AMES, Iowa — For two quarters, it looked more like Kansas was playing at USC than at Iowa State.

Not only did the Cyclones’ uniforms identically match the Trojans’ — they played like them, too.

ISU dominated every facet of the game and used a loud and enthusiastic near-capacity crowd to take a commanding 20-0 halftime lead that left the Jayhawks wondering what the heck was going on.

“It was just atrocious,” quarterback Todd Reesing said. “We couldn’t get anything going.”

But instead of chewing out his players and letting them know how poorly they played, coach Mark Mangino instead decided to use his halftime talk to calmly rally his troops and keep their spirits up.

“The last thing kids want to be told is that they are doing a lousy job when they know it,” Mangino said. “I said ‘listen, we played very poorly. We can’t play any worse. I mean let’s face it, we played very poor football in the first half — but we can win this game. If you believe in each other like I think you do, then we will be OK.’”

And if it looked like Kansas was playing USC in the first half, it looked more like Iowa State was playing the New York Giants in the second half.

Maybe it was Mangino’s pep talk. Maybe it was Jake Sharp’s emergence. Or maybe it was Todd “Sparky” Reesing once again refusing to let his team lose. Whatever it was, it worked.

Kansas scored 35 points in the game’s final 30 minutes and pulled off the third greatest comeback in school history, a 35-33 victory that improved the Jayhawks to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play.

“Night and day,” Reesing said of the two halves.

Kansas couldn’t have started the game any worse if they had tried. After three straight three and outs, Jocques Crawford fumbled to give the ball to Iowa State near midfield. Raymond Brown then bumped into Daymond Patterson as he attempted to catch a punt, causing another fumble that the Cyclones recovered once again.

And when it looked like it really couldn’t get any worse, Reesing was intercepted by ISU’s Leonard Johnson late in the second quarter to send Kansas into the locker room with the team’s biggest deficit of the season and an 0-1 start in conference play staring the squad right in the face.

“That first half was probably the worst collective half I have been a part of since I have been here,” Reesing said.

If the first half was one of his worst, than the second half had to be one of his best. Reesing finished 18-26 for 319 yards and three touchdowns on the game, but almost all of those numbers came in the second half.

Jake Sharp, who was banished to the dog house recently for unproductive play, led the comeback in his best game of the season. He streaked down the left sideline and scored on a 67-yard pass play from Reesing to get them on board on the Jayhawks’ first possession of the second half.

Then, after the Kansas defense held serve again, Sharp took a shovel pass from Reesing for 43 yards to set up a 1-yard Angus Quigley touchdown run that made it 20-14.

Sharp broke out for 186 yards of offense on the day, including 107 through the air on just three catches.

“We went in at halftime and Coach was real positive,” Reesing said. “He was saying we just have to come out and take it one play at a time and turn things around. When we came out in the second half, we just started clicking on all cylinders. We showed what we can do when we are all on the same page.”

Mangino made two gutsy fourth down calls on the Jayhawks’ next drive, electing to go for it on fourth and three before again going for it on fourth and seven from the 23 yard line. The latter of the two resulted in a touchdown pass from Reesing to Kerry Meier that gave the Jayhawks their first lead of the game at 21-20.

“I had no thought in my mind about kicking a field goal there and I don’t think Coach did either,” said Meier, who had seven catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns. “We were moving the ball all right and had some confidence.”

Kansas appeared ready to add to their lead on the Jayhawks’ next drive, but Reesing fumbled the ball on the Iowa State 11 yard line. A few plays later, Kansas added to the lead anyway — on defense.

As Iowa State quarterback Austen Arnaud waited for the offense to set up a screen play, reserve defensive end Maxwell Onyegbule snuffed it out, intercepting Arnaud’s pass and returning it to the six yard line. A touchdown pass from Reesing to Meier made it 35-26, but an Iowa State score cut the Jayhawk lead to two at 35-33 with just over a minute to go.

In possibly the only negative of the second half for Kansas, Iowa State recovered the ensuing onside kick, giving them a chance to win the game in the final seconds. Needing just 30 yards to get into field goal range, Arnaud threw four straight incomplete passes to seal the comeback for Kansas.

“To come here for our first Big 12 road game and to get a win and to do it in the way we had to come back, it’s definitely encouraging for us,” Reesing said. “It’s going to give us some motivation and some fire to go out there and practice for the next game.”

— — Edited by Rachel Burchfield