Iowa State vs. Texas Tech Recap: 62 Yards
The kick was in the air. It feels too good, I thought. Texas Tech fans began to buzz in anticipation. There’s no way this can happen.
A 62-yard game-winning field goal attempt was ripping through the air at Jones AT&T Stadium. There was every reason to believe this kick would be well short of the uprights, or that it would harmlessly zing wide left or right. Honestly, if I wasn’t an Iowa State fan, I probably wouldn’t have even entertained the idea in my mind that the kick could be good.
A few hours earlier, my friend Charles and I had arrived at the tailgate in Lubbock hosted by the Cyclone Club of Dallas-Fort Worth. We had almost immediately started a conversation with an Iowa State fan who lived in Dallas. One of the topics of conversation focused around the heartbreaking way Iowa State sometimes finds ways to lose games.
I had sat through some doozy’s, many of which I have already written about. Missed field goals, a missed extra point, referee decisions going against the team in critical moments, failing to take a knee to run out the clock. The list goes on and any die-hard Cyclone fan could name a handful without blinking.
I did not expect Saturday’s game at Texas Tech to be one where we’d experience anything close to heartbreak. I felt confident Iowa State was going to win this game comfortably. It didn’t play out that way, but the Cyclones fought back from a poor first half and a 21-point deficit to tie the game with 1:00 on the clock in the fourth quarter. It was the kind of comeback that happens in dream seasons.
Texas Tech had one more chance to win the game before overtime, and moved its way to the Iowa State side of the field. With only a few seconds left on the clock, the Red Raiders decided to line up for a field goal kick on the 44-yard line. It would be an attempt longer than 60 yards. I was almost relieved. Almost. No way they make a kick from that distance. Right? Iowa State’s coaches seemed to feel the same way as they sent Jaylin Noel to the back of the endzone for a chance to return the kick if it was short.
In recalling the play later, I was trying to decide at what moment I believed the kick was going in. I think it was a split second before it came down. As the crowd anticipation built, I just knew. We were in the northwest corner of the stadium, behind the endzone. We had a good enough angle at the goalposts to be able to tell exactly where the kick was going to land. I couldn’t believe it, and yet I could believe it, as I saw the kick sail over the crossbar. It was a visual that I believe will be etched in my mind for years to come. If there was any doubt at what my eyes were telling me, it was erased as I heard the roar of the crowd. I looked around and saw thousands of Texas Tech fans with their hands in the air. Iowa State’s realistic hopes at a Big 12 Championship game appearance were gone.
I just stood there, silently, as the Red Raider players ran onto the field in celebration and fans followed. It was a big win for their program; in an up-and-down season, Texas Tech had just clinched bowl-eligibility in dramatic fashion. I imagine it was a game their fans will remember fondly.
As thoughts were forming in my brain, one stood out. That was such an Iowa State thing to happen. As Charles and I talked about later, this game will be one we bring up as we reminisce around a summer campfire in some year to come, recalling the good and bad Iowa State memories. I imagine it will be something like “Can you believe Texas Tech hit a 62-yard field goal to beat us?” Followed by a heavier-than-necessary sip of our drinks.
After the game, we were sitting at a brewery eating dinner in Lubbock. Some Texas Tech fans walked by us.
“62 yards!” one of them said.
How unlikely was the kick? Well, according to Cyclone Fanatic’s Rob Gray, the kicker had never even attempted a kick of more than 50 yards in a game. I heard on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” show that it was the longest game-winning field goal in the last 25 seasons.
A lot of things can be true at once. Iowa State played poorly enough to dig itself a big hole. Texas Tech seemed to play inspired football. The Cyclones fought back valiantly to tie the game in dramatic fashion. Iowa State likely didn’t necessarily deserve to win (or lose), and Texas Tech didn’t necessarily deserve to win (or lose) either. In a game like that, you can look back at any number of plays in the first three quarter and say “If only the team had been better on this play, it wouldn’t have mattered that Texas Tech hit a 62-yard field goal.” That’s true. It’s all true.
