Iowa State: 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl Champions

 

ORLANDO, Fla. -- — It was a season of Iowa State comebacks. And fittingly, that's how it ended for the Cyclones.

Game MVP Rocco Becht scored from a yard out on fourth-and-goal with 56 seconds remaining and No. 18 Iowa State capped the best season in school history by rallying past No. 15 Miami 42-41 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Saturday.

Becht finished with 270 passing yards and three touchdowns for Iowa State (11-2), a program that entered this season — the 133rd year of Cyclone football — never having won more than nine games in a year.

“If you look at this team, it’s really who they’ve been all year,” coach Matt Campbell said.

The win marked the fourth time in 2024 that Iowa State got a winning score with less than two minutes remaining. For this one, the Cyclones rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half — with Miami quarterback Cam Ward watching after a record-setting first half — to get win No. 11. Carson Hansen rushed for a pair of touchdowns for Iowa State.

And as the MVP, Becht got the honor of choosing which flavor Pop-Tart was to be sacrificed in a giant toaster.

“There's only one,” Becht said. “Cinnamon roll.”

Ward passed for three touchdowns in his final college game, while Damien Martinez rushed for a career-high 179 yards for Miami (10-3), which dropped its sixth straight bowl game and lost three of four games to end the season — those three losses by a combined 10 points.

"Disappointed that we couldn't pull out a victory," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “These guys have always fought and always competed and this was no exception. ... It's painful. It's as painful as it gets when you don't win. But there's a lot to build on.”

Martinez and Mark Fletcher Jr. rushed for scores for Miami, which was seeking its first 11-win season since 2003. Elijah Arroyo, Jojo Trader and Jacolby George had TD catches for the Hurricanes.

A 15-play, 84-yard drive by Iowa State was what delivered the winning score.

The first half was wild. Miami fumbled the ball away on the game's first snap. And the next eight drives all ended with touchdowns, neither team able to stop the other.

The teams combined for 625 yards — 358 for Miami, 267 for Iowa State — and 59 points by halftime, which Miami ended holding a 31-28 lead. The only punt was by Iowa State's Tyler Perkins midway through the second quarter; he was cheered when he entered the field during a ping-pong game of a first half, the teams trading touchdowns like nothing.

Ward was 12 of 19 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, before Emory Williams took over to start the second half. Fletcher's 1-yard run midway through the third quarter put Miami up 38-28, but the Hurricanes managed only three points on their final three drives.

“To end the season this way, it’s really fitting,” Campbell said. “It really tells the character of this team. Hard to find teams still in college football, but we’ve got one in Ames, Iowa.”

The takeaway

Iowa State: The Cyclones had touchdown drives of 22, 75, 65 and 75 yards on their first four possessions — 237 yards in all. They had one touchdown and 110 yards in their next five possessions, not counting one that was only a kneel-down to end the half.

Miami: The Hurricanes were 50-0 since the start of 2000 when scoring at least 38 points and gaining at least 500 yards. They're 50-2 now — the loss to Syracuse that cost Miami a College Football Playoff berth ended the streak, and the Hurricanes lost despite 41 points and 524 yards on Saturday.

Poll implications

If Miami remains in the AP Top 25, it'll make 2024 the first season since 2017 in which the Hurricanes appeared in every poll. Iowa State will end the season ranked for only the second time since 2000.

School record

Andy Borregales' field goal with 9:40 left gave Miami a 41-35 lead — giving him 11 points (five PATs, two field goals) on the day and 404 points in his career. That set a new Miami school record, one more than Michael Badgley.

Up next

Iowa State: Opens the 2025 season on Aug. 23 against Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland.

Miami: Opens the 2025 season at home against Notre Dame, sometime over Labor Day weekend. The date — anytime between Thursday, Aug. 28 and Monday, Sept. 1 — has not been finalized.

