Former Cyclone David Montgomery Delivers Strong Remarks on Lions' Super Bowl Pursuit

Former Iowa State Cyclone David Montgomery has been right on the edge of success nearly his entire career. It’s something of a trend for the program, having just missed out on the expanded College Football Playoff last season, and falling short in the Big 12 Championship twice in the past twice in the past 5 seasons.

Montgomery didn’t play in that first trip to Dallas, but he was a part of the Matt Campbell squads that helped get the team on track to reach that milestone for the first time. Still, he went into the NFL as a third-round pick with the Chicago Bears. There he was seen as a good but not great player as the team floundered at 8-8 before falling off a cliff in 2022.

Once he got to Detroit in 2023, though, he was once again a part of something special as the Lions surged to their best finish in over 40 years before falling to San Francisco in the NFC Championship. Last season was more of the same as Montgomery gained traction as one of the better backs in the league, forming a superstar tandem with Jahmyr Gibbs in the Detroit backfield.

But Montgomery is tired of being almost great. Over the weekend, he told reporters that it’s time for Detroit to take that next step and become what so many around the league quietly hope they can be.

“Everybody’s tired of being close,” Montgomery said, via ESPN. “It’s cool to be close at first, but you don’t want to get comfortable with being close all the time. That’s not what you want to be known for, especially when you know you’ve got the guys you’ve got on this team. You want to finish it, so this is the year for us. The year of the reckoning and the year that we choose that we need to finish.”

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Last season, Montgomery was poised for his first back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons since his time at Iowa State before an injury prematurely ended his season. Back in Ames, he rushed for 2,925 yards across three seasons to finish as the Cyclones’ No. 6 all-time rusher. He currently ranks No. 7 on that list after Breece Hall picked up where Montgomery left off to finish second all-time.

If Montgomery and the Lions can finally get over the hurdle to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl this season, it’d mark some history for the Cyclones, too. Montgomery would become the first active Cyclone (Brandon Akers was on the Los Angeles Rams roster for Super Bowl LVI, but was not active) to win a Super Bowl since Kelechi Osemele won Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens.

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