When the Colorado Buffaloes come to town on Saturday, Dan McCarney’s Cyclones will face the most important game in their program’s history.

Of course, last Saturday’s game at Missouri was, up until now, the biggest game ever for Iowa State football.

In fact, each of the remaining five games on the 1999 schedule has the potential to live up to such billing.

How, you may be asking yourself, can a team that’s been around for over a century, be playing its six most important games all in the span of two months?

The simple answer is that bad teams don’t play important games.

Since college football began attracting the attention it does today, ISU has struggled to put together even remotely respectable numbers. The Cyclones have finished over .500 just eight times since 1960.

In fact, since college football’s elite began to cement their legitimacy in the 1980s, ISU has never won more than six games in a season.

Cyclone fans often speak longingly of the Johnny Majors era, but few realize that the man had an overall record of 24-30-1. He may have made two bowl games, but even those two teams were just a combined 13-10-1, with the second team actually finishing below .500.

Majors did build the foundation upon which Earle Bruce would string together three consecutive winning seasons, but even Bruce finished at just four games over .500 in his six seasons at the helm.

The remaining three pre-McCarney coaches, Donnie Duncan, Jim Criner and Jim Walden, pulled the Cyclones through the ’80s and early ’90s with a dismal record of 64-105-7.

So it simply makes sense that if this is the team that will break through to respectability, every game it plays will be huge.

After starting the season at 4-2, the Cyclones almost have a responsibility to win six games.

In an age of dynasties and impossible winning and losing streaks, the chance to turn a program around doesn’t show up every year. With the Hawkeyes down and recruiting up, ISU is on the threshhold of something huge.

Based on their performance in weeks past, they can play toe-to-toe with each and every one of their five remaining opponents, at home or on the road.

If they stumble down the stretch and finish the season at 4-7, the Cyclones’ window of opportunity may quickly close itself for good.

If, however, they can finish at 6-5 or better and make their first bowl game in over two decades, ISU may begin to establish itself as a legitimate program.

But it all starts this weekend against Colorado.

Just like it started last weekend against Missouri.