The Cyclones’ opening game in 2014 started out just about as good as it could have.

A 40-plus yard touchdown pass followed by a three-yard touchdown run gave Iowa State an early 14-0 lead over North Dakota State — the top team in the FCS.

Take away wide receiver Quenton Bundrage’s season ending knee injury, and the first quarter of the game was pretty darn good.

But then, it happened. Adversity hit. And the Cyclones began to fold.

Suddenly, the game took a 180-degree turn. Iowa State crossed midfield only one time the rest of the first half in that game, and couldn’t get the offense moving. North Dakota State capitalized, and the rest was history.

“Well we haven’t dealt with [adversity] good enough,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads. “It’s been a contributor to some of our losses in the past for sure. I don’t need to go anywhere past the opener last year.”

The Cyclones went on to lose that game, not to mention nine others that year. A big reason for the team’s struggles, both players and coaches say, came from their inability to handle adversity well.

“I could say we didn’t handle [adversity] as well as we should have [last season],” said wide receiver D’Vario Montgomery. “Like I said, it could have been better.”

This time around, though, offensive coordinator Mark Mangino said he is taking a different approach. And he can already see a difference.

“I’ve told the kids over and over, it’s not about when adversity is going to come and how were going to handle it,” Mangino said. “We know it’s coming. You can win every game of the season — your team is going to have adversity. We’ve prepared for it since January .… I’m hopeful we’ll do better this time.”

Mangino said that the team has been running drills daily that puts the offense in difficult positions in hopes of getting more skilled at fighting through tough situations.

And by this point, Mangino said he hopes it has sunk in.

“I think it’s become second nature to them to be in a bad spot and to try to find a way out of it,” Mangino said. “Just about every day there’s some drill where they’re in a bad spot … Now we have to carry that over to the game field. That’s the challenge.”

But time is running out for practice. The Cyclones are now just days away from their season opener against Northern Iowa — another game against a top-ranked FCS team.

Whether they’ll fall back into old ways and give in to frustration or not, Rhoads said one thing is for sure. Adversity will come.

“You can talk about it all you want. You can put them in situations all you want,” Rhoads said. “But come Saturday night, we’ll see if were ready to spot adversity, because she’ll come. And not just once or twice, she’ll come throughout the game.”

But Montgomery isn’t worried. After so much focus has been placed on overcoming tough situations, he said that the team is finally starting to get it.

“It’s something that we all come together and realize that it’s going to be there and we just have to push through it,” Montgomery said. “It’s just something we have to figure out how to get over, and it’s something we’ve worked on a lot this off season.

“I feel like we’re really starting to perfect it.”