Iowa State vs. Oklahoma Preview: Not the Season We Wanted, but Still a Big Game

Time to be honest for a second. The 2021 matchup with Oklahoma is not what I wanted it to be. It’s not what anyone hoped for at the beginning of the season. I had imagined, in the absolute best-case scenario, a 10-0 Cyclone team competing with a 10-0 Sooner team in the game of the year in college football. In lesser scenarios, I imagined Iowa State still having some shot at the College Football Playoff, and at least having a chance to get to the Big 12 Championship game. For all intents and purposes, those hopes slowly evaporated throughout the season, punctuated by the kick in the guts by Texas Tech just a week ago.

It's not the meaningful game we hoped for. It’s not the season we hoped for.

Winning at Oklahoma would still be a big, big step for the program.

The nature of being a fan of a historical underdog is that every now and again, there seem to be situations that remind you your team doesn’t seem to belong. In Iowa State’s football history, no series has better epitomized that than Iowa State vs. Oklahoma. The Sooners are 77-7-2 against Iowa State all time. It is difficult to imagine a more lopsided record between two longtime conference opponents.

The game in my mind that really sums up the Oklahoma series in the era prior to the most recent five-year stretch is the 2002 game. Coming in, Iowa State was on top of the world. The 6-1 Cyclones were in the top 10 in the country and had a Heisman Trophy contender in Seneca Wallace. Iowa State had just defeated Texas Tech and made national headlines with “The Run” by Wallace. Next up was a trip to Oklahoma, led by coach Bob Stoops and just two years removed from a national championship.

I was a sophomore in high school. We had a marching band competition that day. I had high hopes that Iowa State could pull off a win and keep its national championship trajectory. I couldn't watch the game, but someone on the bus to wherever we were going seemed to know the score. First it was 7-0. Then 14-0 Oklahoma.

This team is good enough to come back, I told myself.

I'm pretty sure that wherever our competition was, they announced an update at the stadium. It had turned into a full-blown blowout.

Iowa State went on to lose 49-3. The dream season was over. The Cyclones started the 2002 season 6-1, and ended the season 7-7 with a bowl loss.

That game was a microcosm of the how Oklahoma had always made me feel as an Iowa State fan. The Sooners were the “haves.” We were the “have nots.” Most years, OU could name the score. In my years in the Cyclone Marching Band, I saw one of the closest (and most surprising) games in the series in 2007. A 1-6 Iowa State team grabbed a 7-0 lead and held on for dear life in front of a stunned Jack Trice Stadium crowd. Oklahoma finally pulled away for a 17-7 win in the second half.

In 2010, thanks to conference realignment, the teams began to play each other every year. For awhile, this meant you could basically pencil in a loss every season. If Iowa State was going to get to the magical six-win mark and bowl eligibility, it would need to find those wins within the other 11 games on the schedule. Scores in that timeframe included 52-0, 48-10, 59-14 and 52-16.

In 2016, in Campbell’s first year as coach, we began to notice signs of change in a Thursday evening matchup.

The previous night, the Chicago Cubs had won Game 7 of the World Series. If the Cyclones are my #1 true sports love, the Cubs are a very close second. On the day of the Iowa State game, my friend Chris (a much bigger Cubs fan than even I am) and I left in the early afternoon to tailgate in Ames. Our first and probably only line of conversation was the Cubs as we reveled in the glory of the Cubs finally — finally — ending their World Series drought. Iowa State was 1-7 on the year. I knew Oklahoma was about to win by around 30 points, so I wasn’t all that excited for the game.

In the tailgate lots that day, I talked on the phone to my now-wife, then-girlfriend Paige. I told her I wasn’t all that excited for the game.

“It just feels like we’re never going to be good at football,” I said, as the Cyclones were in the midst of their fourth straight losing regular season. (What an idiot.)

“If the Cubs can do it, Iowa State can do it too. They just need a little time. It’s only his first year,” she said. (There’s a reason I eventually married her.)

