Now that Iowa State’s historically bad football team is ranked, do we pull for them to succeed?

The Cyclones haven’t felt a national ranking since 2005. They claimed the final slot in the AP Top-25 poll this week after defeating Texas Tech. This Iowa State team has accumulated five wins and only faltered twice.

Thankfully, one of those losses came to the Hawkeyes. The other at the hands of Texas in a game where quarterback Jacob Park threw the tantrum of a century. Realistically, Iowa State is a an overtime loss and an earlier quarterback change from being undefeated.

That is a stretch to make for a team that still has two losses but put all of this is perspective. Iowa State has played seven games and only lost twice. Let that sink in.

Those in black and gold have two common reactions to the Cyclones recent success.

And oh how they differ.

First of all, there are those who believe once Iowa has defeated Iowa State they no longer matter until the early fall matchup comes around again. These typically find it in their heart to root on the Cyclones on days they don’t play.

In all reality, what does pulling for them really do. One is in the Big Ten, the other the Big 12. A majority only pay attention when it is a cy-hawk battle in football, basketball, or wrestling. Does it really impact Iowa if they do bad?

The answer is no.

Especially if Iowa beats Iowa State, pulling for them can only help the Hawkeyes strength of schedule. Plus it legitimizes the rivalry in the nation’s eyes. A sweeping opinion is that the game, at least in football, is a burden to Iowa.

This is a simple, when Iowa State is good the rivalry is better as well. In hindsight, Iowa’s win in Ames could be their most impressive victory.

The other option, which seems to be more non-Iowa residents, is that Iowa State favor has no place in Iowa City. They’d like to see a winless season every year. They have been nearly satisfied in recent years.

This idea leaves no room for anything cyclone. Not in football, not basketball, and not in any sport. These are the die-hard Iowa State haters. They embrace the rivalry like those would see the Iron Bowl in Alabama.

In their eyes, regardless of circumstances, Iowa State must lose to Iowa and finish last in the Big 12. There is no room in their heart for a Cyclone.

It is a question that confuses many Hawkeye fans. When Iowa is good, it doesn’t matter. This year though, while Iowa currently boasts three losses, ignoring Iowa State is impossible. Fans are left with a moral dilemma, how to handle Iowa State being good.

Iowa State faces top-five ranked Texas Christian in Ames. Do you cheer for Iowa State?

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It was a tale of two sides coming into the game as the Cowboys, and their preseason Maxwell Award candidate quarterback and maybe one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Josh Allen, was looking to air it out against the young and Desmond King-less secondary of the Hawkeyes. On the other side, Iowa’s quarterback, Nate Stanley, was making his first college start against a veteran Wyoming secondary. Allen came out in the first quarter hitting his targets as he went 8-10 passing with 47 passing yards, connecting with Austin Conway for half of those completions. Stanley on the other hand ended the first quarter going 0-4 and was intercepted by Rico Gafford with a little less than 11 minutes to go. The Cowboys could not capitalize in the first quarter as the score was 0-0 after a quarter of play.

Wyoming scored first early in the second quarter with a field goal to give themselves a 3-0 lead; however, that would be the last time they would put points on the board. On the next Iowa possession, they marched down the field (thanks in part to a 4th down conversion and Nate Stanley’s first completion for a 19-yard gain) and took the lead with Stanley’s first career touchdown pass to Noah Fant on a 4th and goal. The Hawkeyes quickly stopped the Cowboys to get the ball back only to give it right back when Nate Stanley was sacked and fumbled the ball away to the defense with under a minute to go in the half.

The Hawkeye defense would not let the Cowboys score. Josh Allen was called for grounding which pushed them out of field goal position and then on a 4th down, Tim Zaleski muffed the punt which would set Iowa up on the 32-line of Wyoming. The next play, after an offsides penalty, Stanley found Fant again for his second touchdown pass of the game to make it 14-3 Hawkeyes going into halftime.

