Cyclones were ready, willing, able

Iowa State's football team was an inspiration to Iowa State fans Saturday night. It should serve as an inspiration to Iowa's football team this week.

This column is about the Cyclones, not the Hawkeyes. But Iowa's getting lambasted in a lot of circles for its 22-21 loss at Minnesota Saturday, and understandably so. Many are probably writing off Iowa in its game against Michigan this Saturday in Iowa City.

But the lesson Iowa State provided, and which Minnesota certainly provided as well, is teams don't have to accept the criticism and pessimism of others. They don't have to feel, in the words of U2, that they're stuck in a moment and they can't get out of it.

Nothing about the Gophers' performance this season suggested they would beat Iowa. They clearly didn't care. They prepared to play, they came to play, and they played.

Nothing about Iowa State's previous four Big 12 games suggested it would beat Texas Tech. The Cyclones didn't care. They prepared to play, they went to Lubbock to play with virtually no one in Jones AT&T Stadium rooting for them, and they played. Man, did they play.

A 41-7 win on the road against the nation's No. 19 team? After having lost all four of their conference games by at least 16 points? Stunning. Fantastic.

That was the Texas Tech team that won at Oklahoma the Saturday before, and racked up 572 yards in doing so. As dumbfounding as was Iowa's loss to Minnesota, Iowa State's win was the bigger upset. You're 0-4 in the conference with four one-sided losses, you go on the road, and you absolutely dominate a ranked team that thoroughly outplayed Oklahoma at Norman? Stunning. Fantastic.

"It comes down to they were ready to play and we weren't," said Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege, who had been brilliant the week before at Oklahoma.

It was the first time in the last 70 games that the Red Raiders didn't throw a touchdown pass. They played a lot of very good teams in that stretch. But the team that did this to them was Iowa State, 2011.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Jared Barnett, who threw for 144 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 92 yards and a touchdown is from Garland, Texas. Running back James White, who rushed for 138 yards, is from Dallas. Freshman running back Duran Hollis, who had four carries for 101 yards and a touchdown, is from Fort Worth.

You see how important staying in the Big 12 was to Iowa State football in ways beyond finances. Without reasons for Texas recruits to come north -- like the chance to play in Texas a couple times of year -- the Cyclones' recruiting base would need to be changed dramatically.

ISU rushed for 368 yards. That was after No. 1 running back Shontrelle Johnson was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a neck injury. It was the Cyclones' first 300-yard rushing game in 10 years.

“They're very physical,” Texas Tech defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “They're strong. The new quarterback helped them with them some things. He made good decisions and kind of lit their fire, got some excitement back in there.”

Texas Tech had averaged 539 yards a game. It gained a mere 290 against the Cyclones.

Iowa State won at Nebraska in 2009 and at Texas last year. This was better. Way better, actually. This wasn't beating a Texas team that was sliding toward a 5-7 season, nor was it winning a 9-7 decision over a Cornhuskers squad that had eight turnovers that day in Lincoln. This was a dominant road win over a good team.

Everyone said the Cyclones were toast. A lot of people are saying the same about the Hawkeyes today. But it's up to the players to decide, and always has been. Which is one of the great things about sports.