IOWA CITY — There's something about an in-state rivalry that brings out a certain level of madness in ordinarily sane people.
When it's Iowa and Iowa State, things can get borderline feral.
"I can remember how humble and modest their fans are out there," said punter Tory Taylor on Tuesday, in his trademark Australian deadpan sarcasm. "It's a pretty nice place to play, it's not like there's 8-year-olds hanging over the fence giving you the middle finger or anything."
"They can talk some trash [at Jack Trice Stadium]," said defensive end Joe Evans, himself a native of Ames, Iowa. "It doesn't bother me at all. Obviously I've had some encounters, but it's just the fans being the fans. It honestly kind of fuels me."
For newcomers, the Cy-Hawk game — particularly with trips to Ames — becomes a subject of lore among teammates until players' first opportunities to experience it first-hand.
"I've heard plenty of middle finger stories, so I'm pretty excited to get in that environment," quarterback Cade McNamara said. "I love playing in rivalry games."
"I've heard it's going to be pretty toxic," wide receiver Seth Anderson said. "It's going to be loud, and you live for that, so it's going to be pretty fun."
"I didn't have this type of experience with two in-state teams [growing up]," tight end Luke Lachey said. "When there's guys not talking to their ISU friends all week long.... I know we don't like losing to Iowa State."
For fellow Iowa native Cooper DeJean, the rivalry still thrives back home.
"In my town, there's a lot of Iowa and Iowa State fans, so there's a lot of trash talk," said DeJean. "One of my best friends from high school goes to Iowa State; my high school coach, I think is still an Iowa State fan; I don't know if it's changed since I got here."
Unruliness from the peanut gallery aside, there's an abiding respect for Iowa State as a program among the Hawkeye players and coaches.
"I really don't try to think about this whole week, I try to prepare like a normal week," Evans said. "To be able to play in front of friends and family — there's going to be a lot of people there, so that's what excites me."
"We're just working on our game plan," Anderson said. "Wherever we play, we're going to try to put our very best out there. The environment being changed up, is not going to change our goal."
"I think they're a really well-coached team," McNamara said. "As the week continues, we just need to do everything we can to ensure we're putting ourselves in the best position."
Unsurprisingly, Ferentz agreed that ISU is well-coached.
"The one thing about [Iowa State], the last five years they've really tackled well at all positions, and you can't say that about every football team," Ferentz said. "In fact, there's some you can't say that about at all. They've done a great job of that. They're great at getting guys free to the ball, and then they don't miss tackles."
There is the matter of last year's game, where the Cyclones snapped their six-game losing streak in the rivalry with a 10-7 win at Kinnick Stadium.
"We don't have our trophy, so we're going to work to get that back this week for sure," Anderson said.
"That's one thing about intrastate rivals," Ferentz said. "Bear Bryant used to say it, you talk about guys going home, go to the pharmacy, and they've got to answer why they lost to Auburn. It's part of the fun of sports too, having those kinds of rivalries."
In recent years, athletes from both sides of the rivalry have taken opportunities to twist the knife in victory — a blown kiss here, a stray tweet there — so we did have to ask Evans if he would leave his cleats at midfield of Jack Trice (à la Jordan Bohannon) if — if — Iowa takes back the Cy-Hawk Trophy on Saturday.
"I will not be doing that," Evans said with a laugh. "If we win, my first thought is to celebrate with my teammates for all the work we put in this week."
