Seen and heard: Arizona OC Seth Doege remembers Iowa State as 'a tough place to play'

Seen and heard from Arizona’s Big 12 opener against the 14th-ranked Iowa State Cyclones.

AMES, Iowa — Arizona played at Jack Trice Stadium for the first time on Saturday, but the Wildcats have one member of their program who’s very familiar with the venue.

Arizona first-year offensive coordinator Seth Doege played against the Cyclones during his four-year quarterback career at Texas Tech. Doege went 1-1 against ISU as the Red Raiders’ starting quarterback.

The one he remembers vividly was Texas Tech’s 41-7 loss to the Cyclones in Lubbock, which was on the heels of Texas Tech’s historic win over third-ranked Oklahoma, snapping the Sooners’ 39-game winning streak in Norman. Doege passed for 441 yards and four touchdowns in the 41-38 win over OU.

“That weekend is a weekend I’ll never forget,” Doege said of the win over Oklahoma. “Snoop Dogg is calling me. You just beat OU, so you have everybody in the world calling you to come hang out, and everybody in the world is telling you how great you are.”

Doege even got a call from his former coach at Texas Tech, Mike Leach, who was in between stints at Texas Tech and Washington State after he was fired by TTU in 2010.

“He called me and basically said, ‘You need to get those guys ready, because Iowa State will come into Lubbock and jump on you guys,’” Doege recalled. “Well Iowa State rolls in the next week and just hammers us. I mean, just destroys us. ... We didn’t play very well, they weren’t good on offense and then all of sudden they put (41) points.”

Doege completed 16 of 32 passes for 171 yards and two interceptions. The following season in Ames, Texas Tech’s Big 12 opener, Doege threw a pick-six in the first half, but ended up throwing for 331 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in a 24-13 win over the Cyclones.

The Cyclones were led by head coach Paul Rhoads, who was Arizona’s defensive coordinator under Kevin Sumlin during the pandemic-influenced season in 2020.

“He was one of my favorite guys to see after a game, because he would hype you up so well,” Doege said of Rhoads. “It’s almost like, ‘Man, this guy really loves me. I really like Paul Rhoads.’”

Doege considers Iowa State “a tough place to play.”

“When you’re coming in on the bus, you’re like, ‘Where am I?’ It’s almost the middle of nowhere, these cornfields almost, and then all of a sudden these people are ecstatic about Iowa State football,” Doege said. “I was pretty surprised, honestly, about the environment. They had it rocking. ... That was back when they were trying to sustain a winning tradition.

“Now, they’re playing for championships, so it’s a different ballgame now.”

This ain’t Tucson

This college football season, we’re trying out — and grading — popular restaurants in towns the Wildcats are playing in. Up first: “The Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company” at Iowa State.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Restaurant: The Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company

Food: Pizza and sandwiches

The rundown: On the corner of Main Street (Iowa State’s version of Tucson’s Fourth Avenue) and Douglas Avenue in downtown Ames sits The Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company — or simply known as “The Great Plains” or “The Best” pizza.

The Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company was founded in 1979 and serves pizza by the slice or pies spanning from 10-14 inches, along with turkey, pepperoni and bacon sandwiches.

For the lovers, The Great Plains also has heart-shaped pizzas, which was added to the menu in the 1980s for Valentine’s Day.

The Great Plains has four specialty pizzas, but their most famous one is the Great Plains Taco Pizza, which they prefer to serve on thin crust for a tostada feel.

Instead of marinara sauce, The Great Plains Taco Pizza uses mild taco sauce and then adds ground beef and cheese before baking it. After it bakes, they add chopped lettuce, crushed Dorito-looking tortilla chips, more cheese and tomatoes.

According to its website, “we have been producing and serving a pizza product that is unmatched in central Iowa, and from what many of our long-time customers tell us, unmatched anywhere.”

The order: The Great Plains Taco Pizza and M&M oatmeal cookie

The final verdict: This is more about the taster than the provider. It’s like being in a loving relationship for so many years and then becoming single again; you have high — maybe even unfair — expectations for the next partner. We’re spoiled in Tucson. The Mexican-style food is among the best in the U.S. The spices and Sonoran-style ingredients are a taste that’s hard-pressed to find anywhere else, especially in the Midwest.

The Great Plains Taco Pizza was underwhelming, but it was a step above Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. Sometimes you need to spin the block and give someone a second date after a mild (no pun intended) first date, so we ordered their M&M oatmeal cookie, which rivals Los Angeles’ Randy’s Donuts as the best sweet treat of the This Ain’t Tucson series. The Great Plains receives a 6.9/10 score.

Numbers game

1: Arizona has one player from Iowa, walk-on defensive back Quinn Olson, who is from Sioux City, Iowa, which is roughly three hours west of Ames near the Nebraska border. The redshirt freshman starred at Bishop Heelan Catholic.

3: Iowa State is one of three teams with weather-related mascots that Arizona has faced. The other two are Tulsa and Miami. Before Saturday, the last team with a weather-related mascot that Arizona played against was Miami in the Fiesta Bowl to cap the 1993 season.

82: Temperature at kickoff. The coldest temperature for a game at Jack Trice Stadium history is 8 degrees, in Iowa State’s 34-0 win over Kansas in 2013.

2,000+: The tailgating scene nearby Jack Trice Stadium, which started eight hours before kickoff, had anywhere from 2,000-3,000 cars, trucks, Iowa State-decorated buses and RVs, according to one ISU attendant. One group of Iowa State fans had a smoked hog that had a UA cap on its head, but they welcomed any visitors from Tucson.

3,640: Days since Arizona wore red jerseys on the road. The last time the Wildcats donned their red jerseys as a visiting opponent was in a 37-30 win over Colorado in 2015. The last time Arizona wore home jerseys as a visitor was its overtime loss to Mississippi State in Starkville in 2023.