There was no doubt who the better team was Saturday, but with 10 games left for Iowa State and the Iowa Hawkeyes, there is plenty of work left. Media from all over Iowa were busy bees in the bowels of Kinnick Stadium on Saturday night, and there were plenty of soundbites and opinions from players and coaches.

State of the programs

This year’s early success is polarizing, but the No. 9 Hawkeyes (2-0) and Cyclones (1-1) have to deal with the same recruiting grounds and regional fan bases. Larger, more expensive facilities go along with more recent success for the University of Iowa, but one game can’t change how this rivalry is viewed by coaching staffs or the athletes that compete for the Cy-Hawk Series.

“I don’t know if we’re in the sympathy business. They aren’t either,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz on Saturday. “They don’t want any. They don’t really need any. They’re going to be fine. They’ve got a good football team and a good staff.”

With the Cyclones 24-39 since 2005 in football, and the Hawkeyes going 41-24 over the same stretch, ISU coach Paul Rhoads is doing everything in his power to close the gap.

“We got whipped,” Rhoads said simply after the game.

In his staff’s second season leading the cardinal and gold, Rhoads has been outscored by Ferentz’s team 70-10 since joining the rivalry.

“I think under two is still infantile when talking about the development of a program. We’ve only been here 20-some months. They’ve been here 12 years. They’ve got a dang good program,” Rhoads said.

Ferentz has turned down offers for other colleges and professional football coaching jobs on multiple occasions, and he just signed a contract extension that will keep him with the Hawkeyes through 2020. Rhoads’ program goal of playing for a bowl game every year hopes to follow its Iowa City rival, which have reached January bowl games in six of the last eight years.

“Put them in a bubble and let me be here 10 more years, maybe that’s how we’ll catch up,” Rhoads said dryly. “We’ll catch up by doing what we do and doing it every day to the best of our ability.”

Run defense

After holding a run-heavy Northern Illinois team to 156 yards on the ground in week one, Iowa State’s young front seven was on a fast track and had tasted FBS game action. Following a thorough route against the Hawkeyes, the Cyclone defensive line and linebackers were feeling every bump and bruise of getting bullied.

“They wore us down, I’m not going to say they didn’t. They really pounded it to us,” said sophomore linebacker A.J. Klein. “We can’t come out soft. We came out soft in the first half.”

Klein was tired postgame, after his team-high 11 tackles, but not as hurt as some of his other unit mates. Linebacker Matt Tau’fo’ou broke his fibula during the contest, an injury Rhoads believed to be similar to the one cornerback Ter’ran Benton suffered last season. Benton was able to return in around four weeks.

Stephen Ruempolhamer also went out holding his arm during the game, but came back a few series later to finish the game. Postgame, Ruempolhamer had a heavy ice pack to along with his seven tackles.

“We’ll compete for the [strong-side] linebacker position. We’ll probably have to play a good bit more nickel,” Rhoads said of the defense without Tau’fo’ou.

Time of possession

The Cyclones spread offense didn’t get much time on the field in the first half, logging most of its minutes when the game was already decided in the second half. The extended bench time in the cramped quarters of Kinnick Stadium aren’t a welcome place, but only one unit spent much time there.

At the end of the first quarter, the Cyclones had run three plays for 3 yards, and held the ball for a grand total of 1:26. The Hawkeyes wouldn’t let go, running 26 plays for 129 yards in 13:34 in the same quarter.

“We had three plays going into the second quarter … there were guys on our sideline, just looking for hope,” said Cyclone quarterback Austen Arnaud. “If Iowa wanted to, we didn’t allow them, they could have put up 50 with how they were playing in the first half.”

Iowa State ended the game with 24:22 of ball possession, more than 10 minutes less than the Hawkeyes held the pigskin. The Cyclones’ spread offense is predicated on ball control, and staff stressed it heading into the rivalry week, but the team couldn’t execute.

“It’s a tough thing to do, not getting off the field. We got them into second-and-long situations and third-and-long and they completed. We’ve got to execute and get ourselves off the field,” Klein said.

Shaun Prater

The junior Hawkeye defensive back started his first game this season after a preseason injury kept him out of Iowa’s week-one game against Eastern Illinois. The 5-foot-11 Omaha native recorded an interception in the third quarter, the third of his career. Prater was more than pleased with his team’s performance after the game.

“Two years in a row, what was the score last year, 35-3? So yeah, it feels pretty good,” Prater said. “Obviously I think it’s going to get a lot tougher for next week, than that.”

The Hawkeyes have forced seven interceptions from Arnaud in the last two Cy-Hawk games.