OSU football: Ames hasn't been friendly to the Cowboys

AMES, Iowa — Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph didn't expect what he saw on his first trip — and only trip, prior to Saturday — inside Iowa State's Jack Trice Stadium.

“The crowd, and how much they were into it,” the OSU quarterback said. “Their fans are great.”

And that environment was for a three-win Iowa State team hosting a 9-0 Cowboy squad. Imagine what Saturday will be like for a Cyclone fanbase that, for the most part, is as surprised as you are that its team is 6-3 and ranked No. 21.

No. 15 OSU will kick off against the Cyclones at 11 a.m. Saturday, needing a win to stay alive for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.

But trips to Ames haven't always been kind to the Cowboys.

OSU fans don't need to be reminded of the 2011 game, the only loss in an otherwise perfect season, derailing a potential run to the BCS title game.

OSU is 3-2 in Ames under coach Mike Gundy, losing a lopsided game in his first season to a Dan McCarney-coached team during his run of success with the Cyclones.

Gundy's teams had easy wins in 2009 and 2013. Then came that 2015 Rudolph was talking about.

Iowa State jumped to a 24-7 lead in the second quarter, and still led 31-21 a few minutes into the fourth. But OSU closed the game with two touchdowns and a fourth-quarter shutout from the defense, scoring the game-winning TD with 3:06 left in a 35-31 victory.

“I had pneumonia that day,” OSU linebacker Chad Whitener said. “I don't know what it is about that place. It's just a different environment. You don't think it would get that loud, but it gets rocking up there. All their fans are really passionate about what they're cheering for.”

While Saturday's weather report has become more favorable as the week went on — starting off with a good chance for snow and turning to low 40s with no precipitation expected — it's almost always a frigid feeling. And in a season like this, where it was 70 degrees on the first Saturday of November, a cold-weather game can present difficulties.

Trice Stadium has a natural surface, which is somewhat rare in the Big 12, and the Kentucky bluegrass that grows on it isn't seen much outside northern parts of the country.

So Saturday becomes a question of focus. Can the Cowboys block out the atmosphere, the weather, the grass?

That's where OSU's strong veteran leaders offer the most value.

“Playing on the road is difficult, but we have a lot of guys on this team who have done it a lot,” OSU senior center Brad Lundblade said. “Coach Gundy always says, when we go on the road, it's our 70 against their 50,000 or 60,000 or whatever they have. So having that leadership we have is really important in those situations.”