Iowa State football growing and winning

They overcame a presnap penalty. They successfully converted on a fake field goal. They ran for 20 yards on a fourth-and-1 play.

The suddenly soaring Iowa State football team did all of those things on one long and grinding drive during Saturday’s dominant, 30-10, win at Cincinnati — and that single possession epitomized what’s buoyed the team to recent triumphs.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Rocco Becht led ISU (4-3, 3-1 Big 12) on a 15-play, 59-yard foray into the end zone against the Bearcats that gave his team a 10-7 lead. The Cyclones would never trail again en route to their third win in their past four games — and sixth 3-1 start to conference play in the past seven seasons.

“We’re starting to mature,” ISU head coach Matt Campbell told reporters after the game. “We’re starting to play games in the style that we need to play to win football games and you saw continued growth again.

‘I thought all three phases had some really great moments.”

That’s a great spot to be entering the one and only bye week of the season. The Cyclones stand alone in second place in the league standings and will face a vulnerable Baylor team (2-4, 1-2) on Oct. 28 in Waco.

“If we want to continue to be where we want to be at the end of all of this, then our growth is going to be critical going forward,” Campbell said. “Some teams have the ability to do that and some don’t, so hopefully this team has that ability.”

The Cyclones have certainly addressed early season issues with the offense and special teams successfully since enduring a head-shaking, 10-7, defeat at Ohio a month ago. The Cyclones rushed for a season-low 38 yards on 23 carries in that loss and kicker Chase Contreraz narrowly missed two field goal tries after less-than-ideal snaps.

Campbell doesn’t like to call that game a “low point,” but it did serve as a de facto wake-up call.

“We (thought) we were gonna be really slow with the results, but we were going to be relentless on the standard,” Campbell said. “Man, how we practice. How we work every day. We knew that this was (going to be) about growth because we’re so young and (had) so many unknown entities, but we felt really confident that we had some really great players.”

Those previously “unknown entities” are proving their mettle now. Becht is tied for third in the Big 12 with 12 touchdown passes and boasts an 8-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in conference play.

Contreraz — a graduate transfer from Nebraska — ran for a first down on the fake field goal during Saturday’s fateful drive that ended with Becht’s 2-yard trudge into the end zone. He drilled all three of his field goal attempts, making him 9-for-10 in the past four games.

And the mostly young Cyclone defense notched two interceptions while stifling the Bearcats’ offense on Saturday. ISU is tied for second nationally in interceptions with 12 and sophomore safety Jeremiah Cooper leads the country with five of his own.

“I’ve believed in these kids since January,” Campbell said. “It’s a really special group of humans. They’ve faced a lot of adversity this year and they continue to pound away.”

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