I don't care what nobody says, that's how us ISU fans are treating that game Saturday against Texas. It was an upset of epic proportions in more ways than one. It didn't matter to us that Texas was ranked in the teens (or 22nd in some polls). It didn't even matter to us that this supposedly wasn't one of the better Longhorns teams that Coach Mack Brown has fielded. What we saw is we went down to THEIR house and straight manhandled them.
I know this would have been more timely had I done it clear back on Saturday when that 28-21 victory over Texas actually took place. I got a little caught up. Or maybe it's that I was still trying to let it soak in. Or it could have even been that I was still in shock until just recently. Truthfully, what it was was that all those Iowa fans moping around today reminded me of what a great victory ours was this weekend.
I didn't even plan to follow the game. The Clones were visiting yet another ranked team and yet again it was in their stadium. We saw what happened when they went to Oklahoma and did that. It wasn't pretty. There was no sense in witnessing that again. But then I found out it was actually going to be televised for a change so I figured I might as well watch. At the very least it could be some white noise in the background while I was doing other things.
It wasn't too hard for us Cyclone fans to not get our hopes up when ISU was up 14-3 at the half. Only half the game had been played. We had seen ISU give up leads before. Heck, they were up on Utah at first two and look how that turned out for them. But there was something different about this game. It was in the swagger with which they were playing. The first sign was the fact that they put two solid quarters together to lead at the half. Things were definitely looking up.
The second half saw more of the same. Before it was all over, ISU had forced Texas to make 4 turnovers. Three of them interceptions. You would have thought that was one of the top-ranked college defenses in the nation with the way those boys were ballin'. Even though they did scare us a bit by letting Texas get back into it i the fourth quarter. Thankfully, that didn't last long as they were able to stave off the Longhorns bid for a comeback.
That victory in Austin woudl be the Clones' first win over a ranked opponent on the road since taking down #18 Oklahoma 33-31 in Norman in 1990. Not only that, it was their first win over a ranked team since beating #22 Colorado 30-16 in 2005. But most importantly...it was the first time we had beaten Texas in eight tries. You hear me?? Texas has been owning us for...eh....ver until Saturday when all that changed. That was HUGE!
So all of you fans of the perennial top 25 programs can yap all you want about how we are making a mountain out of mole hill. You dang skippy we are! We celebrate any huge feat that we can. If it comes at the expense of a Big 12 opponent then it's even better. We don't know when another moment like this will come around so we take what we can get when we can get it. And right now it feels pretty dang good to be a Cyclone!