Wyoming came out in the second half on fire. The Cowboys were driving down the field but had a potential touchdown pass broken up at the last second by Joshua Jackson which ended the drive and stopped their momentum.

Halfway through the quarter, Nate Stanley gots his third touchdown of the day when a 45-yard completion is taken in for the score by Nick Easley to make the score 21-3. With all the momentum going their way, the Iowa defense forces Wyoming into a three-and-out.

The Hawkeyes turned it over again when Stanley fumbled after a big hit, setting the Cowboys up with good field positioning. The Cowboys still could not put anything on the board as they had a touchdown call reversed and missed a field goal that drive.

Wyoming would get the ball back only to have breakout corner, Josh Jackson, pick off a Josh Allen pass and run it back 41 yards to give the Iowa offense the ball back with good field position. Iowa then kicked a field goal on the ensuing possession to give us the final score of 24-3.

Running back, Akrum Wadley ran for over 100 yards for the game, something that Hawkeye fans are used to seeing as Wadley rushed for over 1000 yards last year. Speaking of the Iowa rushing game, they added another 1000-yard rusher in James Butler which makes Iowa the only team in FBS with two 1000-yard rushers in the backfield.

“We both feel strong about this year,” Wadley said of he and Butler sharing the backfield.” If we keep putting in the hard work and we keep grinding and running behind this line, we’ll be good, we’ll be fine.”

Hawkeye fans will have something to look forward to from one, if not both of these backs.

It is not often a team that has four turnovers wins a game by three possessions but Iowa somehow found a way to shut down Josh Allen and in the process, gave Nate Stanley momentum heading into the highly anticipated rivalry game next week against Iowa State at Ames.

The Hawkeyes still have some work to do on both sides of the ball and hopefully they will figure it out in time so they can bring the Cy-Hawk trophy back to Iowa City.

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For Iowa, scoring started early as senior running back Mark Weisman lowered his helmet on Iowa’s second drive to put the Hawkeyes up early. Mick Ellis provided the point after try making the score 7-0.

The Cyclones answered in the second quarter on a 47-yard field goal from Cole Netten. The Hawkeyes were then able to capitalize before halftime as Jake Rudock ran five yards into the end zone, making the score 14-3 at halftime

The Cyclones were too much for the Hawkeyes in the second half.

E.J. Bibbs snagged a highlight pass from quarterback Sam Richardson, trimming Iowa’s lead to 14-10 in the third quarter.

Iowa State scored once again, this time in the fourth quarter, as Richardson found DeVondrick Nealy, on a 27-yard touchdown pass. This gave the Cyclones a 17-14 lead early in the fourth.

Iowa was able to tie up the game as Marshall Koehn connected on a 44-yard field goal.

With a 17-17 tie, the Cyclone offense controlled the ball for the remainder of the fourth quarter. Netten booted a 42-yard field goal with under ten seconds left in the fourth, ending any hope of an Iowa Hawkeye comeback.

The Hawkeyes tried to reestablish their running game against Iowa State. The return of Brandon Scherff, who many had doubted would play, added hope to the Iowa offense.

Senior Mark Weisman led the Hawkeyes on the ground with 16 carries for 49 yards. Iowa finished with 44 carries and 129 yards on the ground as a team. All of Iowa’s touchdowns came off of rushing attempts.

Jake Rudock provided the aerial attack as he went completed 16 of 24 attempts for 146 yards and one interception. He was able to find seven different receivers on the day, with Damon Bullock and Tevaun Smith catching four passes to lead the Hawkeyes.

Sam Richardson put together a nice game for the Cyclones. Richardson completed 25 of 27 attempts for 255 yards. He also tossed a pair of touchdowns, one that gave the Cyclones the lead before Iowa tying field goal. Richardson connected with eight wide receivers on the day.

The ground game was something that the Cyclones struggled with throughout the game. With 26 attempts, Iowa State rushed for only 82 yards.

