Cyclones find little to complain about

AMES - First, Ter'Ran Benton snared a long-awaited first career interception.

Then, the Iowa State senior safety sniffed the end zone.

Almost ... there.

“Four years coming, I finally got me one,” said Benton, whose pick helped stoke the Cyclones' dominant 41-7 upset win Saturday at then-top 20 Texas Tech. “I thought I had me a touchdown, but my legs couldn't make it. After seeing the film, it was horrible because the quarterback (Seth Doege) tackled me.”

The trip to Lubbock went so well, the only faults ISU could find in its play were accompanied by snickers and good-natured ribbing.

“He had a little hole to make it,” backup defensive back Jansen Watson said of Benton's first-quarter interception return to the Red Raiders' one-yard line. “We were laughing about it.”

The Cyclones' first Big 12 win of the season - over a Tech team (5-3, 2-3) that had won at Oklahoma the previous week - also came with a slew of other eye-opening firsts and mosts, including:

* ISU rushed for more yards (368) in a game since gobbling up 434 on the ground on Sept. 2, 1999 against Indiana State.

James White ran for 138 yards and backup Duran “Duck” Hollis added 101 - including a 71-yard touchdown romp that made the score 31-7 just over a minute into the second half.

“In certain games, there is a snowball effect,” said Cyclone coach Paul Rhoads, whose team also snuffed out Tech's 69-game streak of scoring at least one touchdown through the air. “Once we were effective with it, then the kids got confident in that and I think our blocking improved as the game went along.”

* The Cyclones (4-4, 1-4) achieved their largest margin of victory ever against a ranked opponent - sending Red Raiders fans home early, shaking their heads.

“We emptied the stands pretty fast,” said Benton, a Texan who was not recruited by Tech out of high school. “It was like a spring football game. I'm thinking, ‘Where's everybody at?'”

* The Cyclones won in Lubbock for the first time after five previous fruitless trips there.

Jones AT&T Stadium was the only Big 12 venue Rhoads had not yet won.

“Sure wish (this type of win) would have come sooner rather than later,” said Rhoads, who has led his team to at least one road win over a ranked opponent in his three seasons in Ames. “But I'll take it in the eighth week of the season against a top-20 team. It was a complete game. we'd played good football but we hadn't played a complete game and it was thoroughly a complete game, special teams included.”

Cornerback Jeremy Reeves also gained an interception and defensive lineman Rony Nelson pounced on a fumble.

Quarterback Jared Barnett - in his first career start - chipped in 92 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground while going 14-of-26 for 144 yards with his arm.

He became the fifth straight ISU freshman quarterback to win in his starting debut, following in the footsteps of Jerome Tiller, Austen Arnaud, Bret Meyer and Austin Flynn.

“It's been crazy,” said Barnett, who hopes to lead ISU to a second straight win at 11:30 a.m. Saturday against Kansas at Jack Trice Stadium. “Just a whole bunch of excitement between me and the entire team. We're just excited to get this first conference win under our belts and start moving forward.”