No. 18 Iowa State looks to improve to 4-0 for first time since 2000 in visit to struggling Houston

HOUSTON — No. 18 Iowa State begins Big 12 play on Saturday riding high after opening the season with three straight wins.

The Cyclones (3-0) were picked to finish sixth in the conference, but they have an opportunity to do much more.

Iowa State coach Matt Campbell knows winning is not easy, and even though Houston (1-3, 0-1 Big 12) has struggled the Cyclones’ conference opener will be a good test.

“The mentality to sustain success, it’s hard in our business,” Campbell said. “That’s why it’s hard to win. Will we, can we continue to have a winning mentality? I don’t know. You hope that you continue to pound away at the fabrics of what we build ourselves on and that’s really great habits every day and great focus and coming in and trying to get better, but to say you can do that or how easy is it, it’s exhaustingly hard."

Iowa State will try to start 4-0 for the first time since 2000 and win its fifth straight Big 12 road game in the process.

The Cyclones have been playing well on both sides of the ball, with its defense ranked ninth nationally by allowing just 9.7 points per game. Quarterback Rocco Becht has thrown at least two touchdown passes in seven straight games dating to last season.

Campbell pointed out that of the seven Big 12 conference games played last week, only one road team got a win with Utah beating Oklahoma State 22-19 in Stillwater.

Campbell is hopeful the Cyclones have the leadership and experience to continue their road success.

“It’s hard to win football games anywhere,” Campbell said. “It’s hard to win in this conference. It’s hard to win on the road. It’s all great lessons that you’re trying to teach. The one benefit that our kids do have is that we have some veterans who have been through hard. They’ve been through success and failure, and hopefully, have enough wisdom to learn from it and grow from it and share that wisdom with their teammates along the way.”

Don't be fooled

The Cyclones rushed for 237 yards and five touchdowns last week against Arkansas State led by Carson Hansen, who had 58 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Despite the gawdy rushing stats, Campbell said “numbers are foolish.”

“Winning is what you define as success,” Campbell said. “The reality of it is I still would have said we ran the ball probably as good as we have early this season after the first two games. ... I think running in some hard moments (has) shown that we have been able to have success.”

Houston QBs

Houston coach Willie Fritz said he was sticking with Donovan Smith at starting quarterback, but backup Zeon Chriss would get playing time as well this week after a 34-0 loss to Cincinnati last week to start Big 12 play.

Smith has thrown for 610 yards and two touchdowns with a 65% completion rate this season, but he has also thrown four interceptions. Chriss is 2 of 5 for 19 yards in limited action.

“They both have done some good things,” Fritz said. “We’re going to play both those guys and give them both opportunities to show us what they can do.”

Understanding a rebuild

Campbell understands what Fritz is going through as he tries to rebuild the Houston program. Campbell went 3-9 in his first season at Iowa State, but has followed that with six winning seasons in the last seven. One more win, and Campbell will become the winningest coach in Iowa State history.

“You see a team that, we’ve been there,” Campbell said. “You’re a team that’s building. I’m sure there’s been growth... that they’ve seen. They’ve got a football coach that has turned around two football programs and built two great programs.”