Iowa State football hopes to learn from Saturday’s loss

AMES — Three words.

That’s the full extent of an explanation Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell received from officials after they ruled his dynamic kick returner, Jaylin Noel, had touched the sideline at the Kansas 31-yard line instead of being down inside the two.

That roughly 29-yard difference seemed like a chasm-sized distance when Noel toed the sideline for what officially became a 52-yard kick return that produced zero points in the Cyclones’ 28-21 loss to the No. 22 Jayhawks Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium.

“They said, ‘He stepped out,’ is what he said to me,” Campbell said to summarize the three-word response to his question about Noel being ruled to have briefly left the field of play during his big return in the second quarter when the Cyclones trailed, 14-0. “I don’t know if that was the case. It certainly didn’t look like it, but I would think that they would review it. They reviewed everything else.”

That bit of bad luck via the officiating crew proved to be emblematic of ISU’s latest setback. The Cyclones (5-4, 4-2 Big 12) saw a three-game win streak snapped and made far too many mistakes to beat a surging Kansas team (7-2, 4-2), which won in Ames for the first time since 2008.

“It’s another great lesson,” said Campbell, whose team seeks to regroup against BYU (5-4, 2-4) Saturday at 9:15 p.m. in Provo, Utah. “If you want to beat the veteran teams that (have) veteran football players, it (requires) precision and detail, and every one of the losses we’ve had, it’s been because of those situations.

“So gotta learn from it and gotta make the corrections we need to make to win these football games.”

Kansas seized control from the opening drive, forcing the Cyclones to go three and out. The Jayhawks then drove 87 yards on 10 plays to take a 7-0 lead on Devin Neal’s 6-yard touchdown run. Kansas quarterback Jason Bean confidently and easily converted on a fourth-and-10 play on that initial possession, which helped set a troubling tone for ISU as it struggled to execute on both sides of the ball.

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“I thought we battled back,” said Campbell, whose team pulled within three, at 21-18, with 8:09 remaining but couldn’t sustain the ill-fated comeback effort. “For whatever reason, we weren’t able to play early, but man, I think our kids really did a great job responding. I tip my hat to (Kansas). They made some plays to win the football game.”

So did the Cyclones’ redshirt freshman quarterback Rocco Becht, who threw a pick-six in the second quarter that gave the Jayhawks a 14-0 lead. But Becht didn’t sulk. He completed 10 consecutive passes during a long stretch of the second half in which he led ISU to 18 points. The last touchdown drive spanned 12 plays and 90 yards and ended in Becht’s two-yard run into the end zone.

“I’ve got to be better,” said Becht, who finished 20 of 26 for 212 yards while failing to complete a touchdown pass for the first time in his nine career starts. “All around, as a team, I feel like we’re not gonna lay our heads down. We’re gonna keep them up and we’ll move on. From my end, just watch film and get better.”

Becht’ short scoring run with 8:09 remaining kept hope alive for the Cyclones and energized an antsy crowd. That boost proved to be short-lived, however, as Bean got one of ISU’s safeties to bite on what turned into an 80-yard touchdown pass to Lawrence Arnold that opened the following drive.

“I don’t think we played up to our standard holistically,” ISU safety Beau Freyler said of the defense in particular. “We’ve got a lot of things to clean up. A lot of things (related to discipline) and those are things we can fix.

“I think we played with great effort and effort (often) erases mistakes, but you’ve got to have good discipline in the first place.”

The Cyclones fell from a five-way tie atop the conference standings into a five-way tie for third. And as Becht said, no one’s hanging their heads when a top-five finish remains well within the realm of possibility.

“We’re not gonna quit,” said Noel, who completed a 42-yard pass to Higgins to help stoke the second-half comeback. “It doesn’t matter what situation we’re in. We’re gonna keep coming back.”

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