Iowa State fell behind early, rallied to a two-touchdown lead and then held off a pesky Kent State team 48-28 in Ames Saturday. Iowa State trailed 7-0 before a blocked punt by Matt Rinehart with 5:37 to go in the first quarter rolled out of bounds on the one-yard line.
The Cyclones scored one play later and added three more scores to take a 28-21 halftime lead. Kent State battled back to within a touchdown, and was right in the game in the fourth quarter, before ISU put it away.
Cyclone Coach Gene Chizik says the defense needs work. He says they’ll look at the film and see a lot of things they won’t be happy with, but the silver linning is they got a lot of turnovers and the team never quits and keeps trying to force those turnovers.
The Cyclones forced Kent State into five fumbles and recovered four. Chizik says from what he saw immediately in the game, they’ll stick with the two quarterback system.
Chizik says while neither quarterback was perfect, both made some good plays and led the offense well enough to win. Chizik say anytime you can score in the 40’s you’re doing something right and the 48 came against a good football team. He says if they can score 40 points every week, they will win some football games, and he pleased they are finding ways to score.
Chizik says he knew the team would be better than last year, but can’t say how much better they are than last year. Comparatively, he says they’re 2-0 after starting out last season at 0-2, but says at times they are good and other times they’re are not good. Chizik says the way the team continues to work and improve will tell just how far they’ve come.
Iowa State travels to Iowa City Saturday to meet the Hawkeyes in the annual state football showdown. Iowa is also 2-0.