Hlas column: State of Iowa's emotional football elevators changed directions on a dime Saturday

It's “The Hangover” college football week in our state.

If you're an Iowa fan, losing that 31-30 donnybrook to Wisconsin Saturday was draining in a bad way.

If you're an Iowa State fan, the euphoria from amazing the football nation with a 28-21 victory at Texas probably left you emotionally spent.

Iowa State. What a win.

Look, we know this isn't the kind of Texas team that has terrified its Big 12 brothers with far-smaller athletic department budgets for lo, these many years. The quarterback is a kid, the team is schizo.

UCLA routed Texas in Austin, and UCLA rallied to lose at Oregon last Thursday by only 47 points.

But it's still Texas. It's the team that won at Nebraska the week before it made the mistake of letting the Cyclones inside Austin's city limits.

It's Texas, the program that pulls out the most great recruits from ... Texas.

This wasn't a game in which the Cyclones relied on eight gifts from the opponent to win, a la their stunning triumph at Nebraska a year ago. ISU took the lead early in Austin and never surrendered it. It was 28-6 at one point.

Iowa State 28, Texas 6.

The Cyclones' offensive line, from the portions of the game I saw on TV, was terrific. Hey, the whole team was pretty good.

I don't know how you absorb consecutive losses of 68-27 and 52-0 to Utah and Oklahoma, get back up, and knock off one of the nation's top traditional football powers on the road.

This was Game No. 8. You get blasted twice in a row like that, how do you find the spirit and belief to pull off one of the biggest triumphs in school history?

It's like the song from “Damn Yankees” goes. You gotta have heart.

On the eastern side of Iowa, one of the best games I've seen in person was played Saturday. Neither team ever led by more than six points in Wisconsin's 31-30 win over Iowa, and the game had eight lead-changes.

Sunday's gloomy sky probably was a reflection of the mood in Hawkdom.

But this season to date is yet another lesson about the perils of huge expectations, and why coaches try to defuse them in August.

Rose Bowl, BCS title game, 11-1 ... 12-0? You heard them all as possibilities for Iowa.

The company for which I work put out an Iowa preseason football magazine called “If the Stars Align.” It should have included a subtitle saying “It's Always a Big ‘If' for Anyone.”

Iowa has a really good team, with really good coaches and really good players. That means it has a really good chance of competing with anybody. It never meant invincibility, and it certainly didn't mean it could beat good teams if any of its units (hello, special teams) was found lacking.

The three-game stretch of Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State on Iowa's schedule looked like quite the gauntlet this summer, and has proved to be just that.

Yet, but for a play here or there Saturday, the Hawkeyes would be going for a sweep of that stretch Saturday against MSU.

Iowa is still in the Big Ten title hunt, but perfection is now required. It has to beat the unbeaten Spartans, has to defeat mighty Ohio State, has to win its three remaining road games.

It's very possible, you know. If the stars align.