After a much-needed CyHawk win, Iowa State football will be back on its home turf Saturday afternoon for game three of the 2022-2023 season. The Cyclones will be looking to continue their winning streak against the Ohio Bobcats. 

Ohio will be coming off of a difficult loss against Penn State where they came out with a 46-10 score. Its first game of the season against Florida Atlantic was only won by three points so Ohio too will be looking for a win. 

Wide receiver Xavier Hutchison has made a large impact on the Cyclone offense so far this season. Iowa State offensive coordinator Tom Manning said Hutchison performs like a professional and that he is both an elite football player and human. 

“He has all the habits that will allow him to hopefully continue to play really good football the rest of the way because of the way he approaches everything he does,” Manning said. 

The game against Ohio will be the last non-conference game before Big 12 play begins. In the game against Iowa, defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said he was proud of the mental toughness that his defense brought. 

Nonetheless, Heacock said he feels his young defensive crew can continue to improve. 

“We were not fundamentally correct on some stuff that we did,” Heacock said when reflecting on the performance of his defense during the CyHawk game. 

In the 10-7 win against Iowa, the Cyclone defense saw some struggles as quarterback Hunter Dekkers threw two interceptions along with a sack. However, there was also greatness that stood out on the defensive side against Iowa. An interception by linebacker Colby Reeder helped keep the Cyclones in the game. 

“You just gotta secure it and take it to the house,” Reeder said. 

However, Reeder hopes that the next time an interception occurs, he can bring it all the way to the endzone. 

Ohio finished the 2021 season with a 3-9 record. However, five of those losses were decided by ten points or less. The Bobcats have not thrown an interception yet this season; something that is different from the Iowa State team. 

However, Ohio struggles to complete passes. In their game against Penn State, quarterback Kurtis Rourke completed about 50% of his passes. As for Dekkers against Iowa, he completed about 65% of his passes. 

Cyclone running back Jirehl Brock has already succeeded over 200 rushing yards in just two games. Ohio’s Sieh Bangura isn’t far behind with just about 50 yards to reach Brock. 

With all the twists and turns college football has brought so far, there are reasons why the games are still played. 

As head coach Matt Campbell has said many times before, “Anybody can beat anybody, any given Saturday.” 

Kickoff is set to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium. The game can be viewed on Big 12 now on ESPN+.