Iowa State: 2023-24 Big 12 Men's Basketball Champions

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Keshon Gilbert wrapped up a spectacular Big 12 Tournament for Iowa State with 16 points, and the seventh-ranked Cyclones blitzed No. 1 Houston to begin the second half Saturday night, allowing them to roll to a 69-41 win and their sixth championship in six appearances in the title game.

Milan Momcilovic had 18 points and Hason Ward scored 13 for the Cyclones (27-7), who have beaten five different programs to raise the trophy, including Oklahoma, which at the time was led by current Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson.

He probably felt even worse than he did in 2000. Iowa State turned a 30-23 lead at halftime into the kind of blowout Sampson has rarely experienced with an 18-3 run to start the second half. That gave the thousands of Cyclones fans that paint Kansas City red and yellow every March plenty of reasons to stand on their feet and roar their approval.

Doesn't seem to matter who is coaching them, either. T.J. Otzelberger is the fourth to win the tournament for Iowa State.

Jamal Shead had 10 points on 3-for-17 shooting for Houston (30-4), which was outscored 39-18 in the second half. L.J. Cryer was held to seven points and Emanuel Sharp to five as the Cougars shot 4 of 22 from the 3-point arc and 15 of 56 from the field.

Iowa State built its halftime lead by playing the role of Houston better than Houston.

The preternaturally poised Cyclones never wavered when they fell into an early hole. They exhibited some exquisite interior ball movement for easy layups when the Cougars' guards tried to lock down the perimeter. And when they got those buckets to go, it freed up Momcilovic and and the rest of the Iowa State sharpshooters to begin draining 3-pointers.

On the other end, the Cyclones forced Shead into off-balance runners and long 3s at the end of the shot clock; the Big 12 player of the year — and defensive player of the year — was 2 for 11 in the first half, and it didn't get any better in the second.

Cougars big man J'Wan Roberts was largely ineffective, too, after hurting his right leg and playing sparingly in their semifinal rout of Texas Tech. He started the game and played 13 first-half minutes before sitting out the second half.

He probably wouldn't have made a difference the way the Cyclones were rolling. They scored the first 10 points as part of their run to start the second half, and Momcilovic's 3 from in front of his bench pushed their lead to 48-23 with 12:40 to go.

Resorting to desperation shots, the Cougars went 9 1/2 minutes without a field goal as the game got away from them.

UP NEXT

Iowa State will likely be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and could get a favorable landing spot in Omaha, Nebraska, for the opening weekend. It is only about a 2 1/2-hour drive from its campus in Ames, Iowa.

Houston almost certainly had locked up a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tourney. The question now is whether the selection committee would put the Cougars in the same region as Iowa State to set up a potential rematch.

Iowa State: 2021 Fiesta Bowl Champions

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The weight of disappointment and failure has gotten heavier just about every year for the better part of a century. Yes, there were moments of success and glimmers of hope, but, for the most part, year after cursed year, the Iowa State football program added to its collection of miseries.

Given 100 years to accumulate, the heap of losses and humiliations buries a program in rubble that blots out the light toward a path out and starves the oxygen needed to endeavor toward an escape, if one could even be seen.

Iowa State football spent something close to 100 years as an unsolvable problem, its own history weighing it down from finding a new future. Even if someone could start to maneuver a way out, to clear a path, how long would it take to unburden all of failure?

It took Matt Campbell five years.

Twelfth-ranked Iowa State defeated Oregon 34-17 on Saturday to win the Fiesta Bowl, cement the 2020 season as the best in program history and deliver on Campbell’s promise to change the culture of Cyclone football from laughingstock to national relevance.

“We're always going to have to go up the rough side of the mountain at Iowa State, just because that's who we are. That's how the program is,” Campbell said. “And yet, when you have elite character, elite leadership, great things can happen. And that's really what we've been able to develop now in our fifth year.”

The team’s 9-3 record matches the most wins in a season in program history, while the victory over the Ducks represents the program’s first win in its first appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl game. All while managing the COVID-19 pandemic that has cost and upended lives across the globe and turned college sports into even messier beast to tame than it typically is.