The game began to play out like I anticipated. Sooner quarterback Baker Mayfield led Oklahoma to a 14-3 first quarter lead. The something unexpected happened. Iowa State answered with 14 straight points, including a 41-yard run by quarterback Joel Lanning on 4th-and-2 to make the score 17-14. Just as we were starting to feel like maybe this could be our night, Oklahoma did what Oklahoma does. First the Sooners completed a 65-yard touchdown pass, and then right before halftime drove 75 yards to take a 28-17 lead.

Iowa State hung around, cutting the lead to 31-24 with just over 13 minutes left. I was a cynical fan that night. I never truly believed Iowa State could or would win. But I also couldn’t remember the last time the Cyclones had only been losing by a single touchdown to Oklahoma in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma effectively put the game away with a 12-play drive that took almost six minutes of time off the clock and ended with a field goal to make the final score 34-24. I recognized the positive growth of the Iowa State team that night, though I’m not sure whether I believed yet that it was sustainable.

Over the next two weeks, the Cyclones defeated Kansas and Texas Tech to carry a little bit of momentum into the offseason. But by the time the 2017 matchup with #3 Oklahoma arrived, that momentum felt a long way away. Iowa State was 2-2 and coming off a deflating loss to Texas at home. The Cubs were again in the playoffs, which only seems important because I remember we were watching Game 1 of their first round playoff series against Washington when I found out the news. Iowa State’s starting quarterback, Jacob Park, was off the team.

“So is Joel Lanning going to start?” I asked Chris and my friend Charles, with whom I was watching the Cubs game. Lanning had played a number of games at quarterback for the Cyclones before being switched to linebacker in 2017, his senior year.

It felt like the season was about to unravel similarly to how the last four seasons had. I mentally put more of my energy into cheering for the Cubs, because, well, I was pretty sure the score for the next day’s game in Norman was about to be of the 50-something to 14 variety.

As it turned out, Kyle Kempt was the starting quarterback. The fifth year senior had never started a game. What better time than against Oklahoma, right?

Charles was staying at my apartment in Des Moines and we had planned to watch the Iowa State game together. A little while before it began, I got a call from my parents who were in Des Moines for the day. They were having car troubles. They had pulled into my apartment complex to assess the situation.

“Oh, you are watching the Iowa State game. We’re so sorry to interrupt,” my mom said.

I assured her it was OK. In my mind, the less I had to watch, the happier I would probably be.

As we problem solved on finding a mechanic, Charles decided to go see some family in town, and I received a number of text messages from friends about the game. I nervously thought about what I might be missing. How lopsided is the score going to be?

I finally sat down to watch late in the second quarter. Much to my surprise…. It was still a close game at 24-10. Iowa State had just forced a punt and got the ball back with less than a minute left. Kempt completed a 54-yard pass to Hakeem Butler, and Iowa State capped the half with a field goal to make the score 24-13. The Cyclones still had a fighting chance.

The Cyclones began the second half with an 11-play drive that ended with another field goal to make it 24-16. Oklahoma took over and marched 69 yards in eight plays. This is probably where it turns into a blowout, I thought. Instead, on the ninth play of the drive, running back Trey Sermon fumbled on the 6-yard line. And the fumble was recovered by… the quarterback-turned linebacker Lanning. Iowa State had kept itself in the game.

Still, the Cyclones were backed up, and almost immediately faced a 3rd-and-14 from their own 2-yard line. I remember seeing the camera angle from the back of the endzone where Kempt was about to take the snap and thinking this is totally going to be a turnover or safety. Instead, Kempt heaved it to Allen Lazard for a 35-yard gain. A few plays later, Kempt found Marchie Murdock for a 28-yard touchdown reception, and Lazard for a successful two-point conversion attempt. With just a couple minutes left in the third quarter, the unthinkable was happening. Iowa State was tied with Oklahoma, 24-24.

The Sooners responded with a solid drive that ended with a missed field goal attempt. No way. Two plays later, receiver Trever Ryan turned a screen pass from Kempt into a 57-yard touchdown. IOWA STATE IS WINNING IN THE FOURTH QUARTER!!

