No. 17 Iowa State is out to erase the sting of a last-minute home loss to Texas Tech when the Cyclones travel to Kansas City, Mo., to face Kansas on Saturday.
With the 23-22 loss to Texas Tech, the Cyclones (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) saw their hopes of an undefeated season slip away. They are still in line to reach the Big 12 championship game, but their margin for error is very slim.
The Jayhawks (2-6, 1-4) know about thin margins. KU needs to win all four remaining games to reach a bowl game for the third straight year, which would be a first in program history.
Iowa State led the Red Raiders 22-17 with 2:11 left last week when Rocco Becht found Carson Brown with a 44-yard touchdown pass. However, the Cyclones couldn’t stop Texas Tech on the ensuing drive. Tahj Brooks ran for a 5-yard TD with 20 seconds left to give Texas Tech the victory.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing (the sloppiness and the turnovers),” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said. “You don’t want to play that way, especially to start November, and we did. We own it, we live with it, and we grow with it. Hopefully, we’ve got enough courage about ourselves to correct it and move ourselves forward.”
Turning the page, Iowa State talked all week about not letting the Texas Tech loss multiply into another defeat. Campbell is not taking the Jayhawks lightly, regardless of the statistical advantages owned by the Cyclones.
“Another week of talking about another tailback that you’ve got a lot of respect for,” Campbell said about Kansas running back Devin Neal. “He’s tough, he’s physical. Man, he really knows how to express the football.
“At the quarterback position, (Jalon Daniels is) a guy that’s dangerous and that’s won a lot of football games. A guy that can do it with his arm — he’s got elite arm talent — and yet he’s also got this unique ability that he can make you pay in the running game.”
Kansas is coming off a bye following a 29-27 loss to in-state rival Kansas State in its most recent game. The Jayhawks fell for the 16th straight time in the series.
Jayhawks coach Lance Leipold has had two weeks to get his team ready for the Cyclones.
“We pretty much stayed with what we’ve done in the past,” Leipold said about how he and his staff spent the bye week. “We made some small adjustments.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this football team and how they’ve stuck together through frustration and disappointment. They’re able to work hard and be coachable. They continue to see that winning football is not far from our grasp.”
Leipold said of this week’s opposition, “Matt Campbell is one of the better coaches in this country. Iowa State is a physical football team that continues to get better each and every week. They play within themselves and know what they want to do.
“It’s going to be a team that wants to come in here and put themselves back on track. It will a huge test for us.”
The game will be played at Arrowhead Stadium, as all of Kansas’ home games this season are being played away from Lawrence, Kan., with the program’s regular home venue undergoing renovations.
