did thirty push-ups.
K-State wasn’t going to make this easy for the Cyclones, again driving down the field. This time, Iowa State’s defense made it tougher, forcing a third-and-eleven and then a third-and-two. Kansas State converted both, and drove inside the ten-yard-line. Iowa State forced a fourth-and-eight from the nine. A stop here would end it. Thompson threw it to the endzone, where Iowa State’s T.J. Tampa was waiting. He’s going to intercept it, I thought. The play took place in the opposite endzone, and I lost sight of it but began to cheer as I thought I saw Tampa make the catch. I saw the K-State student section on that end of the field start cheering and realized something had gone wrong. “What? How did they score?” I wondered out loud. The replay showed it. Somehow the ball got past Tampa into the hands of Knowles, who was able to hold on for the touchdown. Kansas State cut the deficit to 30-20. Behind us, some Kansas State fans had copied the Iowa State fans, but instead of lifting a full-grown adult into the air twenty times in honor of the Wildcats’ twenty points, they were lifting a toddler into the air. As they reached twenty, I joined others in clapping for them.
Despite this lighthearted moment, my anxiety was spiking. I thought back to 2014, 2015 and 2017. I thought back to Iowa State’s own comeback in 2018. Crazy things tend to happen when Iowa State plays against Kansas State. If we somehow lose this game, I thought, it might be the most painful loss of all of them. My friend Chris, watching from home, texted “Any other team right now… and I wouldn’t feel even a twinge of worry. But this team…”
Yep.
Kansas State attempted an onside kick to try to get the ball back with just more than five minutes to play. The ball was a slow roller, executed well. It gave time for K-State’s kicking team to catch up to it. Right as it reached the required ten-yard mark, an Iowa State player tried to jump on it… and it bounced away. This is how it happens, I thought. They are going to recover this. The Kansas State fans that were still in attendance cheered in hopeful anticipation. Players piled on top of players. It was impossible to tell who had the football. Iowa State players were claiming their team recovered it, but so was at least one Kansas State player. After what felt like ten minutes, the ref signaled Iowa State ball as a Cyclone player came out of the pile holding the football. The Cyclone fans cheered appreciatively as I breathed a literal sigh of relief.
Iowa State was able to convert another forty-yard-field goal with 1:23 to play to grab a 33-20 lead, and I could finally relax just a little bit. The fan behind me, the Paul Rhoads fan, told me goodbye. “It was nice to meet you,” I said. The clock ran out as Kansas State tried to score one more time, and I stood with the other Iowa State fans, now with most of the K-State fans having left, and cheered as the clock hit 0:00. Iowa State had finally won in Manhattan.
We headed down a few rows to catch up with Jason. “We are going to go down and cheer on the team,” I said.
“Yeah, we’ll come too,” he said. It had been seventeen years since a Cyclone win in this stadium. Now was the time to enjoy the moment.
Following the celebration, we began our walk back to the car. “I can’t imagine being more nervous during what felt like such a dominating victory,” I remarked to the laugh of another fan filing out. Jason and I shared stories of our interaction with fans during the game, and remarked how friendly they were. One Wildcat fan walked by us and said “Good luck the rest of the season.”
Speaking of the rest of the season, we began to look ahead to the next game — a home game against undefeated Oklahoma State. The win over Kansas State ensured that there would be extra anticipation for the Oklahoma State matchup. For Jason, the mustache would last for at least one more week.
Iowa State was now halfway through the regular season at 4-2, and more importantly 2-1 in the Big 12. We had finally seen the Cyclones line up against a major conference opponent not named Kansas and win, and do so convincingly, in the style we had enjoyed watching during the historic 2020 run. Farmageddon 2021 belonged to Iowa State.
