Bret Culbertson still had one more kick.

One second was left on the clock, and the ISU football team had just taken a 15-13 lead on a 28-yard field goal by Culbertson – his fifth of the game. Fans had already spilled over the Jack Trice Stadium walls and onto the field, forcing coaches, players and officials to herd them off and prepare for the kickoff, the game’s final play.

Culbertson, the much-maligned former walk-on, hit a squib kick that reached the Iowa 10-yard line. Returner Derrell Johnson-Koulianos picked it up then zigged and zagged up the field for 65 yards before being wrestled down at the ISU 25.

A flag was on the field, but by that point, so was most of the ISU student section. Meanwhile, the Cyclone sideline was already in a dead sprint to retrieve the Cy-Hawk trophy from the other side of the field.

Fittingly, Culbertson reached the trophy first. The senior, known more for his misses than his makes, had come through.

“You know, my best friend, my lifelong friend since preschool, he called me after the first two games, 0-3 the last two weeks. I don’t think I’ve ever missed that many kicks in a row. He said, ‘God is just setting you up,'” said Culbertson as he sniffled through tears. “He told me, ‘God is setting you up. You’re going to hit a game-winner’ . I can’t believe it, man.”

Going into the game, almost no one outside of the ISU locker room believed the game would come down to a last-second field goal. The Hawkeyes (2-1 overall) were favored by 17.5 points, a product of Iowa’s dominance and the Cyclones’ inadequacy throughout the first two games.

Iowa had allowed an NCAA-best three points through two games, while Iowa State (1-2) had lost to Div. I-AA Northern Iowa, 24-13, and Kent State, 23-14, in two mistake-filled games. But on Saturday, a crowd of 49,516 watched as all the pieces came together against the Cyclones’ chief rivals.

The Cyclones set the tone of the game early, scoring on their first four possessions on Culbertson kicks of 21, 33, 42 and 40-yards to take a 12-0 halftime lead, but couldn’t hold onto the lead in the second half. Iowa kicker Austin Signor completed a comeback with a 41-yard field goal with 3:38 left in the fourth quarter.

Starting at the 33-yard line, ISU senior quarterback Bret Meyer completed a 8-yard pass to R.J. Sumrall, handed the ball off to running back J.J. Bass for an 8-yard gain, and was stopped for a 3-yard loss on a draw before lining up for the play of the game.

Meyer underthrew a long pass to 17-year-old third-string quarterback-turned-receiver Phillip Bates, who came back and made the catch for a 38-yard gain to the 17-yard line. After two runs in the middle of the field, first-year coach Gene Chizik let the clock run down until just five seconds were left, then called a time out.

He then reminded Culbertson to take his place on the field.

“I was excited, you know, and I was standing on the sideline,” Culbertson said.

“Honestly, I think the field goal unit took the field, and I was still standing there. Chizik’s like, ‘You need to get out there.’ So I was like, ‘Probably.’

“I got out there, and they iced me, and honestly it just calmed my nerves, just praying to myself and knowing I have confidence.”

The snap, the hold, and the kick were good. All that was left was a final kickoff, which was more problematic than expected. The tackler, to most, was anonymous – reserve linebacker Michael Bibbs, a junior college transfer from Atlanta.

“I was like, ‘Is he going to take this to the house or what?'” said nose tackle Ahtyba Rubin after the game. “I don’t even know who made that tackle, but when I meet him, I’m going to give him a hug.”

Iowa had driven down to the ISU 8-yard line with just over seven minutes left to play, but had a 33-yard field goal attempt blocked by reserve defensive lineman Christopher Lyle. On the next drive, the Cyclones then ran off just 26 seconds on three incomplete passes. The Hawkeye then drove to the ISU 23-yard line before failing on a third and two.

Iowa State received the ball to start the second half, but a fumble by Meyer set up the Hawkeyes on the ISU 41-yard line. Hawkeye quarterback Jake Christensen ran in an 11-yard score seven plays later on fourth-and-one, faking a hand-off before running to the wide side of the field on a naked bootleg.

Iowa State finished with 157 yards rushing against the stout Hawkeye front. Bass took 25 carries and ground out 83 yards, while Meyer had 10 carries for 55 yards on a mixture of designed runs and scrambles.

Meyer finished the game with an efficient 21-of-29 passing for 157 yards.

“No one gave us a chance, and we were that big of an underdog by our own mistakes,” Chizik said.

“But like I told them at the hotel before we left our hotel, ‘If you believe in everybody in the room, we have a shot.'”

Chizik’s first win was also his introduction to the rivalry. He said the joy he felt came from seeing the team smile and find out that hard work pays off. He also said he has been waiting a long time to sing the fight song.

“That was my first go-round with it, but I’m going to tell you now, there is a lot of passion in this state. There is a lot of hardworking people in this state, and there are a lot of people who are going to talk about this game right now for 365 days. “

For 18 Cyclone seniors, Saturday’s win was their final chance to compete in the rivalry game.

“I was just holding on to that trophy in the locker room just huggin’ it and crying,” said senior wide receiver Todd Blythe. “Somebody said, ‘Why you crying? This is happy.’ I said, ‘I am happy.’ It just seems like you’re just sitting there holding that trophy, just thinking back to all the games you’ve been in just in this rivalry, and all the things you’ve gone through in just four years of playing, and it kind of all came out.”

Senior Josh Griebahn, who holds for Culbertson on field goals, said the game is the turning point for the rest of the season.

“Coach was telling us that usually the third game is when you see how a team is going to finish the rest of the season,” Griebahn said.

“And hey, we won by a field goal. I don’t care. We won. That was a big game. It was on TV. A lot of emotions were going around through the last two losses. The snowball effect? Yeah, I see it coming.”