But when we sit around the campfire, I won’t think about that stuff. I’ll think about 62 yards. 62 yards between my favorite team and its chance to play for a spot in the conference championship game. 62 improbable yards.
“62 yards” will live on, at least in my mind.
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When the schedule came out way back in February, I knew this stretch would be tiring in terms of the amount of travel. The day after the Texas game, I was supposed to fly to Colorado for a wedding. I was then going to stay in Fort Collins for the week and work remotely in my day job, and fly out of Denver to Lubbock on Friday morning for the Texas Tech game.
Our plans ran into a glitch. My wife, Paige, had flown to Colorado on the Tuesday before the Texas game. On Friday evening, she lost her sense of taste and smell. Saturday morning, she took a COVID test, and tested positive. Change of plans. Luckily, I tested negative. Paige made plans to isolate at her parent's house, and I cancelled my flight to Denver.
Instead, on Thursday I drove to Fort Collins and dropped off our car so she could drive home when she was ready, and got a ride to the airport Friday morning from her mom. I knew when I began this journey that I was going to need to really want it (and get a little lucky) if I was to make all the games. Luckily, Paige never had any strong symptoms, so everything worked out OK.
I got into Lubbock on Friday around Noon. I found the shuttle from the airport to my hotel. Standing outside it was a man wearing a Red Raiders t-shirt. He saw me walk up with my Iowa State sweatshirt.
"There's no room on this shuttle," he said jokingly.
We talked for a bit and he told me he had flown in from Dallas. His two sons went to school at Texas Tech and he had become a Red Raider fan. He and another fan on the shuttle told me that they just hoped Texas Tech could cover the spread. He also mentioned that the Texas Tech team was staying at the same hotel. Charles and I later joked that we should set off the fire alarm in the night. (We wouldn't actually have done that.)
Charles arrived from Minneapolis a little after 5:30. We went out for dinner and then watched the last few minutes of the Iowa State men's basketball game vs. Oregon State on my laptop. The Cyclones won their first game over major conference competition since February of 2020. The weekend was off to a great start for Cyclone fans.
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast in the hotel. We were among the few Cyclone fans in a room that was full of Tech fans. We saw a couple of ISU fans and gave them a "Go State." After breakfast, we wandered out to grab drinks and snacks for the day. Behind the hotel, we saw from a distance what appeared to be some players doing some warmup exercises.
Charles and I took an Uber to the DFW tailgate around 11 for the 2:30 game. We immediately met up with the president of the DFW club, who offered us burgers and hot dogs. We also talked to a fan from Dallas who told us stories of his days in school in the early 1990s. We lamented how often bad things seem to happen to Cyclone fans. It seemed funny at the time; I did not think the day was going to be a heartbreaker for ISU.
We met up with my friend Adam who I had met in Waco. Adam had graciously offered to have me stay at his house during the Baylor trip, and we had kept in touch since. We hung out, enjoyed a couple of beers and caught up. We kept a close eye on the Baylor vs. Oklahoma game, which had major Big 12 title game implications. After all, at that moment Iowa State still had title game aspirations. We were hoping for an Oklahoma win, as wrong as that felt. It gave Iowa State the best chance to get back to the title game.
A young couple approached our group. They seemed like they were looking for friends. They struck up a conversation with us. We learned that Drew was a recent ISU grad, and Lauren was a University of Northern Iowa grad. They were living in Midland, Texas, about two hours away from Lubbock, and had taken the opportunity to come and watch the Cyclones.
We took a bus to the stadium about 45 minutes before kickoff. As we walked to the bus, Adam's wife Nicole told me we may not be able to watch games together anymore if the Cyclones lost. After all, we had also witnessed the Baylor loss together. Speaking of Baylor, it had become increasingly clear that the Bears were going to beat Oklahoma, putting a slight damper on our hopes to make the Big 12 title game. Winning out would still put the Cyclones in great position, however.
