Iowa State

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Coach Quotes: Jimmy Rogers stresses competition, different practice philosophies as Cyclones open fall camp - 247Sportsour readMatt Campbell explains departure from Iowa State for Penn State openingour readThe Iowa rivalry

Big 12 · Jimmy Rogers, year 1 (1-1) · Jack Trice Stadium · 61,500 · 51,802 avg in 2026

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#119 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #57 (+3.1) · FPI #64
The marketIowa State by 23.5vs Bowling Green · our model 65% Iowa State · a number, not a pick

LastL 13–16 at Iowa · Sat Sep 12 · Jaylen Raynor 117 pass yds, 1 TD, 18 rush yds

Nextvs Bowling Green · Sat Sep 19 · 12 pm ET · Jack Trice Stadium · Iowa State by 23.5 · series 2-0, won the last 2 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureNational Program I#140 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 76-73 12 seasons
Best season 11-3 2024
Top-10 finishes 1 AP polled only
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 2-10 '15 3-9 '16 3-9 '17 8-5 '18 8-5 '19 7-6 '20 8-3 '21 7-5 '22 4-8 '23 7-6 '24 11-3 '25 8-4

Iowa State's 2014–2025 record is 76-73. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.510
Ranked seasons (AP)
7/12
Best AP finish
#8
THE RIVALRY · IOWA STATE × IOWA

Cy-Hawk

71 meetings since 1895 See the whole history →
ALL-TIME 23-48 since 1895 · .323 win rate
STREAK L1 Iowa holds the last 1
TROPHY The Rivalry Itself No trophy — the season is the argument
NEXT 2026 season date set by conference
Heat trajectory

Week-by-week rivalry heat isn't tracked yet for this matchup — check back as the 2026-27 season approaches and real fan-intel signal accumulates.

Fan Heat Index

Who's more worked up right now

Cross-fanbase rivalry sentiment for this matchup hasn't been measured yet this week — both sides show as neutral until real signal comes in.

Iowa State
Awaiting
Iowa
Awaiting
Iowa State —
Iowa —

THE LAST 5 · year-by-year

  1. L 2026 Loss 13–16
  2. W 2025 Win 16–13
  3. W 2024 Win 20–19
  4. L 2023 Loss 13–20
  5. W 2022 Win 10–7

Program outlook

Matt Campbell went 72-55 at Iowa State — the best winning percentage in the school's history — and left for Penn State at the end of 2025. The roster largely followed him out the door. Jimmy Rogers takes over a program that spent a century learning how to lose and a decade learning how to win, and now has to figure out which one it is without the man who taught it the difference.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Jack Trice Stadium is the only Power-conference stadium in the country named for an African-American athlete. Trice, Iowa State's first Black player, was fatally injured in a 1923 road game at Minnesota; the letter he wrote the night before — 'my sole purpose of going to Minnesota is to play the best football I can' — became the program's moral cornerstone decades before it had a trophy case worth mentioning. Iowa State showed up for a hundred years of losing and kept showing up. The patience is not a cliche; it is documented and real.

Campbell arrived in 2017 and converted that patience into wins: a Fiesta Bowl, a Big 12 Championship Game berth, top-15 rankings, Brock Purdy from Ames to a Super Bowl. When he left for Penn State after an 8-4 season that briefly put the Cyclones at No. 12 nationally, the departure had the specific sting of something that wasn't supposed to happen — the good coach who was supposed to stay, leaving with the roster behind him. Rogers, a Campbell assistant, inherits the infrastructure and the depth chart question.

The 2026 season in Ames is a direct test of a question the Campbell era never had to answer: was the decade of winning about the program or about the coach? If Rogers holds the altitude — bowl game, .500 Big 12 record, the talent pipeline still producing — then the Campbell years changed Iowa State permanently. If the program slides back toward the bottom of the league, Cyclone country will have its oldest fear confirmed. The fanbase will show up either way. The question is which version of Iowa State they'll be watching.

