Paul Rhoads and the Cyclones ushered in a new era of ISU football with a victory as they overcame North Dakota State 34-17 in front of the biggest opening-day crowd since 1987 with 48,831 in attendence.

The Bison of the Football Championship Subdivision proved to be a feisty opponent as they were able to stick with Iowa State for much of the game, pulling to within 24-17 with 3:21 left in the third quarter, before Iowa State finished the game on a 10-0 run for the final margin.

“They were physical, they had no quit to them, they had a good plan to try to shorten the game,” Rhoads said.

The Cyclones were led on offense by junior quarterback Austen Arnaud, who rushed for 78 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries in addition to his 227 yards and 2 touchdowns passing.

Both passing touchdowns were deep balls of 39 and 42 yards to senior wide reciever Marquis Hamilton, who seems to have stepped into the primary reciever role for the Cyclones after catching 4 passes for 97 yards as Iowa State rolled up 442 yards of total offense.

“He is not our fastest reciever by any means, but he gets the job done,” Arnaud said. “I love Marquis, he is a great player.”

Defensivly, the Cyclones struggled at times, giving up 388 yards to North Dakota State. Iowa State seemed especially vulnerable to the big play in the first half, giving up plays of 62, 42 and 36 yards that led to the Bison’s first ten points of the game.

“A decent bit of their big plays were through open holes and doggone space,” Rhoads said. “That’s what we’ve got to take care of first and eliminate first.”

North Dakota State could easily have added another early score as they drove to the Iowa State one yard line before quarterback Nick Mertens fumbled the football on a quarterback keeper, and senior linebacker Josh Raven recovered in the endzone for a touchback.

Cyclones’ senior linebacker Jesse Smith led the way defensively with 15 tackles. Junior safety David Sims tied for second in his Cyclone debut with senior Fred Garrin who had eight tackles.

 The game started auspiciously for the Cyclones who got the ball first and began on their own 18-yard line.

The first play from scrimmage was a nifty run by junior running back Alexander Robinson for an eight yard gain.

Seven plays later, Robinson broke over the goal line on an 18-yard run into the end zone putting the Cyclones ahead 7-0.

The first half was the Robinson show for Iowa State as he amassed 111 yards and a touchdown in the half, 77 yards on the ground and 34 through the air.

“We think Alexander is a heck of a player in this system, in any system truthfully,” Rhoads said.

“He is intelligent, he is tough, he can block, he can run, he made a couple of nice cuts out there. He is a valuable part of our offense. I think he did carry us in the first half.”

He finished the game with 83 yards rushing and 36 receiving.

In the second half, the Cyclones looked different offensively. Robinson only got three more carries for eight yards and Arnaud was the only other player to run the ball, 6 times for 31 yards, until freshman runningback Jeremiah Schwartz got 7 carries in cleanup time.

The second half featured the air attack as Arnaud completed 7 of 10 passes in the second half for 139 yards.

Sophomore field goal kicker Grant Mahoney put on a show going 2 for 3, hitting a 38-yard kick and a career high 50 yarder.

His previous career high was 48 yards. 

Mahoney’s only miss of the night came at the end of the first half on a 57-yard attempt.

The kick was right on target but landed just passed the “S” in the endzone, about five yards shy of the goal post.