Two freshmen who had little playing time for the Iowa State football team received plenty on Saturday against Oklahoma State, and made the best of it.

Backup quarterback Todd Bandhauer, starting for the injured Todd Doxzon, led the Cyclone offense with three touchdown passes, and inside linebacker Kipwana “Kip” King played inspired defense with seven tackles and an interception.

Bandhauer, who played for a large part of the Colorado game last week, threw 18 passes and completed 11 of them for 137 yards. Two touchdown passes were to sophomore wide receiver Ed Williams and another went to tight end Dennis DiBiase.

Bandhauer said he never imagined he would throw three touchdown passes against a Big Eight team.

“Not in my wildest dreams, I didn’t,” Bandhauer said. “I just wanted to win the game and that’s what we did. That’s the most important thing is winning the game. I wouldn’t have cared if I had thrown eight touchdown passes, if we would’ve lost I wouldn’t have liked that one bit.”

The true freshman said confidence in himself was a big factor in his play. That confidence came from the snaps he took against Colorado and in practice this week.

“Those really helped when we were preparing for the game this week,” Bandhauer said.

ISU running back Troy Davis, who rushed for 202 yards in the game, said Bandhauer led the Cyclone offense well.

“Bandhauer came in and he did a wonderful job out there on completing passes, handing off the ball and just telling everybody in the huddle just to calm down and take it down the field — that’s a really good quarterback,” Davis said.

Head Coach Dan McCarney sent King in the game during the second quarter, replacing starting linebacker Tim Sanders, and never took him out. The most King had played this year was special teams and the second half of the UNLV game.

The redshirt freshman picked off Cowboy quarterback Tone Jones’ pass in the second quarter and ran it 18 yards. The interception led to a Cyclone touchdown.

“This week in practice the coaches had told us to play the man first and then play the ball,” King said. “I played the man and the ball was in there, so I just had to go get it.”

“I got my chance today,” he said. “I stuck to my fundamentals and my belief in God and belief in the team.”

During this week’s practice McCarney told King he would see playing time against the Cowboys.

“At first my fundamentals weren’t together,” King said. “Everyday before practice Coach [McCarney] asks us to work on our fundamentals, so I just kept working on the fundamentals and got a chance to play.”

“Right now it just seems unreal. I never expected last year that I’d be playing in the Big Eight — let alone playing and beating somebody,” Bandhauer said. “It’s just a dream come true.”

A dream also came true for Davis. The sophomore broke ISU’s season rushing record of 1,516 set by Blaise Bryant in 1989. Davis now has 1,526 yards rushing with three games left on the schedule and continues to lead the nation in rushing and all-purpose yards.

Davis said the Oklahoma State players used him as a target during the game.

“There was a lot of talking, a lot of pinching, a lot of poking people out there and everything — a little more than usual,” Davis said. “They tried to hurt me out there today I think, because everytime when I’d be on the ground, they’d always stick like a knee in my back.

“I just get up, really, and just go to the huddle, but sometimes I just stand in their face and tell them to keep on bringing it everytime.”