“As coach (Matt) Campbell said, we were the laughingstock of the Big 12 at one point,” All-American running back Breece Hall said. “Just envisioning what coach Campbell thought that we could do here. That's the reason why I came here. To see what we accomplished today, it's Iowa State history.”

"History" is a tortured word at Iowa State, where a first bowl appearance didn’t happen until 1971 and the trophy case remains without a conference championship since 1912. Recent history was just as troublesome as the ancient, when Campbell took over a program in 2015 that had won eight games combined the previous three seasons. It didn’t get better when Campbell hit the recruiting trail after his first Cyclone team went 3-9.

Then, though, they began to break through.

This year’s senior class beat top-five teams and won the Liberty Bowl in 2017. The Cyclones went to bowl games and flirted with contending atop the conference in 2018 and 2019. Then, in 2020, it all came together in a way never before seen at Iowa State.

“We recruit all these guys with a hope and a dream,” Campbell said. “And then all of a sudden, we're 3-9 (in) Year 1. And I think it's so fitting that, as we leave here, and this senior class leaves here now 9-3, they really flipped the script the entire way. 

“Maybe for some programs, that's easy to do; but (people) know the history of this program for the last 100-plus years. It's not real easy to do here. And this group did it. This group literally rewrote the history books.”

Although Campbell sold players on a “home and a dream,” it was a well-articulated one.

“When he called me and said hey, ‘We're playing Big 12 football, we've got tools,’” quarterback Brock Purdy, an Arizona native, said. “It's not already made, but I wanted to help that out and get it to where it needed to be. And so that was really our conversations when he was recruiting me. 

“So here we are back at home in the Fiesta Bowl, and I think we're able to take the next step as a program. And we did that today.”

Five years in the making. No skipped steps. No instant success. Just consistent improvement with one historic reward at the end.

“This team literally became the best version of itself it could be,” Campbell said. “This 2020 Iowa State football team reached its full potential. There's not one regret. There's not one, man, woulda, coulda, shoulda. 

“This group's literally reached its full potential and become the best version of itself it can be.”

After a century, Iowa State has emerged from the debris of defeats and the wreckage of wretchedness. And they are standing not hobbled by the challenge, but strengthened by it. 

Iowa State: 2018-19 Big 12 Men's Basketball Champions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Something about the Big 12 Tournament brings out the best in Iowa State.

The fifth-seeded Cyclones raced to a big early lead against No. 17 Kansas, then leaned on some balanced scoring and enough stops down the stretch to beat the Jayhawks 78-66 on Saturday night and remain unbeaten in five championship game appearances.

Lindell Wigginton had 17 points, Marial Shayok had 15 and Michael Jacobson 14 for the Cyclones (23-11). They became the lowest-seeded team ever to win the conference tournament and improved to 2-0 against Kansas (25-9) in the finals.

Dedric Lawson had 18 points and Devon Dotson added 17 for the third-seeded Jayhawks, whose last chance to win some hardware will be the NCAA tournament. Their run of 14 consecutive regular-season crowns ended last weekend, and they failed to defend their Big 12 Tournament title.

Meanwhile, the Cyclones made a tremendous about-face during their stay in Kansas City.

They arrived having lost five of their past six regular-season games, and they looked rudderless in losses to Texas and lowly West Virginia. But beginning with a blowout of Baylor and continuing with a quarterfinal win over regular-season champ Kansas State, the Cyclones found their stride.

The Jayhawks, who are still looking for their own, were fortunate to trail 32-22 at halftime.

Lawson, who had 24 points in the semifinals, was 2-of-11 from the field. Marcus Garrett was 0-for-6 from the floor and 1-of-4 from the foul line. Quentin Grimes was 0-or-4 from beyond the arc after hitting five 3-pointers in their win over the Mountaineers on Friday night.

All told, the Jayhawks shot 27.8 percent from the field and missed all nine of their 3-point attempts in the first half. They also were just 2-of-8 from the free throw line.

