Late last week I had an idea about what to write about in this space. The ISU football team was coming off one of the most demoralizing stretches in recent memory and hadn’t given anyone much of a reason to believe it was going to get better.

I wanted to get a sense of what fans were really feeling about this football team. Hearing people talk on campus, there wasn’t much hope. If people talked about an upset over Texas, it was sarcastically.

Then Saturday happened.

It seemed surreal. A year after the Cyclone football team beat Nebraska on the road for the first time since 1977 — almost to the day — it beat Texas, on the road no less, for the first time ever.

Like last year, no one outside the football program expected it. No one predicted it. Because of Iowa State’s football history, a lot of people assume the Cyclones just aren’t going to win big games.

Maybe that thinking should change now.

Yes, the two weeks prior to the Texas win were terrible. Despite whatever the players and coaches might have said publicly, they had to have been disheartened, at the least, after Utah and Oklahoma used them as national stepping stones.

But never underestimate what embarrassment can do to a football team. Especially when that team is coached by Paul Rhoads.

The team said going into the Texas game that it remained confident. I thought at the time that if it was still confident, it was either crazy or lying to itself.

Coach Rhoads credits his staff and players for showing me that I was obviously wrong on both accounts.

“You play your way into confidence,” Rhoads said. “We talked after the Utah game that we had to bring our football team back. You can only do that so much with what you say. We had to go out there and perform.”

The Cyclones did more than just perform.

They beat Texas in every facet of the game, despite what the stats might reveal. They got pressure on the quarterback for the first time in what seemed like forever from first-time starter Jacob Lattimer. The secondary made play after play, with each guy making his presence known at one point or another.

Offensively, Alexander Robinson looked like the A-Rob of old, and the offensive line gave Austen Arnaud good protection all game. It looked like the best, complete team performance this season for sure, and maybe in the Rhoads era.

The team’s jubilation could only have been surpassed by the throng of fans who gathered in the Bergstrom Indoor Practice Facility for a pep rally to welcome the team home. As the band played and the fans cheered, Rhoads thanked the crowd for showing such support.

I’m sure, though, that Rhoads and the players would love for there to be a time where a win like Saturday’s isn’t met with such celebration because the fans have become used to it — where the only time fans welcome the team home with such excitement is if they were coming home as Big 12 champions.

Rhoads even said that would happen.

“One day we’ll be in here celebrating a Big 12 championship, that I can promise you,” Rhoads said.

What’s important now, just like last year, is not resting on this victory but using it as motivation for the rest of the season. Because suddenly back-to-back bowl games isn’t out of reach — something that seemed ludicrous just a week ago.

A win like this reminded everyone who loves Cyclone football why Paul Rhoads is the perfect man for this job. Slowly but surely, he’s laying the ground work for the future.

In two years, this program has gotten two signature wins, and if Rhoads and company have their way, Cyclone fans can look forward to more.