HISTORY MADE: ISU posts first-ever 10-win season by beating Kansas State, 29-21, on senior night – CycloneFanatic.com

Iowa State fans rush the field as the Cyclones take a 29-21 win over the Kansas State Wildcats in the NCAA football game at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

AMES — Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht took a wait-and-see approach. He said he might “look” at his phone to see how BYU’s No. 19 managed Houston in a crucial Saturday upset after his 18th-ranked Cyclones’ 29-21 win over No. 24 at Kansas State on senior night at a frost-stricken Jack Trice Stadium.

But that’s it. His seniors deserved to be the center of attention after helping lead ISU (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) to its first 10-win season in program history — and fourth triumph over the Wildcats (8-4, 5- 4) in the last five meetings.

“This team deserves what we did tonight,” said the other side of the playcaller. “The seniors deserve what we did tonight. People are going to remember these seniors for a long time because that 10-win season has never been done, so tonight is for them.”

One of the seniors, wide receiver Jaylin Noelappreciated the atmosphere but couldn’t resist the urge to look at the scoreboard. Not when the stakes are so high. Not with what he and the relatively short list of seniors have enjoyed and endured in four (or more) seasons as a Cyclones.

“Oh, I’ll see,” said Noel, who joined the senior colleague Jayden Higgins in surpassing 1,000 receiving yards this season on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Becht in the second quarter. “It means a lot. Obviously, it’s not guaranteed yet, but if it happens and we get to go to the Big 12 Championship, it will just show all the work that this team has put in throughout the year. No one has given up. No one has pitched their tents – even after the two defeats in a row. To be able to bounce back and win three games in a row and reach that 10-win threshold, that means a lot.”

It did not, as ISU head coach Matt Campbell routinely says, come easy. The Cyclones turned a pair of Kansas State fumbles in the first half into two touchdown drives that spanned 30 or fewer yards. ISU never trailed, but saw 10-point leads shaved to three-point edges twice before sealing the victory with a blocked field goal, a safety and a last stand as the Wildcats’ Avery Johnson unsuccessfully tried to rally his team from deep in his own territory in the final seconds.

“That’s how you have to win at Iowa State,” said Campbell, whose team could play for a league title for the second time in his nine seasons at the helm. “You’ve got to out tough people. You’ve got to be the toughest mentally and the toughest team you can possibly be and you’ve got to be able to do the little things really well here. There’s never going to be another way to do it on and if there is, God bless them, whoever comes next, but the reality for us to be a tough, physical football team with a great mindset to play as a team and for each otherwise I still believe that it is the way to win here.”

Becht completed just 13 of 35 passes for a career-low 137 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to Noel and Higgins. He didn’t turn the ball over and also rushed for 35 yards and a touchdown while converting on four of five fourth down situations.

“Rocco is a great leader and for him to really just celebrate the seniors, that means the world to me,” said Noel, who has combined with Higgins for 2,081 receiving yards and 15 touchdown catches this season. “Throughout the year he has been a brother by my side and made sure that I am ok along the way, and vice versa. … I wouldn’t want anybody else as my quarterback.”

Campbell wanted none other than Jon Heacock to be his defensive coordinator, either. The Cyclones’ defense held the Wildcats nine points below their scoring average and linebacker Jacob Ellis recorded a 22-yard sack of Johnson that turned into a safety due to an intentional grounding call in the end zone. It was the only sack of the game for ISU, which won the turnover game three-for-zero.

Cornerback Darien Porter also recorded the fifth blocked kick of his career when Kansas State attempted a 21-yard field goal midway through the third quarter – another “little” play that made a big difference in extending the Cyclones’ historic run this season.

“To be able to do something that hadn’t been done here as a senior class, that’s something we set as our mission before the season started,” Porter said. “So to be able to achieve that, it’s been amazing.”