A big loss for Iowa came in the fourth quarter when wide receiver, Jarvis West, took a hit from Jordan Lomax. Lomax was flagged for targeting and ejected from the game. By rule, Lomax will miss the first half next week against Pittsburgh.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will look to bounce back as they travel next week to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers who are 3-0 on the season. The kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. and can be heard on 89.7 KRUI or krui.fm.

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For the Hawkeyes, the most urgent question of them all is who will be the placekicker. Marshall Koehn has gone 2-5 to start the season, and freshman Mick Ellis missed his only attempt in last Saturday’s win over Ball State. The fact that head coach Kirk Ferentz would not name a clear cut favorite for kicking duties makes things a little murkier than they already were. Koehn will likely get another shot this weekend, but do not be surprised if Ellis, who lost his redshirt last weekend, gets the call if Koehn once again falters.

Another big question for Iowa is when the running game will finally start to make some noise on the field. The leading rusher for the Hawkeyes after two weeks is quarterback Jake Rudock, who has 11 rushes for 35 yards on the season. The running back group of Mark Weisman, Jordan Canzeri, LeShun Daniels Jr., Damon Bullock, and Jonathan Parker have combined for 181 yards on 62 carries, which divides out to just under three yards a carry. They need to start showing up in a big way and not forcing Jake Rudock to chuck the ball 93 times in two games to overcome late deficits.

The final big question surrounding the Hawkeyes is the health of two of their most important players, Brandon Scherff and Drew Ott. It was reported by multiple sources on Tuesday that Scherff underwent surgery on his right knee and would likely miss two to three weeks.

Coach Ferentz would not confirm in his weekly conference call that Scherff had surgery, instead calling him day-to-day. If Scherff were to miss those two to three weeks, he would miss this weekend against Iowa State, the following weekend against Pittsburgh on the road, and potentially the Big Ten opener September 27^th against Purdue in West Lafayette. Iowa should be able to survive without Scherff for that time frame as Ike Boettger stepped in admirably against Ball State and looks a capable replacement for Scherff should he have to miss any time.

Ott, on the other hand, appears to come away virtually unscathed after his involvement in an accident early Monday morning in Iowa City. Ott was on his moped when a car turned in front of him and collided with the defensive lineman. He suffered what is being called “road rash” after being examined at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Kirk Ferentz also called Ott day-to-day and barring any setbacks should be ready to go for Saturday’s tilt with the Cyclones.

Iowa State comes into Iowa City looking for their identity. After a 34-14 loss at the hands of FCS powerhouse North Dakota State in Week 1, the Cyclones entertained the Wildcats of Kansas State last Saturday only to see them blow a 28-13 and fall to the ranked Wildcats by a score of 32-28. Iowa State ranks near the bottom in rushing yards per game, passing yards per game, and points scored per game.

Quarterback Sam Richardson is leading the charge through the air as well as on the ground for the Cyclones. He has been one of the few bright spots for a team that has disappointed to begin their 2014-2015 campaign. Injuries and personal issues have stripped the team of some key players. Wide receiver Quenton Bundrage tore his ACL in the opener against NDSU and starting right tackle Jacob Gannon quit the team for “personal reasons” days before their game against Kansas State.

The Cyclones do have some playmakers, however. Freshman wide receiver Allen Lazard out of Urbandale, Iowa, as well as Jarvis West will be asked to shoulder more of the load through the air for coach Paul Rhoads. Aaron Wimberly, who has accumulated 23 carries for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns over the first two weeks, leads the ground attack.

The Cyclones may not look as good on paper as the Hawkeyes, but when there is a rivalry like Iowa and Iowa State stats do not mean as much. Both teams will be amped up and ready to get this game started.

This Cy-Hawk game is sure to be one of the most exciting games in recent memory and Kinnick Stadium will be the go to place Saturday afternoon at 2:30. We will have the game live on 89.7 KRUI and also online at krui.fm with pregame starting around 2:15.

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