The 2024 Iowa State football team will be remembered forever for being record-breakers, winners and Pop-Tarts Bowl champions. In a season where everything felt different in college football, the Cyclones were no exception.

So many accomplishments happened throughout the 14 games Iowa State played: Head coach Matt Campbell set the university’s all-time coach’s wins record at 64, Iowa State broke the single-season win record of nine games by winning 11, senior wide receivers Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins each had over 1,000 receiving yards, the Cyclones beat Iowa at Kinnick Stadium, earned a bid to the Big 12 Championship and capped it all off with a bowl win over No. 13 Miami (FL).

Oh, and the bowl win was Campbell’s third at Iowa State, which is now the most all-time bowl wins by an Iowa State head coach.

A few weeks ago, Campbell extended his contract through 2032, and that is a good thing. What he has done in nine seasons is remarkable, considering the rough history Iowa State has had throughout its 133 seasons.

The 2024 season was a breath of fresh air, one that all Cyclone fans had waited forever for.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl itself was such a fun, wacky, weird game. It lived up to the hype and then some.

Between the three mascots dancing and terrorizing fans, the corpse of the strawberry Pop-Tart from last year making an appearance, Rocco Becht picking which Pop-Tart would be sacrificed and the actual working toaster trophy, this bowl game was a thrill.

Becht also deserved to pick which Pop-Tart to eat. All season, his poise showed each week, and it came down to the final drive of the season, a drive where his confidence never wavered and he won another game.

For those who say bowl games outside of the College Football Playoff don’t matter, I invite you to watch the Pop-Tarts Bowl back through the lens of the Cyclones. It mattered to them, and for good reason.

It didn’t matter to Miami quarterback Cam Ward, it seemed, as the possible top pick in the NFL Draft played just one half of the game. He broke the all-time career touchdown record in FBS college football and then opted out for the rest of the game.

I understand Ward probably wanted to improve his draft stock and break the record, but that felt a little ‘me before my team’ in my eyes.

Sure, there were some Cyclones that didn’t play, but Ward playing just half of the game was baffling.

Now, Becht, the redshirt sophomore quarterback, had four game-winning drives this season. Those included the 54-yard field goal from Kyle Konrardy to beat Iowa, the massive comeback to beat UCF after Becht threw basically two pick-sixes, the road scare against Utah and the bowl game against Miami.

The quarterback sneak is something Becht performed many times this season, and it was the play that put the Cyclones in front for the final time. That whole drive was the whole season in a nutshell: Iowa State trailed, time was running out, Becht led the team down the field and won the game on a sneak.

Becht, though he had his ups and downs, still had one of the best seasons from a quarterback standpoint in Cyclone history. His 25 touchdowns were the second most in a season in school history, as was his 3,505 passing yards.

In terms of a total career, Becht is third all-time in passing touchdowns with 48, behind Bret Meyer, who had 50 from 2004-07. For career passing yards, Becht is fourth and trails Austen Arnaud by just under 100 yards.

Of course, it’s Brock Purdy who leads all of those stat categories, but if Becht continues to steadily improve each season, and has receivers like Noel and Higgins, I have no doubt that he can pass Purdy in some, if not all of those stats.

This season was what every Cyclones fan wanted, and probably needed. It gave us some of the most memorable moments and players in Iowa State history.

This team was special. I’ve been watching Iowa State football my whole life, and to have a front-row seat to this season was truly a blessing and something I won’t take for granted. I’ll look back on this season as one I’ll never forget, like most Cyclone fans.

It’s hard to say goodbye to players like Noel, Darien Porter, J.R. Singleton and Beau Freyler, among others, but I’m happy they stayed and I’m going to smile because this season happened.