Shreveport, La., Ennis Haywood walked out of the locker room

after Thursday’s

Independence Bowl loss with his newly shaved head held high,

sporting a pair of headphones.

Despite the 14-13 loss to Alabama, the 18 Cyclone seniors can

leave knowing they gave it their best shot.

“I’m really proud of my football team — my 18 seniors,” ISU head

coach Dan McCarney said. “Last March when spring ball started

we had so far to go to try and have a chance to have a team that

could have a winning season. We’ve come a long way on the

character of the kids and the senior leadership.”

Iowa State has come a long way traveling a long hard road. After

losing 23 seniors from last season’s Insight.com Bowl

championship team, the label “one-hit wonder” was ready to be

placed on the Cyclones.

Led by Haywood’s 1,169 yards and 14 touchdowns, the Cyclones

ran back to a bowl game, the first time Iowa State has landed in

back-to-back bowl games since 1977-78.

But a Tony Yelk field goal missed by just inches to the right,

solidified the fact the Cyclones wouldn’t win two bowl games in a

row.

“It’s hit me,” said Haywood of his career at Iowa State being over.

“But whenever I get to myself and get to really thinking about it, it’ll

probably hit me a lot harder.”

Haywood leaves knowing he left it all on the field. He rushed for

125 yards, abusing the Alabama defense. He also caught five

balls for 34 yards.

“We came out fired up,” he said. “We knew what their rushing

defense was like. We knew at the same time if we got our

assignments right and executed right we could run the ball.”

The Independence Bowl marked the sixth time this year Haywood

has topped the 100-yard mark and this is the first time the

Cyclones have lost under those circumstances.

Other ISU seniors stepped up, too. Wide receiver Craig Campbell

snagged seven Seneca Wallace passes, setting an ISU bowl

record. Keith Krepfle had six receptions in the 1971 Sun Bowl.

Campbell had 109 yards receiving.

Senior tight end Mike Banks caught three balls for 19 yards, but

had a big catch on the Cyclones final drive, setting up Yelk’s final

47-yard attempt.

“We just came up one point short,” Haywood said.

Players like Adam Runk also led the ISU defense through an

emotional turnaround as the season came to an end. Criticized for

its inability to stop the run and win big games, the Cyclones

stepped up and shut down opponents in the final three games of

the season to lead Iowa State to Shreveport.

Iowa State surrendered no more than 14 points in any of the final

three games, holding Kansas to 7 points and Iowa and Alabama

each to 14.

“A lot of this season we’ve been a `bend but don’t break’ defense,”

Runk said. “They get a few yards but then we seem to come up

with the big plays.”

Runk in particular has been making play after play this year.

Against Missouri on Oct. 13 he batted away a fourth-down pass

with just seconds remaining to secure a 20-14 win.

Against rival Iowa on Nov. 24 he intercepted Hawkeye quarterback

Kyle McCann in the waning minutes of the game to lift Iowa State

to its fourth win in a row over Iowa, 17-14.

“We feed off the defense,” said Wallace, who completed an ISU

bowl record 25 passes and was named offensive player of the

game. “They came out and played really well. They played a great

ball game.”

One bright side for McCarney and his team is that many of the

defenders will be back in a Cyclone uniform next season. Runk,

linebacker Justin Eilers, linemen Kevin DeRonde and Willie Judd

are senior starters lost.

Those remaining, like sophomore Jordan Carstens, go into next

year knowing that they had to watch their senior mentors deal with

the anguish of a loss, rather than enjoy one last win.

“I felt like we came in and worked hard,” Carstens said. “We really

wanted that win; our seniors really wanted [it]. So of course we’re

going to feel bad.”

Carstens and company will have a chance to go through the same

situation next year. With games at Kansas State, Colorado,

Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa and a game with Florida State at a

neutral site, Iowa State will have to deal with the label that the

Cyclones can’t win the big game.

When spring ball starts again in March, the road will look long and

hard again for Iowa State. Whether or not next year’s senior class

led by Wallace can overcome the tribulations remains to be seen.