Iowa State had no problem with the strong running game of Troy State this past weekend, but the real test comes Saturday, when the Cyclones meet the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The Cyclones will come into the game ranked higher than Nebraska in the AP poll. The Cyclones moved up to No. 19 following their win against Troy State, while Nebraska dropped two spots to No. 20 after a bye week.

The bye week gave the Huskers a chance to look back at what went wrong in their 40-7 loss to Penn State.

Nebraska coach Frank Solich was glad to have a week off to recover from the loss and prepare for this weekend.

“It gave us a chance to get a little healed up, which was good, and we got some good work in,” Solich said.

A lot of people think Nebraska may not be as good as the team that played for the national championship last season, but ISU head coach Dan McCarney knows better.

“They’re a very, very physical football team, well coached, as they always are under Frank Solich,” McCarney said. “They will knock you silly coming off the football. It’s gonna be a huge challenge.”

While the game has been chosen as the regional game for ABC, with a lot of people predicting an ISU victory, McCarney has already told his players and his fans not to get caught up by hype.

“It’s shocking to even hear that when we’ve not even made a game of it with Nebraska since I’ve been here. Frankly it has not been a game in that time,” McCarney said. “It’s embarrassing. We’ve got seven losses by approximately a 40-point average.”

Nebraska defensive end Chris Kelsay knows what the Husker defense has to do this weekend, not that it’s a secret to anyone else.

“We have to stop [Seneca] Wallace,” Kelsay said. “We played real well against him last year. We just gotta keep him contained.”

McCarney does think that this year’s team gives him his best chance to beat the Huskers since he came to Iowa State.

“We’re hoping that this year instead of the men and the boys, which it’s been the last seven years, it’ll be the men and the men when we line up and play them,” McCarney said. “We’ll find out Saturday.”

Saturday’s game is sold out, and McCarney is looking for the home crowd to play a big part in getting his team fired up.

“We hope that it can have a real impact. We’re hoping to get the best atmosphere that we’ve ever had,” McCarney said. “We need that. We need everybody up and behind this team.”