I had purchased the tickets for Charles and myself separately from Adam, but when we got to our seats we realized we were right next to each other. Perfect. Drew and Lauren were in the same row a little way down.
"If these seats don't fill up, come sit next to us," I told them. They eventually did.
I ran into one fan who I also knew was going to every game. I had also seen him at the Baylor and West Virginia games.
"You know, every time I see you, well, I'm not going to say it," I told him. Still, I firmly believed there was no need to worry about a jinx today.
I knew Texas Tech had experienced a weird season so far, but was still surprised that the stadium was not more full as we approached kickoff. The stadium, from what I could tell, was barely more than half full. It was a little eerie. There was very little atmosphere in the stadium as the teams came out of the locker rooms. Texas Tech took the ball first, and it was almost completely silent in the stadium as the Red Raiders ran their first offensive drive. Unfortunately, similarly to the West Virginia game, the crowd that was there made more and more noise as the game went on.
It seems unbelievable looking back, but Iowa State forced a 3rd-and-11 play on Texas Tech’s first possession. What followed was disaster. Iowa State jumped offside to give Texas five free yards, and Red Raiders quarterback Donovan Smith, a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first start, scrambled away from pressure and completed a pass to Myles Price, who had room to run. It was a 36-yard play that gave Texas Tech a first down in Iowa State territory. Four plays later, Tahj Brooks broke a 14-yard run on 3rd-and-1 to give Texas Tech a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Iowa State was forced to punt, but flipped momentum a few plays later with an interception at the Texas Tech 16-yard line. ISU quarterback Brock Purdy found Xavier Hutchinson along the sideline for a nice 15-yard catch, and Breece Hall ran it in from a yard out to tie the game at 7-7. I high-fived Adam and Charles. The Cyclones were in business.
Twice before during the season, we had watched Iowa State’s defense uncharacteristically give up yards in chunks and look like it had no answer for the opposing offense. Texas Tech’s redshirt freshman quarterback seemed to have the Cyclones’ number. His scrambling and running ability kept Cyclone defenders off balance, and he had little trouble finding open receivers down the field. On 4th-and-6 from the 39, Smith found a wide open Price for a 39-yard touchdown to make it 14-7. Iowa State put together a promising drive, but it ended with a pass from Purdy being intercepted just before the first quarter came to a close.
My hope, and prediction, before the game was that with Texas Tech’s instability within the program, the Cyclones could grab a lead early and take away Tech’s will to compete. That’s not how it played out. The Red Raiders looked inspired, and a step faster than Iowa State. They put together a 15-play touchdown drive to grab a 21-7 lead. Iowa State was forced to punt after only three plays, and Tech was again rolling. Smith found Price for another deep pass of 29 yards, coupled with a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty. In one play, Texas Tech was at Iowa State’s 22-yard line. Two plays later, Smith found Erik Ezukanma for an 18-yard touchdown. It was 28-7 Texas Tech, and a nightmare scenario was happening. I began to wonder why I took a trip all the way to Lubbock.
“We need a touchdown, and we get the ball back at halftime,” Adam said optimistically.
The Cyclones caught a break on a 3rd-and-18 play, as Texas Tech was called for a pass interference penalty. Iowa State capitalized with a 17-yard run by Hall to make it a 28-14 game with just 1:11 left before halftime.
“We needed that,” I said.
In one of many signs that it just wasn’t Iowa State’s day, the Cyclones forced the Red Raiders to a 3rd-and-8 before running back SaRodorick Thompson ran up the middle for nine yards.
“They were conceding to go to halftime, and we just gave up a first down!” I said in frustration.
Instead, they were going to try to score, and inexplicably put themselves in position to do so with pass completions of 17 yards and 20 yards to set up a 45-yard field goal. The entire sequence, in hindsight, seemed to foreshadow what would happen at the end of the game. The kick was good to make the score 31-14 at halftime.
