FEAR THE CYCLONES
Backup QB Kempt’s three TD passes fuel shocking victory against Sooners
NORMAN, Okla. — This Iowa State team is different.
Kyle Kempt passed for 343 yards and three touchdowns, including a 25- yarder to Allen Lazard that put the Cyclones ahead with 2: 19 left, and Joel Lanning made plays on offense and defense to lead Iowa State to a stunning 38- 31 upset of No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday.
The loss snapped the Sooners’ nation- leading 14- game winning streak and their 18- game run of dominance against the Cyclones that dated to 1990. It was only Iowa State’s second victory against Oklahoma since 1961, and the Cyclones ( 3- 2, 1- 1 Big 12) did it without their starting quarterback.
‘‘ There’s been a lot of adversity at Iowa State for a long time, and there’s been a cloud around us,’’ Cyclones coach Matt Campbell said. ‘‘ I think our kids said, ‘ I’m sick of it, and we’re going to keep grinding, keep swinging and getting better one day at a time.’ So at the end of it, here we are.’’
Kempt, who had thrown only two passes in his college career before Saturday, played because starter Jacob Park went on leave for undisclosed medical reasons last week. He guided Iowa State to its first victory against a Top 25 team since it beat TCU in 2012 and to the first road victory against a topfive team in school history.
Lanning, who switched from quarterback to linebacker in the offseason, played both positions against Oklahoma. He ran for 35 yards, passed for 25 and had eight tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. He played 78 snaps.
‘‘ It was fun,’’ Lanning said. ‘‘ Coming into an atmosphere like this, you can’t ask for anything better, especially playing both ways. I can’t say enough about my teammates and what they did to help me out. It was a lot of stuff going on for me. I didn’t have my best game defensively, but we got the win.’’
Iowa State got it going after a rough start and finished with 449 yards.
‘‘ We should have been better than that today,’’ Sooners defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said. ‘‘ Some of the old scars kind of repeated themselves today. Our execution as a whole was not good enough. That falls on us as coaches. We haven’t played well the last couple of weeks. We are just not making enough plays.’’
It was the first loss for Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, who is in his first season at the school. Baker Mayfield passed for 306 yards and rushed for 57 for the Sooners ( 4- 1, 1- 1), but his Heisman hopes took a major hit with the loss.
‘‘ I think it’s a sense of complacency,’’ Mayfield said. ‘‘ We’ve been talking about it; it’s not like it’s not been apparent. We’ve let teams come back in games and give them hope. When you do that to a team that has their backs against the wall . . . it’s something that you can’t do.’’