Introduction: 2020 Big 12 Championship Game — So Close

“They’re gonna do it. They’re really gonna do it.”

With less than 90 seconds left in the 2020 Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas, Iowa State’s Xavier Hutchinson had just caught a 2-yard pass that turned into a 15-yard penalty upon enduring a face mask penalty. The penalty gave the Cyclones a first down at the Oklahoma 33-yard line. The Sooners held a 6-point lead, but Iowa State was driving with the endzone in its sight. For the first time that day, I really, truly believed. Iowa State was going to score a touchdown and win the Big 12 Championship.

And what a fitting win it would be. The Cyclones, it had been well-documented, had waited 108 years since their last conference championship, drawing comparisons to another championship drought of the same length, that of the Chicago Cubs, which ended in 2016. 

It wasn’t just that Iowa State hadn’t won since 1912. The program and its fans have suffered a Cubs-like existence. For the vast majority of those 108 years, the Cyclones had a winning team only a handful of times. The few times the program had been close to something special, the rug was pulled out from underneath the team quickly and painfully. One only has to think of missed field goals in 2004 and 2005 that prevented ISU from reaching the Big 12 title game, or the trip to Oklahoma in 2002 on a day that started with championship hopes and ended 49-3 in favor of the Sooners. Failure in big moments is engrained in Cyclone lore, and it doesn’t just stick to football. Ask any Iowa State fan over the age of 30 about the “blarge” or Hampton or Niang’s broken foot or UAB, and they’ll likely need a drink.

Perhaps no other series has epitomized the struggles throughout Iowa State’s football history as that against the Oklahoma Sooners. Going into the 2020 Big 12 Championship game, the all-time series favored Oklahoma 74-8 (with one tie). That is even more lopsided historically if you consider that Iowa State had won two of the last four in the series. And most of the losses in the 20-or-so years leading up to 2017 weren’t close.

So it was fitting, on the day when Iowa State football had a chance to end over a century of mostly being an afterthought in the national college football landscape, the program had the opportunity to do it by knocking off one of the blue bloods of the sport, who for years had made the Cyclones their punching bag.

The day started off in typical Cyclone fashion. On the second play from scrimmage, Iowa State’s Isheem Young, the Co-Defensive Freshman of the Year in the Big 12, went in for a hit on an Oklahoma receiver following a pass reception. As Young went for the hit with his shoulder, the receiver was in the process of falling over backwards. The result was an accidental blow to the head, a 15-yard penalty and an ejection of Young. The announcers and everyone in Cardinal and Gold seemed to agree: maybe it was the right call by the letter of the law, but it was horrible luck and a bad rule. There was clearly no intent to injure.

From the get-go, the Cyclones and their fans felt like they got cheated, just like they always did before. (Cyclone fans vs. the refs could be another chapter completely.) Oklahoma jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and then a 24-7 lead, aided by Cyclone turnovers and mistakes. 

But these weren’t the Cyclones of old, and they fought back slowly, methodically and effectively. A 1-yard run by Breece Hall, who finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting less than a week later, cut the lead to 24-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Another 3-yard run by Hall cut the lead to 24-21 with 5:15 left. After an Oklahoma field goal extended the lead to 27-21, Iowa State’s offense took the field with 1:50 left and a chance to win with one final drive. 

Thirty-seven yards and just 22 seconds in game time later, Iowa State moved into scoring range. This was the stuff storybook endings were made of. David vs. Goliath. A comeback for the ages. A game-winning drive in the final two minutes. 

And then, disaster. Iowa State found itself in 3rd and 11, with the play clock winding down. In what felt like a blink of an eye, quarterback Brock Purdy took the snap, rolled to his right, took a hit as he let go of the ball… right into the hands of Oklahoma’s Tre Brown. Game over. 

109 years. 

It was heartbreaking, but not devastating. For one thing, the Cyclones were still poised to receive their first ever New Year’s 6 Bowl invitation to the Fiesta Bowl (a game they would eventually win.) For another, the overwhelming feeling among the Cyclone faithful is that this was no flash in the pan. Iowa State, under the direction of process-oriented fifth-year coach Matt Campbell, had built a program that could last. Throw in the fact that Purdy was widely considered the best quarterback in school history and set to be a senior 2021, and Hall would return as a junior and likely Heisman contender, and there was every reason to believe Iowa State would be right back in the championship game in 2021. Maybe, just maybe, the Cyclones could also compete for a spot in the College Football playoff.

Maybe instead of the storybook ending, it was the first chapter to the next season’s storybook ending.

Here begins my journey. 

I’ve been an Iowa State football fan since sometime around 1997. Never did I truly believe Iowa State could win a Big 12 title or something more until Matt Campbell proved it was possible. 

Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s in 2020, a few thoughts hit me simultaneously. One was that Iowa State was poised for a legitimate shot at something special in 2021. Another was that I couldn’t wait to get back to Jack Trice Stadium after missing every game in 2020 due to social distancing. Yet another was that I was itching to go on some road trips once life returned closer to the normal we remembered. And yet another was that if there was any time in my life to try to spend my time and money on following a team wherever they went, this would be the year. 

I wanted to go to every Iowa State football game that I possibly could. Looking at the next season’s schedule, that would include six home games, five road games, and hopefully the Big 12 Championship and a top-tier bowl game. I wanted to be there for every moment of this run. I wanted to push myself all in emotionally. Cyclone football is among the things I love most in the world, and the world was sending me sign after sign that this season was THE SEASON to go all in.

The next time Iowa State was driving with a chance to win a championship, I wanted to be there, in person. I wanted to feel it. I wanted to be part of every step of the journey, experience stadiums across the country with my fellow fans, and document it for my future self, for my future children, and for Cyclone fans, who have earned this type of journey as some of the most loyal fans in the country. 

Why this season? 

I picked this season for what it could be, not what I knew it was going to be. I’m going on the journey with the team. This is about my experiences in the moment. It’s about being a fan. You never know what’s going to happen in a given season. You hope, you have expectations, but you don’t know. That’s the magic. That’s what it’s all about. To experience the highs and lows with your friends, family, and other fans you may never even know personally. Join me on this journey.