Iowa State will celebrate its 16 seniors in Saturday's home finale against Kansas

AMES — Iowa State’s heaviest starting football players shared a lighthearted moment.

Offensive tackle Tyler Miller, who stands 6-foot-9 and tips the scales at 335 pounds, shared the media spotlight on Tuesday with defensive tackle Domonique Orange, a 6-4, 325-pound specimen.

They each spoke of gratitude, growth and their love for head coach Matt Campbell’s program in advance of Saturday’s 11 a.m. home season finale (FS1) between the Cyclones (6-4, 3-4 Big 12) and Kansas (5-5, 3-4).

But Miller playfully refused to praise Orange — and told him about it.

“They tried to get me to say something nice about you,” Miller said to Orange as the interview session wrapped up.

Orange — who is nicknamed “Big Citrus” — essentially shrugged. No words are needed to describe his tight bond with Miller. But that unspoken deep connection helps chart a momentous journey shared by 14 other Cyclone seniors, many of whom have experienced the high of an historic 11-win 2024 season, and the low of a 4-8 finish two years earlier. Now Miller and Orange simply want their last game played at Jack Trice Stadium to end in triumph, which would cement ISU’s eighth winning season in the past nine years.

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“It’s a moment you always kind of think about as a young guy,” said Miller, a father of two who plans to marry his fiance, Jaislynn Happe, on Jan. 23. “Then the next thing you know, it’s here, and that’s kind of how it’s been for me. I’ve been here a long time. Just cherishing every moment. … one day at a time.”

Miller’s started 37 consecutive games, which is saying something for an offensive tackle. Only quarterback Rocco Becht mirrors Miller’s durability in that regard — and no ISU defensive lineman can match Orange’s start streak of 14 games. That's saying something, as well, because he’s played through pain much of the season, and is an entirely different person than he was as an incoming freshman roughly four years ago.

“I was very selfish,” said Orange, who is generally projected to be selected in the first two days of the 2026 NFL Draft. “I was an angry kid before I got here. I wasn’t really big people person. Every negative thing you could possibly think of, that was me.”

And now?

“Coming to this program has honestly changed me,” Orange said. “(I’m) a better person. More open to things. This place, this program, this state, has changed me into someone I never thought I could be in a million years, and I’m fully grateful for that.”

Miller — who also has high hopes of playing at the next level — and Orange have combined for 70 starts in their respective Cyclone careers. They perform thankless jobs in the trenches, where statistics either don’t exist, or are hard to come by. And they’ll do the same thing on Saturday with a smile on their faces, even as they sweat and strain to end a three-game skid in the series with the Jayhawks.

“I don’t know if we would have gotten through this season if we didn’t have the maturity of (Miller) — of that man, that leader, at the front of the room guiding the football team,” Campbell said. “And Dom, what he went through? COVID was really hard on Dom. I think there were some rough moments between eighth grade and his senior year of high school, and there (have) been some really rough moments here. It hasn’t always been easy. …

“I don’t know if there’s a defensive lineman that’s played as good a football as Dom has played the last four weeks — and been able to do it not healthy. What’s he playing, 60 plays a game? I don’t know who asks a (325-)pounder to do that, but we are because it’s for the best interest of the team.”

Those last six words describe Miller and Orange perfectly. They don’t need praise. They just do what’s needed. No matter the cost, no matter the pain. So when that siren is cranked during Saturday’s game, Orange and his fellow seniors will smile. That sound says it all. No words are needed.

“It’s gonna be everything,” Orange said. “It’s gonna suck, of course, but at the end of the day I’m glad (about) what I did here, and what I was able to see and experience here. I’m not glad this time is coming to an end, but I’m happy with how I’m going out.”

Comments: robgray18@thegazette.com