Relief

The joy Cyclones fans felt in storming the turf of Jack Trice after a wild 51-49 win over OSU had to be mixed with relief. It had been a long ten months of anxiety about the future of football in Ames, and a mountain of flak from both the football press and the fans of other programs had been dumped on our collective heads.

But after four hours of Arenaball, where one felt they had to get a touchdown on every possession just to keep up, Iowa State had a win over a ranked opponent and a sense that maybe, just maybe, football is going to be OK. JFR knows what he is doing, and the pieces are in place to be competitive. The QB seems to have stopped thinking and started playing, dropping dimes on receivers and running with bad intentions. Freshmen are playing all over the defense, learning on the fly, following bad plays with better plays, improving as we watch.

It’s still a long, long road ahead, but at least we have some confidence in the map.