LINCOLN, Neb. — Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney knew getting a win on the road against the No. 1 team in the nation would be difficult, but he had no idea his team would lose by 59 points.

“Obviously the score got away from us and I didn’t think it would be quite as bad as it was today, but it was the men and the boys,” McCarney said.

“I’ve been in college football for 25 years, and that’s as fine a team as I’ve seen, played or coached against. I’ve coached against teams that were No. 1 before, but they’re a totally dominating football team — just outstanding in every way.”

After the 73-14 win, Nebraska is now 9-0 overall, while the Cyclones dropped to 3-6 and 1-4 in the Big Eight. The most points ISU had ever allowed in a game was 72 against the Huskers in 1983.

Nebraska never punted the ball and had no turnovers in front of a home crowd of 75,505. The Cyclones punted five times and had two interceptions and a fumble.

The football gods didn’t shine on ISU in the first quarter. After Nebraska went up, 7-0, on the opening drive, Cornhusker freshman kicker Kris Brown floated the ensuing kickoff at the Cyclones’ 40-yard line. ISU’s kick return team wasn’t ready for a short kick and ran back to block for the returners at the 20-yard line. Nebraska recovered and scored 11 plays later.

“I don’t know if they intentionally did that or if it was the wind blowing in,” McCarney said. “We just misjudged it and our front five guys just took off running to go back and get into position to block somebody. We didn’t see it; we didn’t communicate. It was a short kick and they came up with the ball.”

“I’ve never been around anything like that before in my life,” said ISU wide receiver Ed Williams.

Nebraska’s offense, led by senior quarterback Tommie Frazier, accumulated 776 yards of total offense, including 635 on the ground. The Huskers had 37 first downs and converted all but one of their five fourth down attempts.

“He [Frazier] is a running back playing quarterback. He does it all,” McCarney said.

“That’s an offense that has 11 people that know what they’re doing and know how to kick somebody’s ass,” safety Matt Straight said.

The senior from Logan said he had family and friends in attendance at the game and he was embarrassed by his team’s performance.

“I doubt know if anybody gave up, but anytime you get embarrassed that bad you’re not playing with a lot of heart,” Straight said. “There wasn’t a lot of heart out there on the field today.”

Williams agreed, “They way it looked to me, the team thought we were going out playing Okie State or a team we’ve beat, but that was the No. 1 team. They average 60 points a game, so you can’t go out there half-stepping with a team like that.”

Iowa State sophomore tailback Troy Davis ran for 121 yards on 28 carries. After watching Frazier lead Nebraska’s record-breaking offense, Davis said he has a new respect for the senior.

“Frazier’s a hell of a quarterback. He knows what he’s doing out there and his line is focused,” Davis said. “He owns that offense and he can do anything he wants to out there.

“He proved today that he’s one of the top Heisman candidates. I think he’s the best quarterback out there. I would still vote for myself, but I give Frazier all the credit in the book because he’s the top pick on quarterback.”

Davis continues to lead the nation in rushing with 183 yards per game and all-purpose running with 217.56 yards a game.

He gained 53 yards on 13 carries in the first half against the Huskers’ first string defense, but McCarney said the nation’s leading rusher should be recognized for what he does in a season, not one particular game.

“He’s a long shot, at best, because of our lack of national recognition and he doesn’t have the supporting cast that many of the other candidates have,” McCarney said. “But I still think, measured on the season, he’s truly one of the really outstanding players in college football.”

McCarney said he didn’t feel Nebraska tried to run up the score to help convince voters of their ranking.

“No matter who they were putting on the field, we couldn’t stop them. They substituted early in the second half — offensive line, receivers, quarterbacks — we couldn’t stop any of them, no matter who was on the field and that’s our fault,” he said.

McCarney said his team is not going to dwell on the Nebraska loss. The Cyclones take on seventh-ranked Kansas State in Cyclone Stadium this Saturday.

“We’re not going to spend a lot of time on this game,” McCarney said. “We’ll correct it, grade it and critique it quickly and move on to Kansas State.”