Iowa State had its own trouble on the offensive end of the floor, getting five shots swatted into the seats. But the Cyclones were effective at getting to the rim, and easy layups by Wigginton and Tyrese Haliburton allowed them to take control.

Their lead swelled to 41-24 early in the second half. And even when the Jayhawks managed to nip into it, they would inevitably miss an open layup or throw the ball away.

Or, Jacobson would knock down an unlikely 3-pointer.

That was the case when the Jayhawks trimmed the deficit to 45-35 with 14 minutes to go. Iowa State's big man calmly drained one from the top of the arc -- all Kansas coach Bill Self could do was smile in disbelief -- and Steve Prohm's squad promptly ripped off seven straight points.

Frustration eventually set in for the Jayhawks down the stretch.

After cutting their deficit to single digits on several occasions, including 72-63 with 1:21 to go, the Cyclones kept answering. And after Grimes was called for a foul on Wigginton, Lawson spiked the ball under the basket and was whistled for a technical foul.

Shayok made the two technical foul shots, Wigginton made two more, and the chants of "Let's Go, Cyclones!" began to reverberate throughout Sprint Center in celebration of another title.

BIG PICTURE

Iowa State has leaned on Shayok and Talen Horton-Tucker much of the season, but Wigginton and Haliburton shined in Kansas City. Wigginton is averaging more than 15 points over his past five games, and Haliburton continues to lead the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Kansas started freshman center David McCormack, but the Cyclones' guard-oriented lineup forced the Jayhawks to match their personnel. Charlie Moore and the rest of their guards struggled shooting the ball, and they were unable to get crucial defensive stops down the stretch.

UP NEXT

Both teams will learn their NCAA tournament destinations Sunday.

Iowa State: 2017 Liberty Bowl Champions

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Iowa State proved its season-long bid to raise its standards was more than just a slogan.

Allen Lazard tied a Liberty Bowl record with 10 catches and put Iowa State ahead with a remarkable 5-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter Saturday, and the Cyclones beat No. 19 Memphis 21-20 on the Tigers' home field.

The victory gave Iowa State (8-5) its first bowl victory since a 2009 Insight Bowl triumph and marked the Cyclones' third win over a Top 25 team this season. That's the step forward Iowa State had in mind when it made "Raise The Standard" its team motto.

"The thing that finally resonates in our program is that this can happen, not only with our players but the people outside of our program, that success and winning football games at Ames, Iowa, can really happen," Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said.

Iowa State's progress was evident in the way it held on to win after its only lost fumble of the season. Iowa State was attempting to become the first Football Bowl Subdivision team to go an entire season without losing a fumble.

The Cyclones led 21-20 and had third-and-goal from the 1 when David Montgomery fumbled as he was crossing the goal line. As replay officials reviewed the play, Campbell told his players he hoped the call wasn't overturned because it would enable the Cyclones to show how they'd matured since a heartbreaking 20-19 loss to Kansas State in their regular-season finale.

"Coach was out there preaching to us in the defensive huddle this is what we wanted, to show people that we'd learned from what we'd been through," Iowa State linebacker Joel Lanning said.

Memphis (10-3) drove to the Iowa State 40 but lost the ball when Riley Ferguson overthrew Phil Mayhue on fourth-and-10 with 1:52 remaining. Iowa State ran out the clock from there.

"It was kind of hard getting the ball out, but at the same time, I've got to find a way to make a play," said Ferguson, who went 21 of 33 for 286 yards and two touchdowns but was sacked six times. "There on the last play, I've got to find a way to make that throw to Phil, no matter whether I have pressure on my face or not."

Iowa State pulled ahead 21-17 with 4:28 left in the third quarter when Kyle Kempt's pass appeared to get deflected just before Lazard caught it in the back of the end zone.

The touchdown came after a roughing-the-passer penalty on Genard Avery wiped out an interception by Memphis' Curtis Akins and gave the Cyclones first-and-goal.

"I was just playing the play out," Avery said. "I feel like it was a bad call."

