Rocco Becht seeks to help Iowa State end the season on a winning streak

AMES — At times, Rocco Becht has seemed invincible.

Guts personified.

Winning embodied in his 6-foot1, 210-pound frame.

But absorbing a barrage of brutal hits and descending into a four-game losing streak shook Iowa State’s third-year starting quarterback to his core.

“You’ve just gotta keep pushing,” said Becht, who played his best game of the Big 12 football season in Saturday’s 38-14 thrashing of Kansas at Jack Trice Stadium. “Continue to keep growing. Continue to find ways just to get better, no matter how hard it’s gonna be. And that’s why I love this team so much, because nobody loses trust in one another. Nobody loses confidence in one another. We just go at it each and every day together.”

Becht completed 18 of 23 passes for 241 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions for the Cyclones (7-4, 4-4) against the Jayhawks (5-6, 3-5). He’d thrown just three touchdown passes to seven interceptions in the previous four games, but now has helped ISU forge a two-game winning streak in the direct wake of that humbling four-game skid.

And the best may be yet to come, as he inches closer to being relatively healthy after being buffeted with myriad bumps and bruises this season.

“He is tough,” Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell said. “He is gritty. And if you look at every game we’ve played, that guy’s giving us a great chance to win the football game. How do we continue to serve him the right way and build the people up around him? I thought those guys grew (Saturday), so that was awesome.”

Campbell often says he seeks to build a roster he can lose games with, in order to shape them into a group he and his staff can win with. Becht’s been the front man for all the recent wins and losses — and on Saturday, he joined former star Brock Purdy as the only ISU quarterbacks to notch at least 25 wins as a starter.

“He goes to work every single day and tries to be the same guy every day,” senior offensive tackle James Neal said of Becht. “(Saturday), he had a great day. So, yeah, you could say he got his swagger back.”

So what’s next? First off, Saturday’s 11 a.m. regular season finale at conference cellar dweller Oklahoma State.

And after that? A bowl game of some type for the eighth time in the past nine seasons.

The Cyclones clearly can’t match the historic 11-win body of work they compiled in 2024, but they retain hopes of notching nine wins for just the fifth time in program history, and third time in the past five seasons under Campbell.

“I don’t know if a lot of people are thinking about that, but we are,” Campbell said.

So is Becht, who declined to discuss precisely what health issues he’s been dealing with. He’s simply focused on winning, whatever the cost, no matter his personal numbers.

“I needed that boost of confidence, just with everything that’s been going on,” Becht said. “Going into every single game, I don’t care by any means about what my stats are. I just want to win games. A win is a win for our team and that’s all I’m trying to strive for.”

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com