At halftime, I still felt a sense of calm. I just felt like the Cyclones had a comeback in them.
"The most memorable games are the comebacks," I said. I was right, though not for the reason I wanted to be.
It didn’t look good to start the half as Purdy threw his second interception of the day, and Texas Tech answered with a drive to the Iowa State 11. On 4th-and-1, instead of taking a field goal, Texas Tech went for the first down, and Smith got stuffed for no gain. Crisis averted, for now. Iowa State was immediately forced to punt, and Texas Tech again went for it on 4th-and-3 from the 23. Iowa State again stuffed Smith, this time for a loss, and avoided another Red Raiders scoring chance.
Finally, Iowa State put together a much-needed drive. Hall broke a 21-yard run, and Purdy found Charlie Kolar and Hutchinson for a pair of 19-yard gains. The Cyclones capped the drive when Purdy connected with Kolar in the back of the endzone. Iowa State had cut the lead to 31-21.
“Time to force that big turnover!” I said.
Not quite, but Iowa State did force a three-and-out to get the ball back. Now the offense was rolling. Purdy threw to Hutchinson for 22 yards. Tight end Chase Allen caught a pass in space and hurdled over a defender, drawing extra cheers from the Iowa State fans. As the third quarter switched to the fourth, Hall took a pass from Purdy for 15, and Hutchinson caught a 9-yard pass for a first down. Kolar adjusted to make a heavily guarded catch in the endzone to bring Iowa State within 31-28.
The couple hundred-or-so Cyclone fans in the stadium were now into it. We believed our team could win.
Unfortunately, the defense continued to be an issue, immediately giving up chunks of yardage, capped by a Smith pass to Price for 28 yards on a 3rd-and-10 play. Thompson ran for a 13-yard touchdown, and Texas Tech had regained a 38-28 lead. A “Raider!” “Power!” chant rang through the stadium.
With just more than 10 minutes left, Iowa State still had time. The offense was now rolling. Purdy threw to freshman Jaylin Noel for a big 43-yard gain down to the 9-yard line.
Then things got weird.
Purdy’s pass intended for Kolar was off-target. Texas Tech’s defender dove, and appeared to make an interception.
“No…” I said dejectedly. With seven-and-a-half minuets left, it felt like game over.
The Texas Tech sideline erupted. I saw coaches giving giant fist pumps. A number of players ran all the way to the opposite endzone in celebration, drawing a penalty flag. As the referee announced the penalty, he also announced the previous play was under review.
There was only one video board in the stadium, and we were sitting behind it, so we could not see the replay. The play had happened on the opposite end of the field, so I hadn’t had a good angle live. I thought surely the call would stand.
After a few minutes of review, the officials actually changed the call. The ball had apparently hit the ground before the defender gained possession. Shocked, the Iowa State fans let out an immediate and massive cheer.
“Let’s go!” Adam said. Tech fans let out their loudest “boooo” of the afternoon. “Bring it!” Adam yelled, to nobody in particular.
Iowa State lined up at the 4-yard line with new life, and was immediately called for a false start. Everyone stood around for a bit in seeming confusion.
“What is going on?” I asked, as though Charles, Adam, Drew or Lauren would have any more idea than I did.
After a few more seconds of standing around, ISU coach Matt Campbell called his players back to the sideline. In one of the more bizarre scenes I have witnessed at a game, the public address announcer asked all the fans in two sections to leave the stadium or move. Through text messages and Twitter, we began to get the full picture. Fans near the goal line in the student section had been throwing objects onto the field. Later, on the television replay, I could see that a water bottle had landed right on the field a few yards away from Iowa State players right before the false start was called. We all watched as the majority of the fans in the two sections in question moved to different sections closer to where Iowa State players were standing on the sidelines. It wasn’t exactly the most effective crowd management.
I don’t usually Tweet during games, but I was feeling it.
“This place just got weird and I’m here for it. Let’s Go State!!” I tweeted.
