If rankings could speak, they would say Saturday’s 23-3 over No. 8 Iowa was ISU coach Dan McCarney’s biggest win. Entering the game, McCarney had never won a game against a team ranked in the top 10, going winless in his first 16 tries.

“I didn’t even think of it,” McCarney said. “It’s a long time coming, I guess.”

It was also the first Cyclone victory over a team ranked in the top 10 since a 19-10 win over then-No. 7 Nebraska in November 1992. This was the first time McCarney had faced an Iowa team ranked this high.

As a result, Iowa State cracked the AP poll on Sunday, coming in at No. 24, which is the first national ranking for the Cyclones since November 2002. Iowa dropped all the way to No. 22.

“He’s been through a lot here,” said ISU quarterback Bret Meyer. “He’s brought us to the top and I’m happy for him.”

Twelve of those 16 losses have been to Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas State. Also in that list is the Cyclone loss to No. 3 Florida State in 2002.

Iowa State’s most recent contest against a top team was a 2003 battle against then-No. 1 Oklahoma. Although the rank of a team looks impressive, ISU receiver Austin Flynn said the number doesn’t matter.

“You don’t look at the rankings,” Flynn said. “We’re going to come and play as hard as we can whether we’re playing a top-10, top-20 or top-80 team.”

The fact that the game was against Iowa was a bonus.

“It’s a big win,” Iowa State’s Nik Moser said. “If they were ranked in the top 10 or if they weren’t ranked at all, it’s a huge win to come up with one over Iowa.”

Moser said low expectations were used to fuel the Cyclone fire.

“No one except us and some of our fans expected us to win this game,” Moser said. “Everyone on the outside kept saying, No. 8 Iowa, No. 8 Iowa. What are you going to do to stop [Ed] Hinkle? What are you going to do to stop [Clinton] Solomon? We took that and ran with it. We wanted to prove a point, and I think we did.”

Even though this was arguably McCarney’s biggest win, he deflected the praise in the locker room after the game.

“He just told us how proud of us he was,” Meyer said.

– The Associated Press contributed to this article