Jack Campbell didn’t grow up an Iowa fan.

Although the senior linebacker is a lifelong Iowan, he was sheltered from the Cy-Hawk rivalry. His father, Dave, played for the University of Northern Iowa football team from 1986-89, so Jack grew up a Panther fan.

The Cedar Falls-native’s only exposure to the annual Iowa-Iowa State football game growing up was through his friends.

“I really had no correlation with Iowa, Iowa State, but my friends did,” Campbell said. “I just know from my experience, being from Iowa, like in middle school, in high school, like, it was just a battle between Iowa and Iowa State fans.”

Campbell’s rooted investment in the Cy-Hawk series took shape when he joined the Hawkeyes’ ranks in 2019. Campbell’s first experience in the Iowa-Iowa State game was inundated with rain delays in a hostile Jack Trice Stadium.

The Hawkeyes barely pulled off an 18-17 victory in Ames after the Cyclones muffed a late fourth-quarter punt.

That win was just three years ago. But, with a lack of rhythm in the Cy-Hawk football game’s yearly schedule caused by the pandemic, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz thinks of it as eons ago.

“Looking back, historically, we got last year and then, whoa, it felt like 10 years ago, the ’19 game,” Ferentz said in a Tuesday press conference. “It took 10 years to play, on top of it. But it’s almost like that game, dismiss it, throw it out. It’s just so far back, even though it wasn’t that far back, but the lack of playing every year, it’s weird. It’s strange.”

Iowa and Iowa State didn’t play in 2020 — skipping the year the teams would’ve played at Kinnick Stadium — because the Big Ten instituted a conference-only schedule as COVID-19 continued to spread. The Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones, 27-17, at Jack Trice Stadium in 2021.

Now, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones are returning to Kinnick Stadium for the first time since 2018. And Iowa, fresh off a touchdown-less, 7-3 win over South Dakota State, has a six-year winning streak to protect.

“It’ll be an awesome experience,” Campbell said. “I’m just excited to get another Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The fans are gonna be loud. So, I’m just looking forward to all that.”

Cy-Hawk rivalry returns to Kinnick

The last time Iowa and Iowa State played at Kinnick Stadium, quarterback Spencer Petras was a true freshman.

“It’s a great rivalry,” Petras said. “My fourth time in the game, I’m excited to get it at home because it’s been since I was a true freshman since we’ve been at home for this game. So, that’s exciting, but it means a lot. It means a lot to myself, the team, our whole program, the state.”

Petras, from San Rafael, California, was introduced to the Cy-Hawk rivalry at Kinnick Stadium in 2018, when he heard seemingly never-ending I-O-W-A chants from the stands.

The fifth-year senior will make his third consecutive start in a Cy-Hawk game on Saturday. Petras went 11-of-21 for 106 yards and one touchdown in last season’s game.

In the Hawkeyes’ 2022 season-opener against South Dakota State on Sept. 3, Petras completed 11 of 25 passes for 109 yards with an interception. But on Tuesday, the third-year starter didn’t want to talk about the past — just his anticipation for the Cy-Hawk game.

“I’m from California, but you know, I consider myself an Iowan at this point, it’s my fifth year in the state,” Petras said. “It’s a big game, the whole state tunes in, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Former Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley, who played for Iowa from 2016-19, set the tone when Petras was a freshman, Petras said. Stanley went 4-0 against Iowa State. This year, Petras is aiming for the Hawkeyes’ fifth straight victory in his collegiate career.

“That’d be great,” Petras said. “I mean, that’s the goal. Nate and the seniors and the older guys when I was young, you know, they laid the foundation. It’s now our turn to continue.”

Safety Kaevon Merriweather joined the Hawkeyes in 2018, along with Petras. Merriweather, who has lived in states with strong rivalries, said the anticipation of the Cy-Hawk game is similar in every state.

“Being from Michigan, the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry is something that’s really huge,” Merriweather said “I lived in Alabama for a little bit, so Alabama-Auburn is always a big rivalry. I think, whenever you have a state team, there’s always animosity between the two teams.”

Now that Merriweather has experienced the rivalry, he’s anticipating a packed Kinnick on Saturday. The Hawkeyes sold out the 2018 game, and Kinnick will be filled to the brim again this week.

More than anything, Merriweather wants an Iowa victory.

