I am from Iowa, and am a huge Iowa State Cyclone fan. In case you haven’t seen the Cyclone football team, who are traditionally one of the worst programs in college football, has become the darlings of this football season.

The Cyclones are 4-0 in the month of October beating then No. 3 Oklahoma and then No. 4 TCU. They have done all of this with the fourth-youngest coach in college football, who is only in his second year at ISU, and their fourth string quarterback at the helm.

How did the team, who hasn’t been ranked since 2005, become the number 15 ranked, according to the College Football Playoff Top 25, team in the nation? It starts with Head Coach Matt Campbell. Campbell believes this team needed a culture change to be successful. He lives the way he preaches to his players, and the players have bought into this tenfold. Many players have given up a lot for the better of the team.

Senior wide out Allen Lazard, who owns most of the individual records at ISU, could have jumped ship from a team that only won three games last year to the NFL. But Lazard decided to stay, because he believed in what Campbell was trying to do. Starting middle linebacker Joel Lanning gave up the most for the team. Lanning, who was the starting quarterback for the Cyclones the past two years, was asked to move linebacker after the season last year.

In this day and age in high-level college football this does not happen. Lanning had graduated and could of gone anywhere as a graduate transfer and played quarterback. The Ankeny Iowa native didn’t even think twice about what was asked of him and has become one of the nation’s leaders in tackles.

Not everything has come easy for the Cyclones either. The Friday before the biggest game in Iowa state history against No. 3 Oklahoma, it was reported that Senior QB Jacob Park, who was the reason Lanning was asked to move to linebacker, was taking a personal leave from the team. This left fourth string walk-on QB Kyle Kempt an opportunity he has made the most of, when he was thrust into the starting role. Kempt has not looked back since taking over going 4-0 and leading the now 6-2 Cyclones to a tie for first in the Big 12.

These are the guys Campbell meant when he talked about culture changers. They have taken a once joke of college football to the most talked about team of the year.