Iowa State downed Kansas 13-10 Saturday in a game where they were a heavy favorite coming in. I.S.U. coach Paul Rhoads say Kansas deserves credit for being prepared. Rhoads says Kansas came in and “played the game we expected them to play,” and he says his team was able to overcome three turnovers and some sloppy play to get the win a team that had a great plan and played their tails off.
Iowa State is now one win away from qualifying for a bowl game, a position Rhoads says they’ve been in every year since he took over. Rhoads says in all three years they have been 5-4 and they now have an open date and a chance to improve their fundamentals. He says they will work on that and then get ready for Oklahoma State.
The game with the Cowboys at home is followed by road games at Oklahoma and Kansas State, so the Cyclones will have to upset one of the three top teams in the conference to qualify for a post-season berth. Rhoads says he doesn’t have to tell the team about the challenge ahead.
He says this was a great win for the team and they know where they are at, just as they knew where they were at when they were 3-4 and went to Lubbock and upset Texas A&M. He says he doesn’t have any doubts that they will be focused on what they have to do. Runningback Jeff Woody says it doesn’t matter that they got a slim win over a two-win Kansas team after dominating A&M.
Woody says a win is a win whether it is by one or 100, and he says when you play as poorly as they did and still get a win, it’s “a beautiful win in anybody’s.” Woody says the Cyclones aren’t worried that they need to upset one of the top three teams in the conference to qualify for a bowl game.
Woody says they have only been favored against U.N.I., and the win against Kansas, and he says both were “ugly, but beautiful at the same time. ” “So we’ve only been favored in two games, and we have five wins, you do the math,” Woody says.
Iowa State is off until they face Oklahoma State on Friday November 18th.