Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers seeks to stay hot against Oklahoma

AMES — He dictated the tempo. He played with panache.

And throughout Iowa State football’s 24-21 loss at Texas on Oct. 15, one truth emerged about first-year Cyclone starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers: The game had finally slowed down, even as it slipped away late.

“We call it accelerated vision,” ISU offensive coordinator Tom Manning said. “Some of those things that, man, you come off to the sidelines and go, ‘Coach, I should have done this’ — we felt like maybe even in the last (game) maybe there were less of those situations.”

Dekkers enters Saturday’s 11 a.m. Big 12 matchup with Oklahoma coming off a career-high 329-yard passing effort as well as a season-high 30 yards rushing.

The Cyclones (3-4, 0-4 Big 12) seek to arrest their first four-game losing skid in six years, while the Sooners (4-3, 1-3) hope to notch a second straight win after three consecutive defeats.

“I think you see a team that’s very similar,” ISU head coach Matt Campbell said of Oklahoma. “That’s trying to find it’s way but it’s got some dynamic playmakers there.”

Dekkers, of course, also is charting new territory as a starter, acquiring valuable lessons along the way. The 6-foot-3, 206-pound former West Sioux star played his best game against the Longhorns, despite a controversial late fumble that was ruled to have come out before his knee fully hit the ground in the final moments.

Dekkers threw for two touchdowns to fellow sophomore Jaylin Noel and ran for another that day, and looked calm and measured, not frantic nor ill at ease.

“We’re just finding different ways to get playmakers the football,” Dekkers said. “Whether that’s fast, slow, different ways. I felt like (Texas) was the right game where if we would work fast it would work really well so we kept doing it. Obviously we’ve shown success with it so there’s a chance that it could help the rest of the year.”

Maybe even this week against a Sooners defense that’s allowing a conference-worst 46.8 points per game in league play.

Add in the possible healthy return of both of the Cyclones’ top two tailbacks, Jirehl Brock and Cartevious Norton, and there’s plenty of reason for optimism that ISU can score more than 24 points in a Big 12 game for the first time this season.

“Having healthy running backs is always a big deal, especially ones that we expect to do big things,” Dekkers said. “Having both of them come back will be huge for our run game and also just our offense as a whole.”

But it won’t matter who’s on the field — at any position — unless the mistakes and bad breaks that have plagued the Cyclones while losing four games by a combined 14 points are put squarely into the past.

Having a bye week between the Texas and Oklahoma games helped in that regard, making this week feel like more of a fresh start.

“I think the biggest thing for us is evaluation of, number one, do we have the right players on the field, and number two, are we putting those guys in the right position to be successful?” Campbell said. “And then if we’re not, how do we make sure, whether it’s schematically or personnel-wise, do we make the changes we need to make moving forward.”

Time will tell, but one thing is clear. Dekkers’ own version of “accelerated vision” is taking flight. The next step hinges on playing with greater efficiency and not leaving points out on the field.

“It’s frustrating because obviously we’re not getting the outcomes that we want and we know it’s because of ourselves, it’s not the plays other teams are making on us,” Dekkers said. “It’s because of the things we’re doing to ourselves to hurt ourselves. But it’s also encouraging we’re losing by one-possession games and making little mistakes in games, but are (still) staying in games, so if we clean that up we should be just fine.”

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