I yelled “YEEEEEES!” as I watched in my apartment by myself.

One of the most iconic moments of the game came on the next drive for Oklahoma. The Cyclones chased around Mayfield, still the OU quarterback and a Heisman Trophy front-runner, and Lanning caught him for a 10-yard sack. Lanning was earning his place as a Cyclone legend. Unfortunately, Oklahoma scored a few plays later to tie the game at 31-31.

On the next possession, Iowa State again drove down the field, this time aided by two runs by Lanning, who had come into the game during a short yardage situation to bulldoze ahead for yardage, helping him earn the nicknames “Joel-dozer” and “Lan-ram.” On 3rd-and-7 from the OU 25, Kempt threw to the senior Lazard in the endzone. Lazard, a highly heralded recruit from the state of Iowa, had never experienced a winning season or anything close to it in a Cyclone uniform. He fought off two defenders for the catch and touchdown to give Iowa State the 38-31 lead with just 2:19 left. Oklahoma picked up one more first down, but Iowa State forced two straight incompletions from Mayfield to take over possession of the ball and end the game for the Cyclones’ first win over the Sooners since 1990.

I was shaking with nerves and excitement. I always imagined the day Iowa State would finally beat Oklahoma. I figured it would not be a 14-point comeback. I figured it would not be on the road. I figured it would not be with a quarterback making his first start. I figured it would not be a team that was .500 coming into the game.

Up until that day, I don’t know if I really, truly believed Campbell’s tenure in Ames was going to work out. I wanted to believe it. He seemed like a good coach. But I had also believed former head coach Paul Rhoads was going to be the person to lead Iowa State to previously unforeseen heights, and he was let go after three straight losing seasons. I was distrustful as a fan that Iowa State could be a perennial winning program. Nothing changed that more than winning in Norman in 2017.

Actually, nothing changed it more than what Campbell told his team after the game.

“This is the start of something special… the start of something really powerful and special. Only if you stay the course.” He went on to tell his team not to let this game be the high point of the season.

For as many big wins as Rhoads had in his tenure, his teams never seemed to be able to turn them into anything more than a one-time celebration. Campbell seemed to challenge his team to let the game be a springboard. “Only if you stay the course.”

Iowa State did stay the course, winning its next three games and finishing the season 8-5 with a bowl win. It was the first of what is now five straight years that the Cyclones put themselves in contention for a Big 12 Championship game appearance during the month of November. In the 2021 season, a few days after the Texas Tech loss, Campbell took heat from some fans and media members when he said winning the Big 12 wasn’t his goal, but his goal was for the team to become the best version of itself. I’ll get into that more later, but it reminded me that he has consistently used that type of rhetoric even after some of Iowa State’s best moments. Stay the course. Trust the process.

In my mind, the 2018 game was going to be one of the most anticipated games in Cyclone football history. It was slated to be the third game of the season. I imagined a 2-0 Iowa State team coming off a win against Iowa hosting the Sooners at Jack Trice Stadium. Instead, Iowa State’s first game got cancelled due to lightning (one of the most bizarre occurrences I had experienced at a football game), and Iowa State’s first true game was a loss to Iowa. There wasn’t the same electricity in the air as I hoped for, and #5 Oklahoma largely controlled the game. However, Iowa State hung around, tying the game at 10, pulling within 24-17 and later pulling within 31-24 and 34-27 before losing 37-27. It was the third straight game the Cyclones had looked like they belonged on the same field as the Sooners.

In 2019, Iowa State went into the game at Oklahoma still with a chance to make the Big 12 Championship game. Oklahoma took control early, jumping out to a 28-7 lead. It felt like one of those 50-something to 14 games I had witnessed… except, I felt like Iowa State had played well enough to warrant it being a closer game than it actually was.

Oklahoma grabbed a 42-21 lead late in the third quarter. I was dejected. I hated the idea of a lopsided loss. It felt too much like the old days.

