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(AP) -- For Steele Jantz, the last seven weeks have been a whirlwind few could be fully prepared for.

Iowa State's junior quarterback, playing his first season at the FBS level, has already been through enough ups and downs for an entire season.

Jantz and the unbeaten Cyclones got a bye last week, giving them a welcome chance for rest ahead of the Big 12 season.

Iowa State (3-0) will jump right back into the thick of things on Saturday when it hosts No. 17 Texas (3-0).

Jantz, a junior college transfer from City College of San Francisco, spent much of August competing for the starting job with Jerome Tiller and Jared Barnett.

He earned the nod just two weeks before the season.

Jantz made up for a largely dreadful debut with a stirring fourth quarter to help the Cyclones survive against Northern Iowa 20-19.

 He played like a star in a 44-41 triple overtime win over Iowa with 279 yards passing and four touchdowns, but quickly came back down to earth with three picks in four passes in the opening quarter at Connecticut on Sept. 16.

Jantz then rolled his foot just before halftime against the Huskies and the way he limped off the field suggested he might not return.

But he did, and his fourth-quarter TD pass to Darius Reynolds sealed a 24-20 win that gave Iowa State its first 3-0 start since 2005.

Jantz was 18-of-29 passing for 200 yards and those three interceptions.

Jantz said his ailing foot is getting much better, just in time for the Longhorns.

Longhorns coach Mack Brown, who knows all about the Iowa State-Iowa rivalry after spending 1979-81 as an assistant with the Cyclones, put a lot of stock into Jantz's performance against the Hawkeyes.

The truest measure of how good Jantz is will come over the next nine games, when the Cyclones play a Big 12 schedule that includes five ranked teams.

He has already been through so much that it is easy to forget he had never played a Division I game until less than a month ago.
  

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