It’s been first steps since Dan McCarney took over as Iowa State’s head football coach a year ago.

This Saturday at Missouri is another one of those steps.

“When I first took this job, we had to first earn the respect and the trust of the kids. Then we first had to go win a game, which we did in the Ohio University game. Then we had to first rout somebody, beat somebody big, so that you can really instill that into the kids, the confidence that you can go out and carry out a plan, which we did against UNLV. Then we first had to win a Big Eight game, which we were able to do against Oklahoma State. Then first you’ve got to go on the road and win a game — another first which is possible this weekend,” McCarney said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

The Cyclones haven’t won a road game since Nov. 2, 1991 when ISU defeated Missouri, 23-22. Since then, the Cyclones have had an 0-18-1 record on the road.

For their last game of the season the Cyclones take on a Missouri team that stands at 2-8 and hasn’t won a Big Eight game this season. The Tigers are last in the conference in total offense, averaging only 283 yards per game, and are also last in rushing offense with only 173 yards on the ground.

Missouri’s lack of offense compares to ISU’s lack of defense. The Cyclones are last in the Big Eight and 107th in the nation in rushing defense and last in the conference in total defense, giving up 455 yards per game.

“It’s going to be a dogfight, no question about it,” McCarney said. “Yet with only our fourth win of the season as a possibility, we’ve still got a lot of things to achieve this weekend. It’s a very important game for this program.”

“That’s one of the best things I’ve heard in the last two weeks is for the first time in a long time people hate to see the season come to an end. That’s a positive.”

Another positive this weekend will happen for ISU if Troy Davis reaches 2,000 rushing yards for the season. The nation’s leading rusher is 170 yards away from being the first sophomore in Division I history to reach that milestone.

“That was my dream in high school and I did it in high school,” Davis said. “I felt that I needed to get 2,000 yards at the next level and that’s what I’m doing this year — taking it to the next level.”

Davis, who stands at 5-feet 8-inches, said he would compare his style of running to Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys. They are shorter than most backs and can move quickly to find the hole.

“There’s been about five or six games this year where he just laughed because he said some of the defensive players kept yelling, ‘I can’t see him. I can’t find him. I can’t see him,'” McCarney said. “He’s not real tall, and he gets behind a pretty good-sized offensive line. Then before they can get their hands on him, he’s made a move and accelerated through the line.”

Davis remembered the incident well.

“I think it was a draw play I ran, and nobody could see me. The defensive players came back to the huddle while I was walking toward the offensive side and they were saying, ‘I can’t see that little man. I can’t see him,'” Davis said with a laugh.

“I think my height does help me because I just hide behind all of my lineman and keep on running the ball,” Davis said. “People can’t see me back there when I get the handoff.”

Davis and McCarney were preparing for an interview Tuesday afternoon with ABC Sports. The network was shooting a segment for a Heisman Trophy piece featuring Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier and head coach Tom Osborne, Ohio State’s Eddie George and head coach John Cooper and Davis and McCarney.

With all the talk of Heisman and broken rushing records, Davis said the thought of leaving college early to enter the NFL really hasn’t crossed his mind much.

“I’d rather wait because I think I have something to prove next year and the year after that. I think Iowa State’s got something to prove too,” Davis said.

“As an individual, I’d like to be the all-time rushing leader during my career. I’d like to take this team to a bowl game too, so I’ve got more things to prove around here.”

“Troy and I have talked briefly about it. It’s something we’ll address and we’ll talk about all the time,” McCarney said.

“I think the stronger relationship that we have, that I have with him, the more trust he has in us, the more trust that he has in the future, the belief that he has in the future of this program, the things that we lay out as goals for him individually and us collectively in the next two years — the better our chances are to keep him here for two more years.”

Davis said professional agents haven’t been beating down his door, but if they do, he knows where to send them.

“I had one call my house, and I gave him Coach McCarney’s number — I haven’t heard from him since,” he said.