In 2005, the ISU football team may have jump-started Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel’s football career by pure coincidence.

In the fourth quarter of the game, Missouri trailed 24-14 when linebacker Tim Dobbins came flying in on a blitz, knocking out senior Brad Smith, whom the Cyclones had contained all game.

Daniel, who was the backup at the time, came in and engineered the Tigers to 10 fourth quarter points to tie the game, along with an overtime field goal to win it.

Senior receiver RJ Sumrall said Daniel just fits very well into the Missouri offensive scheme.

“Once Chase came in, it was like ‘maybe we should have left Brad Smith alone,’” Sumrall said. “That just hurt us even more; that’s his offense, and when he came in, you could tell he was going to do some great things.”

Daniel was 16 of 23 for 185 yards and a touchdown to tie the game. Daniel did not play much the rest of the season, but after Smith left he took the reins and has not let them go.

In the last three seasons Daniel has thrown for just under 11,000 yards and 89 touchdowns, winning two national awards and being named a Heisman finalist last season.

“We’ve been able to watch him for a while, and play against him, and he is a great quarterback,” senior safety Brandon Hunley said. “We’ll put in a great plan and try to get better this Saturday.”

However, Daniel lost in 2006, his last trip to Ames. The Tigers trailed 21-16 and Daniel thought he had scored on a touchdown run but it was called back for holding. Daniel was sacked on the next play to end the game.

Coach Gene Chizik said part of Daniel’s precision in execution of the offense comes from having run it for the last four years.

“He is excellent at what he does; he knows where every receiver is at,” Chizik said. “He can get himself out of trouble and buy some time and his receivers will adjust.”

Missouri has been held under 30 points only one time all year, and is fourth in the country in scoring offense at 45.1 points per game. Missouri’s defense has struggled at times though, allowing nearly 400 yards and 25 points per game.

Senior offensive tackle Doug Dedrick said Iowa State needs to play at their own tempo.

“We have to run our game and dictate to them what they are going to do,” Dedrick said.

The Cyclones (2-8, 0-6 Big 12) dropped last season’s game in Columbia 42-28 but hung right with the Tigers (8-2, 4-2) for the entire game. Running back Alexander Robinson ran for a career-high 149 yards and a touchdown in that game.

“I felt like when we went to Columbia last year we had our chances to close the distance in that game and win it,” Chizik said. “We got a couple of turnovers in there, which is hard to do against this team.”

Nineteen ISU seniors will play their final game at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday and have the ability to contribute to a victory that could spoil Missouri’s chances at a Big 12 North title.

The No. 12 Tigers can clinch with a win and a Kansas loss to Texas.

“We are definitely going to try to stand in the way of that Big 12 North Championship,” Chizik said. “We are going to go back and look at what we did last year and see what did well and what we didn’t do so good and try to make a game of this thing.”

Senior runningback Jason Scales said the team wants to win this game more for themselves.

“We want to leave a good taste in our mouths at the end of the season,” Scales said. “We also want to give the guys who are coming back something to build on.”