AMES – Redshirt junior quarterback Rocco Becht and his near-perfect first half propelled the No. 22 Cyclones to a high-scoring 55-7 win in their home opener over South Dakota.
To start the game, Becht completed his first 14 passes, going for 223 yards and two touchdowns. His first incompletion came with less than four minutes left in the first half, and he finished the half going 17 for 18 with 247 yards.
There was some déjà vu on the opening play of the game, as Becht completed a 66-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Brett Eskildsen. In the home-opener in 2024, Becht completed a 54-yard pass to now Houston Texan Jaylin Noel.
“I think just being back home with these fans, this atmosphere again, and then having everything the same, just being back here in Iowa was something that I felt like made me more calm and more poised,” Becht said. “Ireland was pretty electric, so coming back here was a little different.”
Junior tight end Benjamin Brahmer capped off the first drive with a 4-yard touchdown reception to get the scoring started.
The Coyotes came out fast as well, though, as former Cyclone and redshirt senior quarterback Aidan Bouman drove South Dakota down the field in the opening drive. Bouman and the Coyotes took 7:26 en route to a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive.
“We’ve got so much respect for Aidan [Bouman],” Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said. “I thought he did a really great job early in the football game distributing the football.”
After the Cyclones scored again on their second drive, it looked like South Dakota had another response queued up, until junior safety Jamison Patton turned a tipped pass into an interception in the red zone.
“I think they were in the scoring zone and for [Patton] that was really big,” Campbell said. “I think it kind of gave us a little bit of confidence.”
The interception killed the momentum completely for the Coyotes, who had 128 yards after their first two drives. The rest of the game, they only had 81. Bouman finished the game with 126 passing yards, 83 of which came during the first two drives.
Becht didn’t skip a beat at any point, as the third drive resulted in a third Cyclone touchdown and the second of the day for Brahmer.
“It’s really fun just to be versatile,” Brahmer said. “It’s just awesome being out there with four tight ends and the brotherhood we have in the tight end room. It’s just awesome to go out there and go to war with all those guys.”
The day got cut short in the second half for Becht, who only played one drive in the third quarter because his touchdown pass to redshirt junior Gabe Burkle put the Cyclones up 34-7 with 9:39 left in the third.
With a final stat line of 19 for 20, 278 yards and three touchdowns, Becht had a statistically historic game. His 95% completion percentage set a new school record, as it beat the 91.7% mark that Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace set in 2001.
“Obviously, you know, you want to be perfect, but you’re never gonna have a game that you are perfect in,” Becht said. “So I think that’s what I’m kind of going back on. There’s never gonna be a game where I’m perfect, and there’s always gonna be areas where I need to get better for this team.”
Building the big lead allowed for some backups to get a significant amount of time as well. Redshirt freshman running back Dylan Lee and freshman quarterback Alex Manske were the two leading rushers for the Cyclones. Lee had 81 yards and a touchdown, and Manske ran one in as well.
“Sometimes [Manske] needs to learn how to not play so physical,” Campbell said. “He was a great safety. So, you know, a two-way player at Algona. One of my favorite reps of him is as a junior, man, he comes down and fills the alley at safety, it’s just as impressive as anybody.”
