The Oklahoma Sooners come to town on Saturday, and everyone is talking about the big matchup.

Don’t get caught up in the hype.

Iowa State versus Oklahoma is just that, not Troy Davis versus Oklahoma. Football, more than any other sport, is a team sport. It takes 22 players to win a football game, not just the players that play the so-called “skill positions.”

Coach McCarney, Davis and the rest of the team have deflected Heisman talk ever since the first game of the season. This is for a good reason. They are afraid all the Heisman hype might cause Davis to just focus on personal aspirations and sacrifice team goals.

Not a chance.

This team is too focused to let that happen. Besides, with Graston Norris ripping out a 91-yard touchdown scamper, Davis cannot afford to take anything for granted.

Heisman Trophies are won as a team anyway. Don’t believe me? Just scan a list of former Heisman Trophy winners. What explains Gino Toretta, Tim Brown, Vinnie Testeverde, not to mention countless others.

What do all these winners have in common? They all played for powerhouses that played on national television just about every week.

The last Heisman winner who played on a truly horrible team was Paul Hornung in 1956. But look who Hornung played for. None other than Notre Dame. True, Notre Dame only won one game in 1956, but still, just playing for the Fighting Irish in an off season gives you publicity that players on other teams can only dream of.

In my opinion, the Cyclones must win at least five games this season for Davis to have even a decent shot at winning the bronzed statue. Even that might not be enough. Iowa State has not appeared on national or regional television yet (the Iowa game was only shown in the state of Iowa).

On the other hand, if Davis continues his current pace and the Cyclones win four or five games this season, Heisman voters could use the Cyclone win turnaround from last season as proof of Davis’ worthiness. Hey, it worked for Grant Hill and Jason Kidd in NBA Rookie-of-the-Year voting last season.

While most people will be watching how well Troy Davis does against Oklahoma, who leads the nation in rush defense, the real determiner of the game will be about how well Iowa State’s defensive front seven do in their first test against a Big Eight offensive line.

The Iowa State defense did a great job of thoroughly dominating UNLV two weeks ago. I was impressed. The Cyclone defense held the Rebels to 68 total yards on offense in the first half, their only points in the first half coming on a blocked punt.

On the subject of defense, the Cyclone defensive backfield is playing outstanding ball through the first four games. The DB’s have only one pick this year, coming from Mike Lincavage, but that number is deceiving. No team has lit up the Cyclone backfield yet, and the DB’s have been in on a number of good tackles this season.

One member of the backfield who deserves mention is strong safety Matt Straight. The senior from Logan has probably been the most consistent player on defense for the Cyclones this year.

It is rare to find Straight out of position on any play and is currently the second-leading tackler for the ‘Clones this season. Having a DB being one of the leading tacklers does not usually look good for a defense, but many of Straight’s tackles have been pretty close to the line of scrimmage.

Bill Kopatich is a sophomore in journalism from Des Moines.