Iowa State at the ESPY's

AMES - Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads naturally led the way.

Current and former Cyclone players Jeff Woody, Jake Knott, Jared Barnett and Leonard Johnson (via Ter'an Benton) followed.

Their common path arced through the air to Los Angeles, where the ISU contingent will be today and tonight, hoping to win the team's first-ever ESPY Award for last season's monumental 37-31 upset of then-No. 2 Oklahoma State.

They'll walk the red carpet from 3-5:30 p.m.

The awards show begins at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN.

"I'm wearing a black suit," said Woody, the bruising running back who bowled into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. "I went out and bought a new one."

Woody's still shaking his head - in a good way - about playing a role in being nominated in the "Best Upset" category.

He's a former walk-on from Pleasant Hill who starred at Southeast Polk High School.

Knott was a rival and friend at Waukee.

Small world. Best upset.

"Who would have thought back in 2009 - the year we graduated high school - that we would ever do anything that would come close to being on ESPN, let alone be going to the awards show with all those sports celebrities?" Woody said.

Not Knott, an all-Big 12 senior linebacker who had resigned himself to playing baseball in college before Rhoads came calling with a scholarship offer.

"You just try to go out there and prove things to people," he said about blossoming into one of the top players at his position. "I've done that kind of stuff my whole life and I kind of thrive on proving people wrong."

That's the Iowa State way.

But the Cyclones are considered one of the favorites in the "upset" category.

Other nominees: the L.A. Kings winning the Stanley Cup; and NCAA men's basketball tournament shockers provided by Lehigh (vs. Duke) and Norfolk State (vs. Missouri).

"How did we get here?" Woody joked.

Rhoads provided the road map.

"I've told our guys that hard work begets special things and this is one example," the ISU coach told Cyclones.com.

Barnett threw for a career-high 376 yards in the upset of the Cowboys.

Knott tipped a pass to Benton for the interception that set up Woody's up-the-middle charges to paydirt.

Linebacker A.J. Klein, who recorded a team-best 14 tackles that night, will be watching on TV.

"I told them to have a good time with it," he said. "There's not many chances you get to walk the red carpet with all the other great athletes in our country. Just being nominated for that ESPY, it's going to bring a lot of attention to our program."