For some reason, despite a water bottle being thrown onto the field, the false start penalty was upheld. After all of the commotion, it was 1st-and-goal from the 9-yard line. The crowd had come to life, but I still felt confident. Hall ran for no gain on first down. Iowa State was called on another false start to move the ball back to the 14. Purdy threw to Hall, who made a nifty spin-move at the 10-yard line and found the space to outrun Texas Tech defenders and find the endzone.
“YES!!!” I yelled, high-fiving everyone around me. With 6:20 left, it was a 38-35 game. Iowa State was going to have a chance to win this thing!
The Iowa State cheerleaders down on the field yelled toward our section. “Cyclone!” We answered “Power!”
Texas Tech took the ball back, and we were now standing to cheer on the defense. Iowa State responded by forcing a three-and-out. The Cyclones were going to get the ball back with a chance to tie or take the lead!
This is going to be the time the Cyclones finally put together the game-winning drive, I thought, recalling attempts at Baylor and West Virginia to tie the game that fell just short.
The Cyclones were able to methodically run their offense now. On 3rd-and-3, Hall threw to Kolar for 6 yards. Purdy scrambled for 18 yards into Texas Tech territory as I yelled “GO BABY GO!” On 3rd-and-10, Purdy threw to Kolar for 11 to move the sticks, and on the next series, he threw to Kolar for 3 yards on a 3rd-and-2. Iowa State had 1st-and-10 at the 18. Hall ran for two yards, and forced Texas Tech to call its final timeout. Purdy threw an incomplete pass in the direction of Jared Rus on second down. On third down, Purdy scrambled to the outside and couldn’t quite get to the corner before being forced out of bounds. Had the clock kept running, it likely wouldn’t have left Texas Tech enough time later to get a kick off, but as it was the clock stopped. Iowa State sent out kicker Andrew Mevis to try to tie the game.
As Mevis lined up for the kick, we were nervous. We had seen Cyclone kickers miss these kinds of kicks before.
"Don't do this to me," Adam said.
We breathed a sigh of relief as the kick went through. The Cyclones had come all the way back to tie it.
With 1:00 left on the clock, it seemed like overtime was coming.
With no timeouts, we wondered aloud if Texas Tech would try to score or play for overtime.
"Maybe they will go for it and we can force a turnover," I said hopefully.
Iowa State’s defense had been poor all day, and that was also in my mind. All it would take was one big play to put Texas Tech in field goal range.
Instead, the Red Raiders moved slowly down the field. Iowa State’s defense seemed to play to not give up a big play. The strategy worked, almost. Texas Tech was on the Iowa State 46-yard line with eight seconds left, and then gained just two yards on its final play before the field goal attempt. Would the two extra yards have prevented the Red Raiders from even attempting the field goal? I don't know. Either way, I felt confident the defense had done its job. Most teams don't even attempt a field goal that long, and even fewer make it.
I don't think I'll be able to ever forget what it felt like to watch the kick go through.
I couldn't help but think about how just a few weeks ago our fans had rushed the field after the win against Oklahoma State. It had been so much fun. It stung realizing we had given another team it's biggest win of the season.
I was totally numb. I knew I had just watched a historically great play. For a Texas Tech fan, it was memorable in the best way. If I had watched that ending happen in a game I didn't care about, I would have probably thought hey, you've just got to tip your cap to the kicker. As an Iowa State fan, it felt so unfair. That could only happen to Iowa State.
We walked out and said our goodbyes to Adam. The walk back to our hotel was about a mile, and it was a painful walk. Jubilant Texas Tech fans streamed out and we ended up in their midst, forced to listen to them talk about how much fun the game was. We avoided conversation. About a block from the hotel, one fan struck up a conversation with us.
"I can't believe that kick went in," he said. Neither could we, I told him. "I know this is such a cool moment for you guys, but I've got to tell you, from our end it is painful." He seemed to understand.
A few minutes later, Charles and I headed out to find dinner at a local brewery. I checked my text messages and saw I had a message from my friend Eric.
