The Miami Hurricanes faced off against the Iowa State Cyclones in the Pop-Tarts Bowl at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Saturday with both teams looking to end the season with 11 wins. Unfortunately for Miami, their bowl-win drought will continue as they lost 42-41 to the Cyclones.
The game could not have started better for Iowa State. They won the toss and deferred, then, on Miami’s first offensive snap, a high release from the center sailed the ball over Cam Ward’s head resulting in a turnover and Iowa State football. They capitalized quickly, as both teams did for most of the first half, with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Cyclone Quarterback Rocco Becht. The Hurricanes responded quickly as Damien Martinez hit the gap and ran 75 yards on the first play of the drive to tie the game at 7.
Iowa State Running Back Carson Hansen wasted no time building up his stat line and rushed for a 30-yard touchdown to put the Cyclones up 14-7 with just over 8 minutes to go in the first. Once Miami got the ball back, history was made. After driving 71 yards to the Iowa State 4, Cam Ward found Jacolby George for a 4-yard touchdown, which made Ward the leader for most career passing touchdowns as a Division-I Quarterback.
After Iowa State got the ball back, Carson Hansen found the endzone again, this time on a 1-yard rush to cap off their 6-play, 65-yard drive. That pretty much took the game to the end of the first quarter and it was already 21-14. Over the break at the end of the quarter, frustration built between defensive players Simeon Barrow and Marquise Lightfoot which caused a little scuffle to break out on the Miami sideline. However, the offense kept rolling and tied the game at 21 as “present met future”, when Cam Ward found true-freshman and South Florida native Wide Receiver Joshisa Trader for a 40-yard touchdown, the first of Trader’s college career.
The offenses kept on rolling with no punts so far and the trend continued as Rocco Becht found Carson Hansen for a 13-yard touchdown, his third of the game. The Cyclones were up 28-21. Ward and the Canes quickly responded as he connected with Elijah Arroyo for a 33-yard touchdown to tie it back up at 28. After eight straight touchdowns from both teams combined, nobody could have predicted what was going to happen on the following three drives. In order, it went Iowa State punt, Miami fumble, then Iowa State turnover on downs. And even after that, Miami got the ball back but could only score a field goal which brought it to the end of the first half. Miami led Iowa State 31-28.
To put it into context how unbelievable the mass scoring was in the first half, the over/under line was set at 61.5 and there were already 59 points scored in the first half alone. The end of the first half marked the end of Cam Ward’s college football career as he would not return for the second half since he did not want to jeopardize his high-overall draft projection if he were to get injured.
Iowa State started with the football in the second half but went three and out, which put Emory Williams and company on the field. Emory Williams only threw the football once on their 10-play, 71-yard scoring drive led by running backs Damien Martinez and Mark Fletcher Jr., who capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Miami had their biggest lead of the whole game up 10, 38-28.
The Cyclones had to convert a fourth down to keep their drive alive and ended up scoring a touchdown on a 4-yard passing completion from Rocco Becht to Jaylin Noel. Miami got the ball back and everyone watching could see the effect of not having Cam Ward in the game and the level of quarterbacking from Emory Williams as Miami only put up a field goal which put them up six with ten minutes left to play.
Miami’s defense held Iowa State again as they went three and out and had to punt with eight minutes left. However, the Cyclone defense held the Canes right after so the Cyclones would take over at their own 16-yard line with just over 6 minutes to go. They needed a touchdown to put themselves up which is exactly what they did as they drove the football all the way down the field on a long 15-play drive where Rocco Becht scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with only left 56 seconds on the clock. The Hurricanes had to try and kick a field goal to win it.
Unfortunately for Miami, Emory Williams didn’t have the Cam Ward magic Saturday night and the Canes fell short in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That meant Miami’s eight-year drought of not winning a bowl game would continue, but more importantly, the Iowa State Cyclones would improve to 11 wins on a historic season and they would take home the functioning Pop-Tart Bowl trophy that had a toaster in it.