No. 8 Iowa State face Oklahoma for Big 12 title

ARLINGTON, Texas — Charlie Kolar grew up a diehard Oklahoma fan but his hometown Sooners never offered a scholarship. The new coach at Iowa State did, before the Cyclones were championship contenders.

Now in coach Matt Campbell’s fifth season, the No. 8 Cyclones (8-2, 8-1 Big 12, No. 6 CFP) play in the school’s first-ever conference championship game Saturday. They take on No. 12 Oklahoma (7-2, 6-2, No. 10 CFP), the five-time defending Big 12 champion they beat earlier this season.

“It starts with Campbell and it bleeds to the rest of the guys on his staff. But I believed the plan they had, and the culture that they were trying to create,” said Kolar, a fourth-year junior. “It sounded different than a lot of other places.”

Kolar is now among many standouts for the Cyclones. Sophomore tailback Breece Hall is the Big 12’s top rusher, Brock Purdy is a third-year starter and winningest quarterback in school history, defensive end JaQuan Bailey is the career sacks leader, and junior linebacker Mike Rose averages 8.1 tackles while tied for the conference lead with four interceptions.

“For me it’s always been about people,” Campbell said. “I think that’s one of the great deals we’ve been able to kind of establish here, is to try to align this program with the right people and go about that same alignment in terms of developing and recruiting the right people who fit. … That’s hard to do in our world.”

Oklahoma is in its 12th Big 12 championship game and no other team has played in more than six. The Sooners have been in all four since the title game returned after a six-season hiatus. They are 10-1 in Big 12 title games.

“The game is going to be what it should be,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. “It’s going to be two really good football teams that have had really good years going at it.”

The Sooners have a sixgame winning streak since a 37-30 loss at Iowa State on Oct. 3, when they were 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 1998.

“Really, our team has grown in the mental aspect of the game more than anything,” center Creed Humphrey said. “We’ve had a lot of young players step up and doing really good things for us. The way our team has responded to adversity since then has been really good to see.”