Lazard had 142 yards receiving in his final college game and was named the Liberty Bowl's most valuable player. The only other players to catch 10 passes in a Liberty Bowl were Louisville's Deion Branch in 2000 and Arkansas' Bobby Joe Edmonds in 1984.

"I just went out there today and gave it my all," Lazard said. "I kind of tweaked my ankle a little bit, but I only had a certain amount of time and I'd be damned if I (was going to) stand there and watch the offense go to work without me."

Memphis had the benefit of playing a bowl game on its home field -- where it hadn't lost all season -- although enough Iowa State fans traveled to the game to make the sellout crowd of 57,266 a pretty even split.

RECORD SETTERS

Lazard's 10th touchdown catch of the season set an Iowa State record. Memphis' Anthony Miller had four catches for 55 yards and a touchdown to end the year with 96 catches for 1,462 yards, breaking his own school single-season records in both categories.

HELMET HIJINKS

During a pregame event, Avery and Miller flipped an Iowa State helmet upside down. Avery told reporters afterward that he wanted to show that Memphis is his team's city.

Lazard returned the favor Saturday by overturning a Memphis helmet that sat on a table while he collected awards as the Liberty Bowl's MVP and offensive player of the game.

BIG PICTURE

Iowa State: The Cyclones held the nation's No. 2 scoring offense to its second-lowest point total of the season despite missing two key players, with defensive back Evrett Edwards ruled ineligible and safety Kamari Cotton-Moya suspended for a violation of team rules. Iowa State's six sacks tied a Liberty Bowl record. Iowa State benefited from the absence of injured Memphis running back Darrell Henderson, who rushed for 1,154 yards this season.


Memphis: Missed opportunities haunted the Tigers. An ineligible receiver penalty nullified a first-quarter touchdown and led to a missed field-goal attempt. One Iowa State touchdown happened after a Memphis interception was overturned by replay, and the Cyclones' go-ahead touchdown came after a Memphis interception was nullified by Avery's roughing-the-passer penalty.

LOOKING AHEAD

Iowa State will seek to go to back-to-back bowl games, something the Cyclones haven't done since 2004-05. The Cyclones lose a lot of leadership as they attempt to replace a senior class that includes Lazard and linebacker Joel Lanning, among others.

Memphis must find a way to replace the dynamic tandem of Ferguson and Miller.

UP NEXT

Iowa State begins its 2018 schedule by hosting South Dakota State on Sept. 1.

Memphis hosts Mercer on Sept. 1, 2018.

Iowa State: 2016-17 Big XII Men's Basketball Champions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Steve Prohm hadn’t even yet helped cut the net from the rim Saturday night, and already the Iowa State coach was thinking about the next challenge.

“The NCAA tournament is totally different,” Prohm said over the cheers of some 15,000 ISU fans who packed into the Sprint Center on Saturday night as the Cyclones beat West Virginia 80-74 to secure the Big 12 tournament title.

“The biggest thing I’m going to do tomorrow is get them refocused. Let them enjoy tonight and then get focused and stay humble, so we can try to win games in the tournament as well. Because when this team’s good offensively, I think we’re very, very tough to beat.”

Iowa State played better than good offensively in Kansas City -- it was great. The Cyclones shot 54.2 percent Saturday against the Mountaineers’ aggressive defense, less than 1 percentage point below their rate from the first two games, victories over Oklahoma State and TCU.

Iowa State improved to 9-1 in the Big 12 tournament over the past four seasons. This victory marked its third tournament championship over that time. Success in Kansas City is not the problem.

This Big 12 tournament title is the third in four seasons for Iowa State senior Monte Morris (11), but he and the Cyclones haven't advanced past the Sweet 16 in any of those years. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

It’s winning consistently in the subsequent games that proves troublesome for the Cyclones. They’re 4-3 in the NCAA tournament since 2014 and last advanced past the Sweet 16 in 2000.

As Prohm said, the NCAA tournament presents a different kind of challenge than this little trip to Kansas City.