Iowa State scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 14. Things got interesting when the Cyclones forced a fumble in Oklahoma territory and drove all the way down to the 3-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. With less than half of the fourth quarter left, it felt like the game was over.

Until… Iowa State forced a punt, and took only four plays to score and cut the lead to 42-35 with 3:35 left. They had a shot. My wife, Paige, was already in bed in the other room, and I had to keep myself from yelling out loud when Lawrence White intercepted a Jalen Hurts pass in Oklahoma territory to give Iowa State the ball with excellent field position. Purdy found Charlie Kolar for a touchdown with 24 seconds left. It was going to go to overtime… except, Campbell sent the offense out for a 2-point conversion attempt. Iowa State was going for the win. This would be an all-timer, I thought. Purdy had Kolar open in the endzone, but instead threw to La’Michael Pettway. He was well-guarded, and the ball was intercepted. I lost my mind watching the replay, as Pettway seemed to be interfered with, but no flag was thrown. The miracle comeback had fallen just short.

Still, Iowa State had continued to prove it could play with OU.

In 2020, I watched the game with Chris and my friend Joe. The world, as you may recall, was in a weird place at that time. We were in the midst of the pandemic, and even though the game was in Ames we watched from home. The presidential election was approaching. It felt kind of weird, and yet strangely healthy, to focus on a football game.

As had become the habit, Iowa State hung around long enough to make it a game. With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Purdy completed a pass to Xavier Hutchinson, who broke free for a 65-yard touchdown. I jumped around in Chris’s living room.

“Time for Juicy Wiggle!” I said. Sure enough, I could hear it over the loudspeaker through the television as the 15,000-or-so fans able to be in Jack Trice Stadium danced.

Oklahoma put together a field goal drive to tie the game at 23, and then forced a fumble while sacking Purdy. The good field position set up the Sooners for a four-play touchdown drive to regain the lead, 30-23, with 8:17 left. It felt like the turnover was going to be the blow Iowa State couldn’t recover from.

Instead, Kene Nwangwu broke free on the ensuing kickoff return, taking it 85 yards all the way to the Oklahoma 13. Iowa State scored a few plays latter to tie the game at 30-30. I willed on the Cyclone defense through the television as Iowa State forced a three-and-out and took the ball back. Breece Hall ran up the middle for 36 yards, and immediately followed that up with a stutter-step-aided 8-yard touchdown run.

“That guy looks like a Heisman Trophy candidate!” I exclaimed.

Oklahoma had one more chance, and with just over a minute left Rattler heaved a pass toward the endzone on a play that started at the 34. Iowa State’s Isheem Young may have gotten away with a small hold, and put himself in position to make the interception and give Iowa State to win. Iowa State 37, Oklahoma 30.

Incredibly, after decades of futility, Iowa State had won two of its last four games against Oklahoma. It was easily one of my top five days of an otherwise miserable year.

It was fitting that Iowa State had to go through Oklahoma to try to complete a Big 12 Championship run at the end of the season. It wasn’t quite meant to be as the Cyclone comeback fell just short. It had become a compelling series between the two programs, one that I would have loved to see play out over the next 10 years or longer if only Oklahoma wasn’t leaving for the SEC.

For the 2021 season, this was the only single game I would have predicted to be an Iowa State loss at the beginning of the season, and the only game Iowa State hasn’t been favored in according to the oddsmakers. But I feel like Iowa State is fully capable of winning this game on the road. Oklahoma has had an up-and-down season (despite finding a way to win all of its games until going to Baylor and losing right before the Iowa State game). Iowa State is better than its 6-4 record.

I want this Iowa State team to get this signature moment. A win, while coming toward the end of a season that has not lived up to my hopes and dreams, would still be one I’d remember for years. It would probably belong on any “top 10 wins” list in Iowa State football history.

Iowa State started something special that day in 2017. This would be the punctuation mark on a remarkable run by this group of seniors, and just maybe the springboard to something special for the next group that will become great Cyclones hopefully starting in 2022.