Kansas State Wildcats cornerback Justice James (5) hits the ball from Iowa State Cyclones wide receiver Jaylin Noel (13) in the first quarter of NCAA football action at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, November 30, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

AMES – Iowa State’s defense stood tall and stared across the field into the faces of Kansas State’s offense, while fans sat on the walls surrounding Jack Trice Stadium, waiting to storm the field in case the Cyclones shut out the Wildcats should.

Kansas State failed to score fourth down in the final moments or afterward Rocco Becht When he knelt with the ball and gave No. 18 Iowa State a 29-21 victory, the storm was on.

Let’s talk about how they did it in Game 12 of a 10-2 regular season.

Iowa State has taken its breaks

Kansas State put the ball on the ground on the first play of the game.

Instead of the opposing team driving down the field to score a touchdown on its first drive, as had happened in more than half of Iowa State’s games, an errant throw landed on the ground and into the senior’s hands Myles purchase.

That got a bit of a pop from the Jack Trice Stadium crowd, which wasn’t as loud as usual until Purchase gave the winning kickoff.

It was later capped off by a blocked field goal Darien Porter, who has worked his way up the roster and become the elite of the elite in the special teams category.

“We had to make these plays,” coach Matt Campbell said. “Darien helps knock the ball out and cause a fumble, and he also blocks a field goal — how about the night he did it? Simply incredible. I think it’s proof again that it’s probably fitting for this team to win this way and end the regular season.”

That was Porter’s fifth blocked kick of his career, a number that no one will soon surpass, not just in Ames.

“Obviously it was a very emotional evening,” Porter said. “To be able to do something like that on Senior Night, the last game at the Jack… I’ll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.”

Let’s move on to safety, and these were all big breakthroughs, but it came down to execution, as it so often did in the 10-2 season.

Appropriately, sometimes it came from seniors tonight. Other times? They were the unsung heroes who paid themselves to be part of the team.

It’s about everyone

Campbell — who is in his ninth season as Iowa State’s coach — has said multiple times that he and his staff take crucial time to evaluate each player on his roster, and perhaps even more so to evaluate preferred backup players , which Iowa State brings in.

During the third quarter of Saturday’s game, Iowa State found its offense stalling, as each of its first two drives of the second half ended before the Cyclones reached the 50, and one of “those guys” re-emerged.

Facing 3rd-and-9 on Iowa State’s 26-yard line, Rocco Becht Walk-on wide receiver found Carson Brown for a 14-yard gain and a first down that extended the drive and restored some of the momentum lost by Kansas State’s final touchdown.

“Man, it was great,” Campbell said. “Carson has always been one of those people who has done a really great job in our program. He had some really great moments and then took a step back two weeks ago – and now, man, he’s come back and I think that just shows his character and his determination. He’s worked really hard to put himself in a position to be critical of this football team.”

The drive continued down the field for the Iowa State offense before finally ending at the Kansas State 7-yard line.

That field position turned into a game-changing safety for the Kansas State quarterback just a few plays later Avery Johnsonwho was forced to throw a bad ball Jacob Ellis – another former walk-on.

“It was a great decision by Coach Heacock,” Campbell said. “It was really, really good. It was a pressure – we could let someone go in the middle of the offense. These are the moments too.”

Not to mention guys like Rylan Barnes, who led the team in tackles during the game against West Virginia, and Kyle Konrardythe kicker who kicked the field goal to beat Iowa.

Iowa State needed every play it got from the 101 players who saw the field in the regular season and made history in the process.

The defense throws the red flag to end the game

When you see the red flag in car racing, it usually means there has been an accident and also signals uninvolved drivers to stop their cars.

Iowa State let the Wildcat offense do both.

In 12 fourth-quarter plays, Kansas State gained a single yard as it attempted to complete the comeback.

Jontez Williams He was almost intercepted several times. Ta’Shawn James probably played the best game of his career and achieved some great success.

“I knew it was going to come down to us getting a stop,” the senior defender and captain said Beau Freyler said. “When the offense had the ball, I got the defense going and I knew we were going to come up with the situation. (I made) everyone’s mind clear so we could really compete in that moment and finish the game.”

The group that was hampered and beaten down over the course of the year, and statistically down for a typical Heacock-led unit, was the one that finished the whole thing.

“There are just big moments,” Campbell said. “And then the ability to make a sack, something we haven’t done here for a while. I think those plays were huge for us. I thought we played great defense all night tonight and really gave ourselves a chance to win a big football game.”

***

As if there hadn’t already been enough chaos in Iowa State’s first 12 games, Cyclone fans in and around Ames huddled next to the televisions, hoping for a BYU win that would send their team to the second Big 12 championship game of the year Campbell era would promote.

Regardless of whether BYU was able to defeat Houston or not, it was a fitting send-off for the senior class that Campbell viewed as “saving the program.”

But BYU did it, and the sendoff for this graduating class will be remembered for being as good as it gets.

Iowa State will play No. 16 seed Arizona State in the Big 12 Championship on Saturday.