But what if doesn’t?

A peek at the NCAA tournament bracket shows regional games March 23 and 25 at the Sprint Center. There would exist no better place for Iowa State to clear that next hurdle than at its home away from home, though it’s likely too much to ask for the selection committee on Sunday to position the Cyclones for a return trip.

Regardless, an opportunity awaits. Iowa State starts four senior guards: Big 12 tournament MVP Monte Morris, Deonte Burton, Naz Mitrou-Long and Matt Thomas.

They combined for 53 points as Iowa State beat WVU for the first time in three tries this season, and they hold the key to success for the Cyclones next week and beyond.

“We’ve still got a month or so together,” Thomas said amid confetti and hand slaps after the buzzer.

A month? That’s a lofty expectation, indicative of the Cyclones’ collective mindset after much of their veteran core endured a first-round loss to UAB on the heels of a Big 12 tournament title in 2015.

“We won this same tournament, and the next week of our lives was miserable,” Morris said. “So that’s definitely in our seniors’ heads. We’ve just got to keep everyone together. That’s our job, us being seniors.”

Despite the electric atmosphere for Iowa State in Kansas City, Thomas said the Cyclones don’t want to remember Saturday as “the highlight of our season.”

“You can’t stay on this high for too long,” he said. “Losing in the first round, that taste, that’s something you don’t forget. I still have nightmares about that game.”

Last year, the Cyclones, as a No. 4 seed, beat Iona and Little Rock before losing to Virginia. In 2014, they fell in the Sweet 16 to eventual national champion UConn.

Before Saturday's victory, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi slotted the Cyclones as a No. 6 seed. Seemingly, at 23-10, Iowa State can’t rise above the fourth line.

It likely makes for a difficult road, not that any are easy in March.

“We can’t be complacent,” Burton said. “We have to be as hungry as we [were] coming here. That’s the biggest thing: just not losing the ‘want’ to win, the ‘will’ to win.”

Seems that the Cyclones, without much prodding from Prohm, have decided not to celebrate this championship for long.

Prohm finally got his turn on the ladder, holding his son, Cass, who turned 2 on Saturday, in his left arm as he cut the final strand of the net with his right hand. The Iowa State band serenaded Cass with a playing of “Happy Birthday.”

It was a party, for sure.

But when Prohm -- in his second season at Iowa State after four at Murray State -- left the court, his message quickly grew clear.

“There is more story to write,” he said. “That’s what I told them in the locker room. Stay humble. Do the right thing, and let’s get ready for next week.”

Iowa State: 2014-15 Big 12 Men's Basketball Champions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Iowa State's unflappable bunch of comeback kids did it one more time.

Georges Niang scored 19 points, Abdel Nader made the go-ahead foul shots with 48 seconds to go, and the No. 13 Cyclones rallied from a 17-point second-half hole to beat ninth-ranked Kansas 70-66 in the Big 12 Tournament championship Saturday night.

It was the fifth straight game -- including all three in the tournament -- that the Cyclones rallied from a double-digit deficit, prompting Niang to dub them the "Comeback Kids."

Nader finished with 13 points, and Jameel McKay and Monte Morris had 11 each for the Cyclones (25-8), who also knocked off the Jayhawks on their way to winning the title a year ago.

Iowa State: 2013-14 Big 12 Men's Basketball Champions

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- DeAndre Kane scored 17 points, Georges Niang added 13 and No. 16 Iowa State rallied to beat Baylor 74-65 on Saturday night to win its first Big 12 tournament title since 2000.

Naz Long and Dustin Hogue had 12 points apiece, and Big 12 player of the year Melvin Ejimfinished with 10 points and nine rebounds for the fourth-seeded Cyclones (26-7), who knocked off top-seeded Kansas in the semifinals before ending the Bears' tremendous tournament run.

Kenny Chery had 16 points for the seventh-seeded Bears (24-11), who have never won a postseason conference tournament. They've lost all three tries since the formation of the Big 12.