With victories against national powerhouses such as Texas and Nebraska, Paul Rhoads is still awaiting another meaningful victory in his three-year tenure as coach of ISU football.

On Saturday, the Cyclones (1-0), fresh off a 20-19 roller-coaster victory against Northern Iowa last Saturday, will welcome intrastate rival Iowa (1-0) to Ames on Saturday as the second showdown of the annual Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk series.

“It’s a great game,” said senior defensive end Patrick Neal. “Obviously the Hawkeyes, they’re a great team, a great opponent. Whenever you get to go out on the field with an opponent of that caliber, it’s always fun.”

The main concern for the Cyclones, as always, will be the Hawkeyes’ offensive and defensive lines, which have a history of being latent with NFL-caliber talent.

“I think it’s just the tradition of the program,” said senior left tackle Kelechi Osemele. “I’ve heard about Iowa’s d-line since about the eighth grade. I think it’s just their thing; they just produce d-linemen, they produce good defensive players in general. Guys go to that school because of that.”

Osemele, Rhoads said, has been playing on a bum ankle for a good portion of training camp and reaggravated his injury during last Saturday’s game.

However, Osemele is still good to go, and with the return of senior right guard Hayworth Hicks, who sat out last Saturday’s game due to an undisclosed violation of team rules, the ISU offensive line will be in better shape than it was in preparation for Northern Iowa.

“Having Hayworth Hicks back in the lineup will be awfully important to our football team,” Rhoads said. “Not only is he a good football player, but he’s a great leader. With Hayworth back and Kelechi moving forward, we’ll play better at the offensive line.”

The offensive line will have its hands full with a Hawkeye defensive line that has novice-yet-consistent talent despite the departure of Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard and Karl Klug to the NFL.

Senior tackle Mike Daniels comes into Saturday’s game as the anchor of the unit, touting 61 total tackles and 15.0 tackles for loss for his career.

“[It’s] still a strength for them, without a doubt still a strength for them,” Rhoads said of the Hawkeyes’ defensive line. “They reload at that position, they continue to get good push in the pocket and pressure on the quarterback, and you’re just never going to have much success running the football against them.”

For the ISU defense, one of the main points of emphasis will be senior receiver Marvin McNutt, who has 140 receiving yards off of six receptions, two of which were touchdowns, so far this season.

“[McNutt is] an elite athlete,” said junior linebacker Jake Knott. “He’s big, he’s fast and he can pretty much do it all. He’s got great hands, so we’re going to have to be able to shut their wide receivers down basically in concentrating on keeping everything contained and not letting everything break out with a long run or a long pass.”

Knott, a co-captain at weak-side linebacker, led the team in tackles last Saturday against Northern Iowa with 15, 11 of which tallied as solo tackles. The Waukee native said the Cyclones’ success on defense will start with the play of the front seven.

“We know what they’re going to probably do, we’ve done it for so many years now,” Knott said. “We’ve just got to go out there and play physical, and we’ve got to win at the point of attack, and that’s one thing we haven’t done in the past two years.”

For many Cyclones playing in this rivalry game for the first time, nerves have a tendency to take over when game day arrives.

Sophomore running back Jeff Woody said sitting on the sidelines of the Iowa-Iowa State game during his redshirt season as a true freshman was exciting just by knowing how big the tradition of the rivalry was. A year later, playing in the rivalry was even more thrilling.

“Last year, going to Kinnick [Stadium] and being actually participating in the rivalry, my head was spinning,” Woody said. “It’s hard to focus.”

The action is slated to begin Saturday at 11 a.m. at Jack Trice Stadium.

“You come out of that game sore as I’ll get out,” Woody said. “Iowa hits you, we’re going to hit them back.”