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Oklahoma-Iowa State: One Big Thing

The Cyclones have played tougher against Oklahoma than just about anyone during the Matt Campbell era.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma-Iowa State: One Big Thing
Oklahoma-Iowa State: One Big Thing

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Oklahoma Sooners

Let’s face it: Matt Campbell is the one Iowa State coach who has figured out Oklahoma.

That doesn’t mean he beats the Sooners all the time — or even with any kind of regularity.

But Campbell’s Cyclones (2-2 overall, 1-0 Big 12) play better, harder and with more consistency against OU than they do typically against other opponents. They don’t get up for Iowa like they do for Oklahoma.

Of Iowa State’s seven all-time wins over the Sooners, two (2017 and 2020) came against Lincoln Riley, and another one (2019, a 42-41 OU win) probably should have. And the 2021 game in Norman (a 28-21 OU win) saw a scoop-and-score by defensive tackle Jalen Redmond and still included a 14-point rally by the Cyclones in the fourth quarter.

Much of Campbell’s success against the Sooners (4-0, 1-0) is predicated on defensive coordinator Jon Heacock’s 3-3-5 scheme, with features an umbrella look in the secondary with three deep safeties and eight defenders in pass coverage.

Can Dillon Gabriel and Jeff Lebby solve the puzzle this time in Norman? Last year in Ames, Gabriel labored, throwing for 146 yards (15-of-28), with his lone touchdown pass going 41 yards to Jalil Farooq.

That game also featured a 100-yard rushing performance by Eric Gray (who’s going to do that this year?) and a touchdown reception by kicker Zach Schmit on a fake field goal and a near pick-six by Danny Stutsman that produced a late touchdown by Gray. The game was tight even though the final score was 27-13.

Expect more of the same Saturday. The Cyclones’ offense was gutted by a preseason gambling scandal (they may have figured some things out last week in a 34-27 win over Oklahoma State), but Heacock’s defense remains intact — and fierce.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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