Now that fans and coaches have had the weekend to digest Thursday’s season-opening win against Northern Illinois, it’s time for the biggest rivalry in the state to take the stage.

Unless you live under a rock, you already know Saturday is the annual Iowa State-Iowa game.

And this year, maybe unlike many others, we’re coming in with an abundance of storylines.

There’s Iowa State’s impressive, and some would say surprising, performance against Northern Illinois. There’s Iowa’s top 10 ranking. There’s David Sims returning from suspension to a secondary that played well Thursday. There’s Iowa’s daunting defense.

Any one could be — and has been in many places — a story of its own.

But if you ask the ISU coaches and players, they’ll downplay the game’s significance completely.

“[The game] equates to one of 12 games,” said coach Paul Rhoads. “Win or lose, it’s going into one of those columns like the Northern Illinois game did.”

Austen Arnaud agreed, saying the team has to treat this game like any other. Alexander Robinson echoed his coach as well.

“If you get caught up in the hype and things, that’s where things could potentially go wrong,” Robinson said. “And when you get out there, it’s just another football game.”

That’s a great attitude to have. If you’re a fan of ISU football, then you definitely want to hear the coach and his players are keeping a level head, and not turning one game into their entire season.

But can we really believe them entirely? Should we really think they only see their biggest rival as “just another football game”?

I hope as a football fan in general, that it isn’t just another game. In a game like this, I hope linemen and linebackers have a little extra fire when they line up against their biggest rival.

And I have to believe that the players walk with a little extra strut in their step on Monday going to class after a win at Iowa — one they probably wouldn’t have after a win against Kansas State or Colorado.

It’s human nature to play a little harder in that situation.

But in the grand scheme of things, they are exactly right. I know there are a group of ISU fans who would rather go 1-11 and beat Iowa than win the Big 12.

Sure, the Iowa game means a lot — at the time. When you talk about last year’s team and how successful they were, do you remember the Iowa game? I’d venture to say the majority of people would say no — and yes, that’s probably because of the game’s lopsided outcome, but I digress.

The task Saturday is obviously far from an easy one for the Cyclones.

Arnaud knows better than anyone what mistakes against Iowa can mean. He even went as far as taking the blame for the loss. His teammates will refute that in a hurry, which shows how much they stand behind their quarterback.

That’s crucial in a big game like this, especially if he makes a mistake early and they have to rebound from it.

But if they play the way they did in the first half against Northern Illinois, the task won’t be as hard.

Rhoads knows to complete that task there has to be focus.

“The game has got to be played with raw emotion and enthusiasm,” Rhoads said. “But it’s got to be played with what I like to refer to as a ‘one-play-at-a-time focus.’ You can be excited … but then you’ve got to roll right back to the next snap and you’ve got to understand what it is you’re supposed to execute.”

And now is as good of a time as any to take that focus and enthusiasm to Iowa City and dash the Hawkeyes’ national title hopes.