With 12:49 left in the first quarter Saturday, Bret Meyer began his Cyclone quarterback career with a nine-yard pass to tight end James Wright.

Meyer, a redshirt freshman, completed 15-of-24 passes for 139 yards in a 23-0 victory over Northern Iowa, the season opener for both teams.

As head coach Dan McCarney said earlier in the week, both Meyer and redshirt sophomore Austin Flynn saw time at quarterback for the Cyclones.

Meyer said he didn’t have any pregame jitters.

“The older guys did a great job of helping me out,” Meyer said. “The guys who have been here just telling me to go out there and do your thing and don’t worry about the other stuff.”

Flynn was the first of the quarterbacks to find the end zone. He hit wide receiver Todd Blythe with a 23-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter during his first series.

“[It was] the first series, but to tell you the truth, it started with the defense giving us good field position,” Flynn said. “The defense started us off, and the [offensive] line protected us, and the receivers ran a good route, and all I had to do was throw it up.”

The following Cyclone offensive series saw Meyer back in action at quarterback.

“We had our rotation all set up ahead of time regardless of the score, and Austin knew that and Bret knew that so we could continue to look at them,” McCarney said. “I’m real proud of Austin. I didn’t see his nose in the air or giving anybody dirty looks because Bret went back in the next series.”

Flynn finished the game with 37-yards completing 2 of 3 passes.

Defensively, Iowa State held Northern Iowa to 99 total offensive yards. It’s the fewest yards allowed by a Cyclone defense since giving up 96 yards to Colorado State on Oct. 4, 1980.

ISU linebacker Brandon Brown was the Cyclones leading tackler with eight.

Playing in his first game back from last year’s broken leg, Tyson Smith was the Iowa State’s second-leading tackler with seven.

“My adrenaline was pumping to get to come out and help my team again,” Smith said.

Tailback Stevie Hicks had 111 yards rushing on 23 carries, including a 39-yard run late in the third quarter. Going back to last season, Hicks became the first Cyclone to rush for 100 yards in consecutive games since Michael Wagner did it in 2002.

“We go against our defense everyday in practice, and we know how strong and deep they are,” Hicks said. “We already knew they were going to come out strong; we just had to hold up to our end.”

UNI quarterback Tom Petrie passed for 63 yards, completing 8-of-19 attempts. Terrance Freeney was the Panthers’ leading rusher with 24 yards on 13 carries.

Panther head coach Mark Farley said the game wasn’t what he expected it to be.

“I thought [Iowa State was] more determined, they were more consistent,” Farley said. “This year, they were consistent, and you saw a focused football team that played four focused quarters, and there was nothing great across the board, but it was all good.

“They just wore on us. They thumped us, they beat us up and down the field offensively and defensively.”