On the field

Campbell's Iowa State ran gap-sound, tough, develop-and-keep football — a scheme that out-coached its talent gaps through patience and execution. Rogers inherits that structural identity: a run-first base, physical defense, and a program built to keep players who might otherwise transfer to bigger names. Jack Trice Stadium holds 61,500 and has one of the sport's most devoted tailgate cultures — a fanbase that turned up through a century of losing and doesn't stop now. The rebuild is real; the loyalty is realer.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Iowa State

Iowa State has won 44% of its games since 1895 — 53% at home, 34% on the road.

567-680-45 all-time · 132 seasons · 1895–2026

Home 350-277-29
Away 211-387-16
Neutral 6-16
50% 1890s
62% 1900s
62% 1910s
41% 1920s
38% 1930s
42% 1940s
35% 1950s
37% 1960s
50% 1970s
42% 1980s
25% 1990s
45% 2000s
41% 2010s
60% 2020s

Coaching Era · Iowa State

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers took over from Matt Campbell for the 2026 season.

Era Jimmy Rogers · 2026–presentPrev: Matt Campbell (2016–2025)OC: Tyler RoehlPrev OC: Taylor Mouser (2024–2025)DC: Jesse BobbitPrev DC: Jon Heacock (2016–2025)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
1 year · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

1923

Jack Trice's last game

Trice is fatally injured at Minnesota; his letter the night before becomes the program's moral cornerstone

Wound

2020

First Big 12 Championship Game berth

Campbell's Cyclones reach the league title game for the first time ever, capped by a Fiesta Bowl win

2025

Campbell leaves for Penn State

The architect of the rise departs after an 8-4, top-12 season, and the roster largely follows

Heartbreak

Moment of the season — so far · Iowa State · 2026

Won 38-10 vs Southeast Missouri State

Week 1 of 2026. A statement margin. Recruiting boards re-rendered overnight.

Decisive Margin

NFL Draft Pipeline

2022–2026

Iowa State has sent 13 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — one of them in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

13 picks · 1 in round 1
#15 Will McDonald IV Outside Linebacker · 2023 · New York · #50/387 final season
#34 Jayden Higgins Wide Receiver · 2025 · Houston · #5/466 final season
#36 Breece Hall Running Back · 2022 · New York · #11/315 final season
#96 all-time · 2 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 1-1

Iowa State is 1-1 and unranked in the season's first weeks.

Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Jimmy Rogers2026
  • Matt Campbell departs72-55, 10 seasons
  • Hired Matt Campbell2016
  • Paul Rhoads departs32-54, 7 seasons
  • Hired Paul Rhoads2009
  • Gene Chizik departs5-19, 2 seasons
  • Hired Gene Chizik2007
  • Dan McCarney departs56-85, 12 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Iowa State’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2015 · Mark Mangino2016–2017 · Tom Manning2019–2022 · Tom Manning2023 · Nathan Scheelhaase2024–2025 · Taylor Mouser2026 · Tyler Roehl
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2015 · Wally Burnham2016–2025 · Jon Heacock2026 · Jesse Bobbit
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Jack Trice Stadium

since 1923

more

Jack Trice was a Black ISU football player who died from injuries in a 1923 game vs Minnesota. ISU renamed the stadium for him in 1997 — the only FBS venue named after a player rather than a donor or coach. The story is the program's moral identity anchor.

Tailgate Lots

since 1970s

more

Ames tailgating is among the most-cited 'great experiences in CFB' in the Big 12 — converted Iowa farm-country sensibility, multi-generational families, the simple food + good neighbors aesthetic. The fan culture pre-dates and survives the football program's competitive ups and downs.

Matt Campbell Era (2016-2025)

since 2016

more

Matt Campbell's hire (2016) transformed ISU from chronic doormat into Big 12 contender. The 2020 Fiesta Bowl appearance and the program's first sustained top-25 era are the Campbell era's headline. Brock Purdy (2019-2021) was the most-popular QB in program history. Campbell's ten seasons (2016-2025, 72-55) ended after 2025; Jimmy Rogers took over for 2026.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2017-2024): 3-4

Most recent: 2024 — win 41-42 (away). Last 5 postseason: 2-3.

20242023202120202019
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

1.3k
[Postgame Thread] Iowa State Defeats Northern Iowa 29-26 (3OT)
Aug 2019 · r/cfb
1k
[Postgame Thread] TCU Defeats Iowa State 62-14
Nov 2022 · r/cfb

All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes

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