Iowa State is preparing for a rematch with Tulsa in Tuesday’s Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. Senior defensive lineman, Jake McDonough said getting a chance to play in a seventh game means a lot.
“It’s huge for our program, we need to come out here, we need to have that mentality that we are going to win the game,” McDonough said. Iowa State beat Tulsa 38-23 on September first to open the season. But McDonough knows a lot has happened to both teams since then.
“They’ve developed pretty well over the season, they’ve changed a little bit, whereas in the beginning of the year we thought we were going to get more throwing from them, they have great tailbacks now — I think three great tailbacks — that have carried the ball for almost 700 yards. They have a lot of talent on their team. I mean it got them to a conference championship, so we can’t take them lightly, it’ll be a fun, good rematch,” McDonough said.
The Golden Hurricane’s leading rusher is Trey Watts, the son of former Oklahoma great J.C. Watts. He ran for 125 yards against I-S-U in the first matchup. McDonough expect to see Watts and the other Tulsa backs again in the bowl game.
“I have no doubt in my mind they are going to try and run it at us, but you know, we’ve got to be prepared for that, we’ve got to be prepared for the pass too. Whatever they throw at us, we’ve got to be prepared for it,” he says. The game against Tulsa is Monday at 2:30 Iowa time. The Cyclones come in at 6-6 on the season, while Tulsa — the champions of Conference U.S.A. — is 10-3.