The ISU football team closed out one of the most successful seasons in school history with a 38-17 victory over Kansas.

The Cyclones ended the regular season with an 8-3 record, including a 5-3 record in the Big 12 North. It marks the best finish for a Cyclone team since the 1978 squad finished 8-4.

“I’m really proud of my football team, especially the seniors,” said ISU head football coach Dan McCarney. “It’s been a long, long road, and we’ve almost had to move a mountain here, but its been one grain, one pebble at a time.

“Eight wins is a major milestone in any conference. No matter what program, conference, or part of the nation you’re in.”

The game, played on Nov. 18, was the last contest in Jack Trice Stadium for 23 Cyclone seniors, which gave the Cyclones extra motivation.

“In the locker room, it was like we had to do this for the seniors,” said ISU freshman tailback Michael Wagner. “This whole week was about the seniors, let them go out with a big bang.”

With the regular season completed, the Cyclones can concentrate on their first bowl appearance in 22 years. Bowl scouts from the Independence, Alamo and Insight.com bowls were in attendance to watch the Cyclones bury the Jayhawks.

The Cyclones won’t know their postseason destination until after Saturday’s Big 12 championship game to be played between Oklahoma and Kansas State in Kansas City.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun getting ready,” McCarney said. “I’ve been to 10 bowl games as an assistant and coordinator. I’ve never taken a team as a head coach, and this is what I’ve been working towards since I got here.”

The Cyclones rushing attack put together a tremendous performance, as two backs totaled over 100 yards. Ennis Haywood, the Big 12 conference’s leading rusher, racked up 190 yards on 29 carries, while Wagner finished with 102 yards on just eight carries.

“The offensive line had big holes for me, and I just took them,” Haywood said. “Put it like this, I could choose which holes I wanted. There were a couple of seniors on the line, and they played like seniors today.”

The Cyclones went to more of a two-back set in the week prior against Colorado and McCarney credited his offensive coordinator Steve Loney with the team’s rushing success.

“You saw some of that last week against Colorado, and coach Loney has done a good job utilizing those guys,” McCarney said. “We were getting some misdirection mixed in there with some of our normal stuff. We’re hard to stop when we can run the football.”

Wagner averaged a whopping 12.8 yards per carry. With Iowa State leading 17-10 in the third quarter, Wagner broke the game open with a 66-yard touchdown run.

Wagner originally got held up in a pile of players but broke it outside and burst down the sideline to the endzone.

“[Kansas] tried to put too many players in the box for me, and I ended up shaking one guy and a lot of guys ducked over me and there was sideline and I went for a touchdown,” Wagner said.

“Actually I thought I was going to get tackled from behind on my first spin move because there was guys in pursuit, but I guess they didn’t pursue so I got to thank them for that,” he said.

ISU quarterback Sage Rosenfels finished 13 of 26 passing for 171 yards and also added a pair of scores on the ground. Rosenfels scored on runs of 2 yards and 14 yards.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Cyclones were just as effective. The Jayhawks struggled to get anything going offensively, managing just 296 yards of total offense.

“I believe if we had played defense the entire season like we did today, we’d be an undefeated team right now,” said ISU defensive lineman James Reed. “There was no real different schemes. We were just flying around and to the ball.”