Texas Football: Game-by-game predictions for the Longhorns in 2018
The upstart story of the 2017 season in the Big 12 was the Iowa State Cyclones. The former Toledo Rockets head coach Matt Campbell took Iowa State to new height last year that the program hadn’t ever seen since joining the Big 12. Iowa State took down both Oklahoma and TCU in 2017.
At this point in the regular season, at Week 11, Iowa State isn’t competing for a Big 12 Championship, but the program is looking for its second consecutive eight win campaign. Iowa State already upset TCU for the second straight year too, and is looking for more against another ranked Big 12 opponent. That’s exactly what Texas fans will get here is a dog fight.
Iowa State has some trouble early getting the offense going behind sixth year senior quarterback Kyle Kempt and star running back David Montgomery. Like the season previous, Iowa State’s offense sputters out in the first half. Texas does a nice job at keeping all aspects of the Iowa State attack in check in the first two quarters.
However, the score starts to getting tighter at the outset of the third quarter. Montgomery catches one touchdown pass and rushes for another score within the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Since the Texas offense was also held in check in the first half, with two Ehlinger picks and only one offensive touchdown, the Clones are right with the Horns to end the third quarter.
DKR starts to get a nervous energy at the start of the fourth quarter, with Iowa State up 17-14 and driving. Kempt is looking for his second passing touchdown, and he finds junior wide receiver Deshaunte Jones to extend the lead to double digits. Texas gets one more touchdown before game’s end, but it’s too late and Iowa State pulls off another massive upset to dash the CFB Playoff hopes in Austin.