It’s easy to feel windswept by the way the Cyclones are forced to turn around right after game time.

Coming off of a lightning-quick 52-38 win over Texas Tech on Saturday night, Iowa State (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) is already in preparation for hosting the No. 10 Utah Utes (4-0, 2-0 Mountain West) on Saturday, Oct. 9.

ISU coach Paul Rhoads was catching his breath after the Cyclone victory Saturday night, but in his weekly Monday news conference, the coach and his squad were on the same page in turning the page on the thriller that happened just 36 hours before.

Running in the spread

Offensive coordinator Tom Herman brought his version of the spread offense to Iowa State from Rice University in 2009 to great expectation. The Rice offense had been 10th in the country in total offense in 2008, and threw for 327 yards per game.

In the Cyclones’ largest offensive explosion since Rhoads and Herman came to Ames, Iowa State only threw for 190 yards but stayed on the ground 50 times for 251 yards.

“I think we’ve committed to it. From the day we got here, that was going to be the strength of our team. The offensive line and we had a good tailback, now we’ve got a few good tailbacks,” Herman said. “To win football games, you’ve got to run the football. There are certain passing game gurus that would disagree with me … but in this conference and in this day and age, you’ve got to run to win.”

Senior running back Alexander Robinson and true freshman Shontrelle Johnson each hit 100 yards against Texas Tech, the first time Iowa State had two 100-yard rushers against a conference foe since Michael Wagner and Ennis Haywood hit the century mark in 2000. Robinson and Johnson hit 12 carries apiece, and both had carries over 60 yards in the game.

“The running backs ran hard. You try to tell them, a 5-yard run, run hard, is a lot better than trying to feel your way around for a 15-yard run and getting 1 yard,” Herman said.

The spread offense is known around the Big 12 Conference for throwing the ball all over the field, like Herman did at Rice and like Texas Tech quarterback Taylor Potts did Saturday. But if the Cyclones can continue to get it done and ground and dominate the line of scrimmage, they’ll ride their stable of running backs all season.

“Two hundred and fifty yards a game isn’t what we call consistent or a mark we want. Even a 100-yard rusher isn’t necessarily a mark because we got three guys that can carry the load pretty good,” Rhoads said. “That’s the thing I think we need on a consistent basis, are big run plays.”

Back-to-back top 10 games

When the Cyclones host Utah on Saturday, the swagger of beating the Red Raiders will have worn off and a long shadow will likely be in the waiting. Moving into the Associated Press top 10 coming off a bye week, the Utes will start a long stretch of tough games that moved prognosticators into stating Iowa State had the toughest schedule in the country when the year started.

“I thought yesterday when we were on the practice field, we were a better football team than the day before,” Rhoads said. “That’s a part of maturity, that’s growth, that’s a part of practice habits and we’re very pleased with that. We’re going to need all those things and more as we face our second straight opponent that’s had two weeks to prepare for us.”

The Sooners, Iowa State’s opponent after Utah, haven’t blown away some of their perceived weaker opponents, but the team sits comfortably at No. 6 in the rankings and 5-0 for the season. Utah is tied for sixth in the country with 44 points per contest, and Oklahoma isn’t too far behind at 37th, with just less than 33 points per game. Iowa State falls in line 69th, with their 26.6 average, which was boosted more than 30 positions with their 52-point outburst Saturday.

“I’m just happy we outscored our own defense,” Herman joked about Saturday.

Utah’s Mountain West Conference isn’t a Bowl Championship Series automatic qualifier, something the Big 12 provides for Iowa State. But the Utes’ pedigree offers up different evidence.

“They get scholarships, too. And they definitely earn them, they’ve got guys running around full speed and they can make plays,” said ISU quarterback Austen Arnaud. “They don’t look like your average Mountain West team, and that’s for sure just because of the way they’re recruiting and how they’ve done in the past.”

The Utes hold the longest bowl winning streak in the nation, with victories in nine straight postseason bouts. Rhoads remembers them vividly, losing to Utah 35-7 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. In that game, Rhoads was the defensive coordinator for the Pitt Panthers against current-Florida coach Urban Meyer’s offensive juggernaut.

“They play the game so fast. It doesn’t mean they’re blessed with a bunch of 4.4, or 4.5 [40-yard dash] athletes, it’s a team that understands exactly what it is supposed to do in all phases, and plays it lights out,” Rhoads said.

A-Rob’s ankle

He swears he wouldn’t have been caught on his 65-yard run, getting tripped up just 2 yards from the end zone.

“I’m kind of mad I got caught, I saw the defense shift and I knew right away it was going to,” Robinson said.

The Minneapolis, Minn., native wouldn’t specify which ankle was bothering him after the game, but had run through practice drills last week despite soreness.

Rhoads stated that wouldn’t happen this week, needing his number one running back as healthy as possible for the showcase game against the Utes.

“He’ll practice, but it will be in a more limited role than what he did last Tuesday. He’s such a competitor, he didn’t want to miss any reps, so he’s out there trying to take everything,” Rhoads said. “We’ll show him the things he needs to see, but he’ll be limited this week.”

Success under lights

Saturday’s win over Texas Tech moved Rhoads’ team to 7-0 in night games in his two years of tutelage. The Cyclones will get at least two more night games in a row, with the Utah kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium, and the game against No. 6 Oklahoma starting at 6 p.m. in Norman, Okla.

The undefeated record in the dark doesn’t mean the players or coaches have a reason for the success.

“I guess everyone’s just woken up by then,” said sophomore linebacker Jake Knott.

The coach took a loose approach to the topic as well, creating an outburst of laughter on Monday morning.

“It’s a wild stat and there’s no explanation for it,” Rhoads said.

When the team’s night-time success was addressed yet again, the coach got a big smile on his face.

“I might have pancakes tomorrow, and I’ve had them the past two Tuesdays,” he said. “That’s a wild stat, but I’m going to eat them. You do things that make you feel good about your preparation.”