The 2016 Iowa State football season was a roller-coaster ride.

It started about as bad as possible. In coach Matt Campbell’s first game as Iowa State’s head coach, the Cyclones fell to in-state foe Northern Iowa, 25-20. Four turnovers killed Iowa State’s offense and allowed the Panthers to take home the victory.

Things got worse before they got better. In Iowa State’s next game, the Cyclones traveled to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City for the Cy-Hawk rivalry game with Iowa. The Hawkeyes dominated from start to finish, winning 42-3. It was one of Iowa State’s worst games in years.

A week later, Big 12 opponent TCU defeated Iowa State by three touchdowns. With a 0-3 record, the 2016 football season was shaping up to be miserable for Iowa State.

Finally, in week four, Iowa State got in the win column. The Cyclones tore San Jose State apart in a 44-10 win. Quarterbacks Jacob Park and Joel Lanning threw for a combined five touchdowns and 301 yards in the win, and freshman receiver Deshaunte Jones burst onto the scene with three catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

Over the next five weeks, Iowa State went 0-5 to fall to 1-8 on the season. Only one of those five games was decided by more than 10 points, a sign of strong progress after the crushing defeats in September.

With three games left and a bowl game out of the picture, Iowa State was playing for pride at the end of the season.

The Cyclones traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to take on the Kansas Jayhawks in mid-November. Trailing by eight points late in the third quarter, Iowa State started a comeback. Senior running back Mitchell Harger scored his first career touchdown to bring the score within two points entering the fourth quarter.

Iowa State beat up the Jayhawks in the fourth quarter, scoring a touchdown and adding a field goal in the final minutes to finish the game and give Iowa State its second win of the season.

The best game Iowa State has played in a long time was the game against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders came into Jack Trice Stadium needing two wins in their final two games to make a bowl game. Instead, they ran into a brick wall.

Iowa State took a 14-3 lead after one quarter, but with Texas Tech’s high-powered offense, no Iowa State fans, coaches or players felt safe with such a small lead.

Still within striking distance, Texas Tech needed a big second quarter to get the game back under control.

Instead, Iowa State finished the Red Raiders off before halftime. By the time the second quarter came to a close, Iowa State had scored four more touchdowns and kicked a field goal to take a gigantic 45-3 lead into the halftime break.

The Cyclones finished strong, winning the game 66-10 and setting several school records in the process.

Although Iowa State fell to West Virginia in the season finale to finish 3-9, the improvement from the beginning of the season to the end showed exactly why Iowa State fans are optimistic about the Matt Campbell era.