Multiple Cyclones Receive Big 12 Weekly Honors

AMES, Iowa – Several Cyclones received weekly awards from the Big 12 Conference office on Monday following No. 22 Iowa State's season-opening 24-21 victory over No. 17 K-State on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland. Marcus Neal Jr. (Defensive Player of the Week), Aiden Flora (Special Teams Player of the Week), Dominic Overby (Freshman of the Week) and the Cyclone defensive line (Defensive Line of the Week) were all recognized by the league's panel of voters.

Marcus Neal Jr. – Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week
Neal, making his first career start, led the Cyclone defensive effort with eight tackles, including 1.5 for a loss. His 1.5 TFL were a career high while his eight tackles tied a career best. The sophomore defensive back made several key stops in the game, including on Wildcat a 4^th-and-1 in the second quarter.

Aiden Flora – Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week
Flora's name was called often on special teams. The redshirt freshman handled punt return and kick return duties and was also a gunner on the punting unit. Flora recovered a fumble following a K-State muffed punt and averaged 28 yards per kick return.

Dominic Overby – Big 12 Freshman of the Week
Overby made his first career start against the Wildcats and caught his first career touchdown pass, a 23-yard strike to open the scoring on Iowa State's 2025 season. The redshirt freshman finished with two catches for 29 yards.

Cyclone Defensive Line – Big 12 Defensive Line of the Week
The ISU defensive line unit plugged up the line of scrimmage against the Wildcats. As a unit, they held K-State to 110 rushing yards and did not allow any Wildcat rusher to gain more than 51 yards individually. They limited K-State dual-threat quarterback Avery Johnson to 21 yards rushing and combined for 1.5 tackles for loss in the game. Ikenna Ezeogu batted down two passes, one of which was caught by an o-lineman and did not officially count as a PBU.

Iowa State returns home Saturday, August 30 at 2:30 p.m. against South Dakota. Season tickets are on sale, here. Single-game tickets and mini-packs are also available now.

Players Mentioned

Ikenna Ezeogu

Aiden Flora

Marcus Neal Jr.

Dominic Overby

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics