Iowa State’s football team takes the field before the game against South Dakota at Jack Trice Stadium on August 30, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. The Cyclones won, 55-7. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
AMES — Iowa State safety Jamison Patton said all the right things as he talked about playing Iowa in next Saturday’s 11 a.m. Cy-Hawk game at Jack Trice Stadium.
It’s “just one game?” Check.
He’s “pretty excited” to play in it again? You bet.
But did the former Ankeny and Des Moines Roosevelt standout know that despite winning two of the past three meetings in the series, the Cyclones have lost six straight games against the Hawkeyes at home?
“I do now,” Patton said.
So it’s officially Cy-Hawk week now that No. 22 ISU (2-0, 1-0 Big 12) has dispatched FCS. No. 5 South Dakota, 55-7, in Saturday’s home opener. The Cyclones scored 48 unanswered points against the talented, but mostly inexperienced Coyotes and never punted while scoring points on nine of 10 offensive possessions — and it could have been 10 of 10 before they knelt out the victory at the 4-yard line as time expired.
“I think the thing that was critical for (us) is we had to improve,” said ISU’s 10th-year head coach Matt Campbell, whose team beat conference rival and No. 17 Kansas State, 24-21, in “week zero” in Dublin, Ireland. “I think the traps are coming and I think this coming week — obviously, the emotion and all that stuff coming, to throw that at this team, that’ll be a unique challenge to handle that, too.”
The Cyclones won a program-record 11 games last season because they could thrive in the face of adversity. And if ISU is to build off Saturday’s record-breaking performances from quarterback Rocco Becht (who completed 19 of 20 passes against the Yotes for an all-time best 95 percent completion rate), and kicker Kyle Konrardy (who drilled a school-record 63-yard field goal in the win), it must continue to compartmentalize every drill, every practice and every video session before Iowa comes to town.
“They’re a really good team,” Becht said of the Hawkeyes. “They’re a tough team. They’re coached well and hopefully we have a good crowd here next week. I know it’s gonna be split (somewhat) ,but it’s gonna be a fun atmosphere to play in.”
The Cyclones haven’t won back-to-back games in the series since winning three in a row from 1999-2001. And all five of their triumphs against Iowa since 2005 have come by three points or less — so expect high tension as kickoff nears in a game that will be broadcast nationally on FOX, and will also be featured on the popular Big Noon Kickoff show.
“We’re gonna keep learning more about ourselves,” Campbell said. “I think the first quarter of the season is a real challenge for Iowa State football and we’ll see if we’ve got the character and the mental toughness to continue to grow forward.”
BURKLE’S BIG DAY
Cyclones tight end Gabe Burkle snared a career-long 44-yard catch, scored his second career touchdown, and set a career-high in receiving yards with a team-leading 85 last Saturday. He and fellow tight end Ben Brahmer combined for all three of Becht’s touchdown passes.
“The ‘mudita’ we have on this team is incredible — just the joy everybody else has when somebody else makes a big play,” Brahmer said of Burkle, a former Cedar Rapids Prairie prep. “Gabe had an incredible game (Saturday) and he’s a great tight end. It’s awesome to see all the tight ends rolling.”
PATTON’S PICK
Patton’s third career interception came at the 2-yard line and with South Dakota threatening to tie the game at 14-14 in the second quarter. It was also ISU’s first pick of the season after ranking among the top 22 teams nationally in that category each of the past two seasons. Backup linebacker Nick Reinicke added another interception in the fourth quarter.
FIRST PLAY DEEP BALL, TAKE 2
Becht has gone deep on the first play of the game in the past two home openers. In last season’s 21-3 win over North Dakota, he hit current Houston Texan Jaylin Noel for a 54-yard pass to start the game. Saturday, he found a wide-open Brett Eskildsen for a 66-yard aerial strike on the initial snap.
“Rocco’s efficiency was outstanding,” Campbell said.
