Brandon Chatmon, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

A perfect day for Iowa State's Netten

With one swift swing of his leg, Cole Netten was able to give his dad a great birthday gift, make a memory he won’t soon forget, reward his teammates for their hard work while doing his own job and give Iowa State a 20-17 win over in-state rival Iowa.

 It was the perfect day.

The Cyclones kicker buried a 42-yard field goal to secure the Cy-Hawk Trophy for Paul Rhoads’ program and became the big man on campus in Ames, Iowa last weekend.

“That’s something that usually doesn’t come around for anyone,” Netten said. “I’d definitely say it was the biggest kick of my life.”

It was Netten’s first game winner since his sophomore year in high school, so it’s safe to say this situation was a little different.

“You can’t prepare for that,” he said. “The only thing you can do to prepare for it is actually [being] there before. We have situations like that in practice, but it’s nothing compared to sitting in front of 70,000 fans screaming at you and being on ESPN as well. It’s just something you have to take as a regular kick, every kick is the same.”

Adding intrigue to the situation was his miss on the previous play after Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz called a timeout with the hope of freezing him, thus allowing Netten to have what essentially turned out to be a practice kick before his game winner.

“I knew before I even started to kick [that first one] I was getting a second chance,” Netten said, while adding he debated whether to even follow through with the first kick. “During the second kick, my body just took over, it did what it always does on a field goal. There’s no thinking, just total focus.”

The decision to try to freeze Netten didn’t have any impact. In fact, Netten was surprised by his own reaction to the pressure situation.

“For some reason I was definitely super calm,” he said. “To be honest, I was 10 times more nervous for [our first] two games than I was for that kick. I feel like I felt the presence of God with me, and that’s something I believe in. I just felt like everything was going to be ok. It was so relaxing.

“It was the weirdest feeling and a surprising one at that.”

Coupled with the confidence from kicking a career-long 47-yard field goal earlier in the game, Netten stepped up and buried the biggest kick of his life. His biggest question was what to do next.

“I had no idea what to do,” he said. “Once I kicked it, I had a feeling [it was good] and looked up and you could tell it was going in. I just started running, I had no clue where to go or what to do.”

The hours that followed were full of congratulations from friends, family and Cyclone nation.

“It felt pretty good, but I was just part of the game,” Netten said. “Without the offense and everyone else, I’m no good. That’s what I’m here to do. I kick field goals, that’s my job. It’s no different from someone in an interview for a regular job out there. Everyone else on the team did their job.”

Netten could have bigger kicks in his future and more memories to carve, but nothing will take away his first experience in ISU’s cardinal and gold at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium. He has a laundry list of things he will always remember.

“It was my dad’s birthday; that made that kick even more special,” Netten said. “Anytime you beat the Hawks, it’s something you’re going to remember. I’m so glad I could make everyone who loves me proud. I gave my dad a pretty good birthday present, and I thought I’d have to buy my mom a new heart but she made it out ok too.

“That’s something every year we’ll be able to look back on as a family and remember.”

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