Iowa State football out to check Texas' 'high ego' in potential final matchup
AMES – Jarod Hufford knew what he wanted to say about Texas coming to Jack Trice Stadium for perhaps the final time Saturday night.
“They’re going to come in here on Senior Night, in the dark – I don’t think they really know what is going to be coming for them,” the senior offensive lineman said. “They’ll have to come out and figure it out.”
With the Longhorns off to the Southeastern Conference next year, any pretensions about cordiality with Texas, which on more than one occasion threatened the very existence of the Big 12 and constantly flouted its elevated status over the league, have become wholly unnecessary.
“Ever since I got here, it was Iowa and Texas,” Hufford said of the least-favored opponents on Iowa State’s schedule. “That was kind of the thing. The ‘Horns Down’ all the time.
“That program, much like Oklahoma, they get all the big five-star recruits. They have all the nicest stuff in the world, and they think they don’t stink. They’re just humans, and that’s how I see them.
“They’re just people that have such a high ego that needs to be checked.”
The Cyclones will attempt to do that checking and chart a path to the Big 12 title game on Saturday night (7 p.m.; FOX). The No. 7 Longhorns are looking to enhance their College Football Playoff resume.
Unless Iowa State (6-4, 5-2) and Texas (9-1, 6-1) decide to renew this series sometime in the future, it will be the Cyclones’ final time to take on the Longhorns at Jack Trice Stadium. The Cyclones are 3-6 at home against the Longhorns in the all-time series and have taken the last two games in Ames.
"They don’t have a good record here,” Hufford said.
Good being relative, of course, to Texas’ place in the college football landscape, with the Longhorns’ four claimed national titles and nearly three-dozen conference championships over their illustrious history putting them among the sport's royalty.
Texas' blue blood was so well established by 1979 that when Iowa State ventured to Austin for the teams’ first-ever matchup in September of that year, local media wondered what the Cyclones’ aim for the game might be. The Register offered up this tongue-in-cheek quiz:
“Iowa State will go to Texas with one goal in mind. Which is correct?”
To hold down the score
To stay out of the emergency room at the Austin hospital
To learn the words and music of "The Eyes of Texas"
To see if (Darrell) Royal will come to the pregame meal and sign autographs
To take pictures of (Earl) Campbell’s Heisman Trophy
To practice "Hook ‘Em Horns" battle cry so the Cyclone players can perform it while watching on TV when Texas plays in the Cotton Bowl next New Year’s Day
None of the above
The Cyclones, a three-touchdown underdog that day, lost to the fourth-ranked Longhorns, 17-9, in a competitive contest.
More: Mailbag: Is Iowa State football back in the Big 12 title game conversation?
The series would then go dormant for nearly two decades until the formation of the Big 12 renewed it in 1998. The Longhorns made their first trip to Ames on Oct. 30, 1999, as the 12th-ranked team in the country that season.
“If you knew that the team rated above you was always going to win, why would you even play the game?” then-Iowa State nose guard and current Cyclone Radio Network sideline reporter Ryan Harklau told the Register in 1999. “Every week (upsets) happen, and hopefully we can go out this week and get Texas.
“I’m not going into this game trying to keep it close and hoping for a miracle.”
The Cyclones did, in fact, keep it close, but there was no miracle in a 44-41 loss. Iowa State wouldn't beat Texas until 2010 in Austin, and then got that first home victory in 2015.
And now the series, presumably, comes to an end. Or at least a prolonged hibernation until some future bowl or unforeseen scheduling agreement brings them back together.
So after Saturday, the animosity Hufford articulated and Iowa State fans have embraced will have to find a new target.
“The nice thing I like about our fan base is that’s spread out to most teams,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said with a smirk. “You know what you’re playing against (with Texas) – you're playing against some of the best players in college football. I’ve got the utmost respect for coach (Steve Sarkisian).”
Respect, sure, but something else? Something a little less polished? A little more visceral?
“We have a distaste in our mouth for them,” Hufford said. “Definitely want to send them off to the SEC with a loss on our end.”
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Texas' 'high ego' irks Iowa State football's Jarod Hufford
