#14 Iowa State came off a tough loss to Iowa with many questions as they headed west to Las Vegas on Friday to take on the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV in Allegiant Stadium. The Cyclones answer was running the Rebels right out of Allegiant Stadium on Saturday night.
Matt Campbell’s bunch came out and attacked UNLV all night, as the Cyclones followed Breece Hall’s lead on the opening drive, as Hall punched in a 1-yard touchdown to give Iowa State an early 7-0 lead. The ensuing Iowa State possession saw Brock Purdy find his rhythm with a pair of passes to Charlie Kolar, in a drive that was also capped off by 1-yard, Breece Hall touchdown that put the Cyclones up 14-0. Iowa State’s offense would sputter momentarily, as UNLV forced a Brock Purdy fumble, only to have the Rebels throw an interception to Isheem Young soon thereafter. The Cyclones answered with Brock Purdy finding Xavier Hutchinson for a 20-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 21-0. A Connor Assalley field goal before half gave Iowa State a 24-0 lead.
Iowa State would waste no time in the 2nd half, as the Cyclones marched down the field again, with a drive capped off by a 33-yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to Charlie Kolar, to put Iowa State up 31-0. UNLV would score it’s only points of the game off a Daniel Gutierrez field goal, to cut the score to 31-3. Purdy would throw his 3rd and final touchdown pass of the night to Xavier Hutchinson to put Iowa State up 38-3. An Andrew Mevis field goal, and a late Deon Silas touchdown gave the final score of 48-3.
Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell: “I’m very proud of our kids. We had a great week of practice and we showed a lot of growth. We’re still not perfect, some areas we gotta continue to pound away at. But overall, really good movement in the right direction.”
Iowa State moves to 2-1 as they open up Big 12 Conference play on Saturday as they travel to Waco, Texas to take on the Baylor Bears at 2:30 PM.
