Hlas: Cyclones reboot, Hawkeyes freeze up

IOWA CITY - He grinned after he missed a 42-yard field goal that briefly seemed like it would cost Iowa State a victory over Iowa in regulation Saturday.

'I knew they had one timeout,” Cyclone sophomore kicker Cole Netten said. 'I heard the timeout before the ball was even snapped.”

Iowa called it, just before Netten kicked. It was to ice him. It turned out to be a refreshing ice, not a freezing one. And Netten mentally pressed reboot, so to speak.

'After he missed the first one,” ISU center Tom Farniok said, 'he was smiling and laughing. I was like ‘OK, I know he's gonna make it, because he's not nervous. I turned around and said ‘Hey, that's practice, now you're gonna win the game.' He was like ‘Yep.' ”

And then?

'Straight through,” Farniok said.

Yep. The scoreboard said Cyclones 20, Hawkeyes 17. It was that close in points. But ISU played with the heart, poise and preparation of winners in the second half. Iowa overthought and underperformed, and deserved the defeat.

Calling a timeout right before a kicker is about to try a game-winner has become as common in football as Big Ten teams losing to clubs from the other Power Five leagues. It's conventional wisdom. Make the kicker spend more time thinking about what he has to do. Does it work?

'No, it doesn't,” Netten said. 'If anything, it works better not to ice because usually a kicker is expecting that to happen.”

What's harder for a kicker is to get teammates on the sideline to clam up and stay away from him when it becomes apparent he may have to put the game on his foot.

'There's always lots of hangers-on over there trying to talk to them,” Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads said, 'thinking they're gonna teach ‘em real quick to be calm or to kick well or to win the game.”

'Everyone was telling me ‘You can do this, you can do this,' ” Netten said. 'I know I can. A field goal's a field goal.”

Netten had the mind-set his teammates showed. They went to their Kinnick Stadium pink locker room down 14-3. Rhoads said when he talked to his players, their eyes met his instead of looking at the floor.

'If you would have polled our kids at some point in the fourth quarter (of ISU's 32-28 loss to Kansas State the Saturday before), there would have been doubt in their minds that they could win the game,” Rhoads said. 'So one of the things for the week, we couldn't have any doubt we were going to win the game.

'At halftime, down 14-3 and beating ourselves in a lot of ways, there was no hesitation. It was an intent, focused group that was ready to go out and play the next 30 minutes of football.

'It was won between the ears.”

Iowa State lost a touchdown late in the first half when DeVondrick Nealy fumbled the ball just before he crossed the goal line. A sign of certain doom? Not this day. Not against an opponent with more questions than answers.

Nealy fumbled again early in the second half. But midway through the fourth quarter, he caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Sam B. Richardson, who was stellar. Most coaches would have buried the fumbler on the bench. Why didn't Rhoads?

'Confidence in my players,” he said with conviction.

Confidence. Netten pushed a 42-yard field goal that didn't matter. Then it mattered, with :02 left. Moments later, his teammates were hoisting a trophy, singing in an end zone, enjoying a moment most outside their locker room didn't think they'd experience here.

Netten found his girlfriend, who is a member of ISU's dance team and has been his girlfriend since they were at Ankeny High. She gave him a winner's embrace. That, he remembered later. Everything else was blurry.

'Being an Iowa State fan my whole life, it's just something that doesn't feel real,” Netten said.

'It didn't even feel like a dream. It felt like a dream that didn't even happen. ... It just doesn't feel real.”

Reality: Netten doesn't turn 21 until Nov. 16, so he'll have to wait on the free beverages Cyclone fans would have been happy to buy him Saturday night.

'I've got three more months,” he said, and he grinned. Again.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com