Assistant football coach and former Iowa State graduate Darrell Bevell has helped a team go from “worst to first” before.

Now he’s trying to do the same for the Cyclones.

Bevell, who is helping coach the ISU wide receivers, quarterbacked Wisconsin to a Big 10 Conference championship and a 21-16 Rose Bowl victory over UCLA in 1994.

Bevell was on the 1992 Wisconsin team which went 5-6.

They also went 5-6 the season before and 1-10 in 1990.

Wisconsin finished with a 10-1-1 record after the Rose Bowl victory in 1994.

“I’m not saying Iowa State is going to turn around and go 10-1-1, but the potential is here,” Bevell said.

“There are some spots that need to be sewed-up, but there is experience, and there are guys on this team that are hungry to get better, ” he said.

ISU Coach Dan McCarney was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin when Bevell led the team to the victory over UCLA. McCarney said Bevell was an assistant coach at Westmar College at LeMars last season.

“He wanted to come down here and help with the turn around in the program,” McCarney said. “He does have the experience of going from worst to first.”

McCarney said he sees a lot of coaching potential in Bevell, who is in his first season on McCarney’s staff.

“He’s got a great future in coaching,” McCarney said. “He’s going to be a really outstanding [NCAA] Division I football coach.”

Bevell said the offensive coordinator has come to him for advice on how to coach the quarterbacks. Bevell completed 68 percent of his passes during the 1993 season. He also broke 19 school passing marks.

“From time to time, I give Coach Norvell some pointers,” Bevell said. “A lot of things they do here are similar to the things we did at Wisconsin.”

Even though he works primarily with the wide receivers, Bevell said he is impressed with tailback Darren Davis’ catching ability.

“He’s got great hands, he can catch the ball,” Bevell said. “We’re definitely going to use him out of the backfield as a runner, but with the offense we have, we need to get him the ball in other ways. That’s what we’ll do with the passing game.”

Bevell said it is important for the Cyclones to the season off to a strong start, especially since ISU is not known for having a history of wins in football.

“Guys become closer when you win,” Bevell said.

“You can find reasons to fall apart when you’re losing, but when your winning, guys become closer together. That’s why those first couple of games are very important.”

Bevell said the Wisconsin team had to believe in itself and learn how to win before the team could become a Big 10 contender.

Bevell said he believes ISU perhaps needs to take that approach.

“The one thing we had to do at Wisconsin was we had to learn how to win,” Bevell said.

“When you have been losing so long, you have to learn how to win,” he said.

“Coach [McCarney] has been teaching these guys how to win and making them believe they can win,” Bevell said.

“Now this year, I really believe this team believes they can win, and they see the potential they have, and that will lead them on,” he said.

ISU plays its season opener this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Jack Trice Stadium.