After the best game of his college career, Alexander Robinson’s mom is not happy.

The redshirt freshman running back rushed for a team-high 149 yards Saturday, but told his mother Adene not to travel to Missouri for Saturday’s game for the first time this season. Robinson hadn’t played the past two weeks and wanted to save his parents the trouble.

“I didn’t want them traveling in the dull hours down there to watch the game, and then traveling back home, so I told them not to come,” Robinson said. “So, she’s pretty hot with me about missing my first touchdown.”

The 5-foot-10-inch running back got his first carry since the Cyclones traveled to Texas Tech on Oct. 6. After a fumble against Nebraska, Robinson got only one run against the Red Raiders. That fumble, on the Cornhusker 21-yard line, ended a Cyclone scoring drive and, for two games after Texas Tech, his playing time.

“It happened real quick,” he said of the fumble. “Looking back on it, I should have just hopped on the ball. I kind of landed on it wrong; it popped out and they grabbed it.”

The fumble wasn’t the only thing Robinson said he’s learned from. Having spent the past two games on the sidelines, he’s watched juniors Jason Scales and J.J. Bass take the majority of carries, something he said has benefited him.

“They’re hitting [the holes] down hill,” Robinson said. “They can go sideways and break some of the arm tackles but for me it’s important to just run downhill. Being a smaller back I have to hit the holes hard and that’s just one of the things they do, and that’s one of the things I’m learning to do.”

Mrs. Robinson missed more than just her son’s first college touchdown against the Tigers. In 21 carries, Robinson ran for 149 yards and one touchdown. His 37-yard touchdown run was the longest by any ISU back this season.

“He’s run the ball some, but our plan Saturday was to give him some more opportunities to run it – just see what he could do,” coach Gene Chizik said during his weekly Monday press conference. “I was real happy. I thought he ran for some tough yards.”

While the plan was to get Robinson in, he wasn’t the one taking the opening snaps. Scales took the first five while Bass took over for the next seven. Then it was Robinson’s turn.

“I thought he got into that groove after just a few carries Saturday,” Chizik said. “His body language said it. I thought that he didn’t have the same unnerve look that maybe he had earlier in the year.”

Now, the bar has been set higher for Robinson.

“He played a good game and I kind of would like it out of him for the rest of the year,” said sophomore left tackle Doug Dedrick. “I’m pretty sure he’ll give it to us.”

Whenever that time comes, Robinson said he’ll make sure to hold onto the football and have a ticket saved for his mom.

“Every game I’m going to go ahead and sign her up for the rest of the games,” Robinson said.