We’re on the the eve of the big game with the Chokeyes of Iowa City, and for the first time since the early days of the Reagan administration I honestly think the Cyclones have a chance to win.

I wish I had enough confidence to proclaim that if Iowa State doesn’t beat Iowa, I will show up on campus Monday butt naked, unfortunately this would scare away to many students and might land me on the bad side of the DPS — not to mention the Ames police.

Besides, I’ve had this confident feeling going into the Iowa game before. But like oh so many New Year’s Eve parties, where I swore this was going to be the year I cut my losses early and actually have some fun, that early feeling of confidence was replaced by the feeling of nausea as things turned ugly.

This year it will be different. This year the Cyclone players will look the Hawkeyes straight in the eye, instead of looking at them with their backside jerseys hugging the turf.

Why I am so confident going into this year’s game?

For one reason: turnovers.

Not many people realize this, but in the first two games of the season the Cyclone team has turned the ball over only one time. This is monumental considering that under Walden the Cyclones were prone to turn the ball over once every other possession.

The only statistic that truly matters is the one that appears in the won-lost column, but no one thing dictates what goes under the W’s and L’s more so than turnovers.

I do not have the exact figures in front of me, but a researcher (probably with a lot of spare time and no life) studied statistics from every college football game over an entire season. What he or she found was that the team that turned the ball over the fewest times in a game won 75 percent of the time.

There are other reasons I am confident.

Forget what happened in Fort Worth last week, the Cyclones are more fundamentally sound than they have been in decades. Two games is too early to judge a new football coach’s progress, but the Cyclones are already showing improved execution on both sides of the ball.

Not many people in this black and gold state of ours (sickening isn’t it) realize this, but the Horned Frog squad the Cyclones faced last week is a much better squad than the Hawks.

Iowa returns a truckload of offensive talent, but are beatable in many aspects of the game. The Cyclones are capable of scoring on anyone and the offensive line is doing a tremendous job for the lack of experience they possess. The only question is if the ‘Clone offense can be multi-dimensional and not be just the Troy Davis show?

Everyone talks about all the starters the Hawks return on offense, but they neglect to mention that this is an offense that has not had a lot of success in the past. It will be interesting to see how the relatively young Cyclone defensive front seven does against the huge Hawk offensive line. That could be the key to the game for the Cyclones (sorry for that cheesy television sportscaster spiel).

I hope to see you at the game and would encourage everyone to wear your cardinal and gold to make all those fair-weather, so-called Hawkeye fans feel uncomfortable in our backyard.

Bill Kopatich is a sophomore in journalism from Des Moines.