Fun Facts: Iowa State vs. Iowa. When Jayden Higgins meets Jay Higgins and so forth

1. Iowa has been the underdog in this series just once since 2000.

2. ESPN College GameDay was at the Iowa-Iowa State games in Ames in 2019 and 2021. It hasn’t been in Iowa City since 2006.

3. Iowa has had 11 straight winning seasons. Iowa State has six winning seasons in the last seven years after just six winning seasons from 1987 to 2016.

4. Iowa starting quarterback Cade McNamara went to Damonte Ranch High (Reno, Nev.). Iowa State starting quarterback Rocco Becht attended Wiregrass Ranch High (Wesley Chapel, Fla.).

5. There are 5.51 Americans named Rocco for every 100,000 people.

6. Becht’s father is Anthony Becht, a tight end who was an NFL first-round draft pick in 2000. He had 187 career catches.

7. Anthony Becht is a member of the New York Jets’ radio broadcast team and coached the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League this year. Former Iowa State standouts Mike Rose and Hakeem Butler played for him.

8. Iowa wide receivers had three touchdown catches last week against Illinois State. They had three in the entire 2023 season.

9. Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins and Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins will be on the field at the same time.

10. Iowa State has outgained Iowa by an average of 113.8 yards in their last four meetings, but won just one of them.

11. The Cyclones have won their last four true road games.

12. Kirk Ferentz (2002, 2004, 2009 and 2015 at Iowa) and Matt Campbell (2015 at Toledo, 2017, 2018 and 2020 at Iowa State) have been a conference Coach of the Year four times apiece.

13. Iowa’s Aaron Graves was one of just three players in the nation with three quarterback sacks last week.

14. This is the first CBS telecast of an Iowa football home game since the famous No. 1-vs.-No. 2 Iowa-Michigan game in 1985. It’s Iowa State’s second time ever on CBS. The other was the 1971 Sun Bowl.

15. Former Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers passed for 296 yards last Saturday in Iowa Western Community College’s 42-41 overtime win at Georgia Military College.

16. Former Iowa quarterback Joe Labas enters Week 2 seventh in the nation in passing rating and 15th in passing yards per game for Central Michigan.

17. The “under” has paid off in the last five Iowa State-Iowa games and in 15 of the last 18.

18. Iowa’s student population is 55 percent female. Iowa State’s is 56.4 percent male.

19. No former Iowa State or Iowa players reached the semifinals of this year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament.

20. It's 139 miles from Ames to Iowa City if you take Interstates 80 and 35. That's 244,640 yards. If your offense averaged 350 yards per game, it would take you 699 games to cover that distance. You're better off just driving.

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com