"I'm sorry you had to live that," he wrote.
"I really don't have the words," I replied.
My mom had also texted me words of encouragement. I realize it may sound like I take games too seriously, and I probably do. But, quite frankly, when I had decided to take on this journey, a 6-4 record wasn't what I had in mind. It really did hurt. It effectively ended the chance that my book would chronicle a championship season.
We sat on a patio on a nice night and ordered a couple beers and some food. We rehashed the game. We just kept coming back to how could that happen?
"Look at the bright side," I said. "Years later we will be two of like 200 Iowa State fans to be able to say we were here for this."
A few Texas Tech fans walked by. One remarked "62 yards! I thought there was one tenth of one percent of a chance that was going in."
Throughout the rest of the weekend, we saw random Iowa State fans here and there, including one at restaurant on Sunday afternoon and one at the airport on the way home.
“Go State,” we would say to them, somewhat sheepishly. In each instance, we just kind of looked at each other and shook our heads, silently sharing in the same thought: We can’t believe that game.
The headline in the print edition of Sunday’s Lubbock Avalanche-Journal was “WHAT A KICK.” I felt that on multiple levels. WHO-TV’s SoundOFF show dubbed it a “Kick in the guts.”
I read some of the stories after the game. I read in the Des Moines Register's story how distraught Purdy and others were in post-game interviews. So many of these seniors could have moved on with their life or football career, but chose to came back. 6-4 and losing a shot at the Big 12 Championship was not what they had in mind, either. It really just made me sad to think about.
There were a lot of stories and Twitter discussions about Iowa State underachieving. The Cyclones were a preseason top 10 team, and a favorite for the conference title. None of that happened. It would be easy to label this team as a failure.
The nature of college football is it sometimes does not provide a lot of room for nuance. Teams get 12 games to prove themselves. If a few games don't go their way, things feel a lot different. In other sports, a close loss doesn't hurt nearly as much in most cases, or affect a team's long-term goals nearly as much.
Iowa State had experienced three of the more painful losses that I could remember. A 2-point loss at Baylor that was punctuated by Cyclone special team mistakes. A 7-point loss at West Virginia that sticks out for multiple officiating decisions going against the Cyclones. A 3-point loss at Texas Tech that ended on one of the most improbable plays I've ever seen.
Critics will rightfully point out that a team with as many returning veteran players as this team had should win more games. Maybe the Cyclones shouldn't even have been in position to lose the three conference games they have lost. Relative to the lofty preseason expectations, Iowa State had not performed up to its standards. I'd imagine most players and coaches would feel that way at least a little bit, as do nearly all fans. This was supposed to be our year.
There's another way to look at it, which I believe is just as true. There could be an alternate reality where two plays in each Big 12 loss go differently and Iowa State would be 7-0 in conference. We'd all feel like hey, this team hasn't made it easy, but what a ride!
I thought about that scenario a lot while trying to gain perspective that the results I so badly wanted didn't come to fruition. Winning a championship is difficult. Other teams want to win too. They have Division I athletes. They have professional coaches. Sometimes things just don't go your way.
I think two things can be true. The season had been disappointing and it was also a lot closer than it had felt like to being the season we all desired. This team wasn't able to match last year's success, but it still had a chance to be better than 99% of teams in school history.
I'm reminded of the importance of focusing on the journey. Saturday was a fun time in Lubbock overall. I met some nice people and enjoyed time with good friends. In its next game, Iowa State plays Oklahoma. It's not for a trip to the championship like we hoped, but it would still be a major win, a giant step forward for the program and a day we'd never forget in a good way.
For now, though, there’s no getting around it. Saturday hurt. It hurt bad. I wrote at the beginning of this that you never know what will happen in a college football season. In going on this journey, I took a chance that this would be the best season in school history. "62 yards" ended any hopes of that. I would say I’ve gained a lot more than I’ve lost on this journey. That perspective will have to come later.