“One hundred percent, I would love that,” Merriweather said. “Just to keep that on my career, on my memory bank, that I’d never had the chance to lose to Iowa State.”

Cyclones debut new quarterback, running back

Iowa State has a unique new aspect to its offense: a left-handed quarterback.

Redshirt sophomore Hunter Dekkers is now the Cyclones’ full-time starter, replacing Brock Purdy.

Purdy was a four-year starter at Iowa State, going 0-4 in his career against Iowa. Purdy was benched during last year’s game in favor of Dekkers.

Dekkers went 11-of-16 for 114 yards and a touchdown in his backup effort against the Hawkeyes.

“He’s really good at what he does,” Campbell said of Dekkers. “He’s a left-handed quarterback, kind of unique in that aspect, but he’s a very talented player. He can make a lot of different throws. He can use his feet as well. So, just unique in that aspect. And I hope it’ll be a challenge.”

Dekkers found immediate success in his first career start, completing his first seven passes and throwing for 293 yards on Sept. 3. Dekkers accounted for four touchdowns in Iowa State’s 42-10 victory over Southeast Missouri State — the most by a Cyclone making his first career start since 1999.

Ferentz compared Dekkers to Ken Stabler, who played 17 years in the NFL and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.

“The ball still comes out, so you’ve got to defend it no matter where it goes,” Ferentz said of the left-handed Dekkers. “A little bit different. He’s got a little Ken Stabler, a little sidearm stuff in there every now and then, too, to get the ball around, so he did a good job. He really looked poised. Made good throws the other day, and they hit some big plays. They’ve got a good group of receivers. Tough to defend.

“But the biggest thing, he just looked like he was totally under control and they did a nice job offensively of executing and kept him clean, and he can pull it down and run it, too, when he needs to, but just a really impressive outing.”

The Cyclones also lost running back Breece Hall, the two-time Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, who was picked 36th overall by the New York Jets in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Redshirt junior Jirehl Brock has taken over Hall’s position, rushing for 105 yards in last week’s season opener. He was a kickoff returner and backup running back in 2021.

Merriweather remembers briefly playing Brock in 2021, when Brock had three rushes for 15 yards.

“I got to hit him a little bit, so he definitely is a well-balanced and solid back,” Merriweather said. “What I’ve seen from him so far, he’s really well-balanced. He can run the ball really well, catch up in the backfield, so he’s definitely a very well-balanced back.”

What is the future of the Cy-Hawk rivalry?

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta remembers watching the Cy-Hawk rivalry when he worked at UNI.

“I would watch from a distance and it seems like every game that’s played, very, very few are blowouts,” Barta said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Iowan. “Either way, they’re almost always down to the wire. And so that was my first observation then, and as I was here and started experiencing it, you just see the excitement on both sides, whether we’re here in Kinnick Stadium, or over there in Jack Trice.”

With the pandemic, the annual matchup has faltered over the past few years. Iowa has played two consecutive Cy-Hawk games at Jack Trice Stadium, and Barta is excited to get the annual matchup back in Iowa City.

Iowa State’s senior class entered the program in 2019. So, only 21 players on the Cyclone roster — fifth and sixth-year seniors — have experienced Kinnick Stadium.

“It means we’re back into a rhythm, a normal rhythm of every other year,” Barta said. “That was obviously disrupted. But any time we play in Kinnick, our fans make a difference. Having them here, my guess is some of those players, a lot of those players have never played in Kinnick Stadium from the Iowa State side.”

Iowa football’s current contract to play Iowa State annually runs through 2025. With conference realignment and the Big Ten adding USC and UCLA in 2024, there has been some speculation surrounding the future of the Cy-Hawk football game.

Despite a changing college football environment, Barta is committed to playing Iowa State yearly.

“I’ve said many, many times that, as long as I’m here, I’m going to support keeping the tradition alive,” Barta said. “[Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard] and I are both on the same page when it comes to planning to continue the rivalry. I don’t see any reason — I’m sure it will continue. But we haven’t talked specifically about it.”

Barta said he has a great relationship with Pollard. As long as they are in their respective positions, he said, there will be a rivalry game.

“We’re used to working together, and he’s done a great job at Iowa State and I respect him, and that will continue,” Barta said. “On Saturday, certainly, I want to beat him.”