Hlas: Oh, how Cyclones messed with Texas

Last Monday, after Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads announced offensive coordinator Mark Mangino had been fired after irreconcilable differences, I was ready to write that Rhoads' seventh-year program had hit an iceberg.

For some reason, probably inertia, I held off. Oh sure, I may have said things along those lines last week on KGYM-AM and on my podcast, but let's focus on the written word here.

Now, Iowa State beating Texas Saturday in Ames wasn't the Upset of the Year. The Longhorns were favored by less than a touchdown.

Plus, college teams often rally in the game immediately following inner turmoil. Like Saturday night when double-digit underdog Minnesota was a half-yard from beating Michigan in the Gophers' first game after Jerry Kill's resignation due to health reasons.

But nobody had the Cyclones winning by 24-0. Nobody had the Cyclones outgaining Texas 426 yards to 204, or running 92 plays to the Horns' 54. Surely, few had the Cyclones playing a turnover-free game in the first college start of quarterback Joel Lanning.

Texas still isn't close to being the Texas of the previous decade, but the Longhorns had beaten Oklahoma and Kansas State in succession. Then they came to Ames and were shut out by an unranked opponent for the first time since 1961.

There are those of the ISU persuasion who will say some people simply hadn't been paying attention, that this season's Cyclones had clearly improved from the versions of the previous two years, that four of Iowa State's five losses are to teams that are still unbeaten, that freshman running back Mike Warren has been nothing less than a sensation.

Warren has rushed for 154.3 yards per game over the six games since the Cyclones played the Hawkeyes, and is averaging 6.2 yards per rush this year. That's merely fantastic.

But when you live in the Hawkeye bubble 100 miles from Ames and saw Iowa State had its umpteenth quarterback-change under Rhoads, and saw a coordinator canned who once coached Kansas (!) to an Orange Bowl win, and saw a 2-5 record that threatened to veer into 3-9/2-10 territory for a third-straight year?

But then came this virtuoso performance against Texas, the program that has the kind of cash that could fund a few presidential campaigns with enough left over to make the new 'Star Wars' movie.

'I don't know how this comes across,' Rhoads said after Saturday's win. 'But, I'll say this anyway. We shouldn't beat Texas probably. We shouldn't beat Texas probably. Every kid that they recruit, if I go recruit them, I'm not going to get them. I'm not going to get them. OK? But, we did and we have twice because the program's moving in the right direction.'

Whether it really is, we'll see. Iowa State has four games left, and it will still be hard to go from its current 3-5 record to something better than 3-9 at season's end given the remaining schedule (at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State at home, at Kansas State, at West Virginia).

But 24-0 over Texas suggests we may not want to assume anything about the month ahead.

If nothing else, it's far better to be 3-5 Iowa State right now than 3-5 Texas. Mo Money, Mo Problems.