5 memorable Iowa State football wins over Iowa

Iowa State travels to Iowa City on Saturday for another football showdown with Iowa.

Here are five memorable Cyclone wins in the series:

2005: Iowa State 23, Iowa 3

Iowa was coming off three consecutive double-digit win seasons and Iowa State had struggled to beat Illinois State in its season opener.

Seems like a recipe for a Hawkeye win right? Nope — and the main reason? Turnovers, ironically enough, which have been the Cyclones’ bane in the Cy-Hawk series lately.

Iowa committed five turnovers in the 2005 game, but outgained ISU 347 yards to 323.

Sound familiar?

Last season, the Cyclones outgained the Hawkeyes 339 yards to 173, but four costly turnovers fueled Iowa’s 27-17 victory.

Both teams went on to have disappointing seven-win seasons in 2005. Five of ISU’s six losses came either in overtime or by three or fewer points. Three of Iowa’s five losses were by seven points or fewer.

2012: Iowa State 9, Iowa 6

A game in which ISU scored the only touchdown, but missed the extra point, featured one of the most dramatic finishes in series history.

Iowa quarterback James Vandenberg drove his team to the Cyclones’ 32-yard line with less than a minute and a half left. the Hawkeyes were first-and-10, and Vandenberg dropped back, locked onto tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz and let the pass fly.

"I thought it was coming right to me,” Fiedorowicz said.

Standout Cyclones linebacker Jake Knott sniffed out the play and jumped, altering the flight of the football with a fingertip, while collecting the game-sealing interception.

“Jake Knott made that kind of play in a series that will have him go down in history,” then-Cyclone head coach Paul Rhoads said.

2011: Iowa State 44, Iowa 41 (3OT)

This one is known around Ames as “The Steele Jantz” game and rightfully so.

Down 24-17 with 5:40 remaining in regulation, Jantz converted two third down-and-very-long passes to tie the score and force overtime.

Jantz — who famously lived out of a van while at the City College of San Francisco — threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns. The Cyclones overcame a two-turnover deficit and sealed the win when running back James White galloped into the end zone.

Incidentally, this was the Cy-Hawk game in which the infamous “Pewter Family” trophy was supposed to debut. Instead, an interim trophy was hastily made after the pewter-based one was widely ridiculed by fans on both sides.

2002: Iowa State 36, Iowa 31

The Cyclones’ longest win streak in series history was in serious jeopardy. The Hawkeyes had built a commanding 24-7 halftime lead and Kinnick Stadium was rocking.

But the Seneca Wallace-led ISU offense wouldn’t let their four-year string of success in the series fail to reach five.

Wallace threw for 361 yards and accounted for two touchdowns as the Cyclones used three second-half Iowa fumbles to rally for a 36-31 triumph.

Wallace guided ISU to a 6-1 start before a late-season collapse led to a 7-7 mark.

Iowa finished 11-2 after a 38-17 loss to USC in the Orange Bowl.

1998: Iowa State 27, Iowa 9

The one that started — and ended — it all. The Cyclones had lost to the Hawkeyes 15 consecutive meetings. They limped in at 0-1 after allowing Texas Christian to rush for 297 yards in a 31-21 loss in Fort Worth.

In other words, no one saw this streak-buster coming, except then ISU coach Dan McCarney and at least some of his players.

“(Winning) the first one (in 1998) when we were almost a 30-point underdog helped bring some credibility to what we were trying to do," McCarney told ESPN in 2005.

ISU only won three games that season, but won four in 1999 and finally broke through with the program’s first nine-win season in the modern era in 2000. The victory sent ISU on its longest winning streak in the series (five games). Iowa currently owns its own five-game win streak — and is the only team the Cyclones play on an annual basis that head coach Matt Campbell hasn’t beaten.

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com