Iowa State’s 2026 reset is already drawing a harsh early read, and the outlook isn’t flattering.
With Matt Campbell gone to Penn State and almost the entire roster following him into the transfer portal, the Cyclones are starting over in a major way. Iowa State moved quickly to hire Jimmy Rogers, but he wasn’t able to keep most of the roster in place, leaving the program with a completely rebuilt team and plenty of uncertainty heading into the season.
That uncertainty showed up in a recent Big 12 projection from Matthew Glenesk of USA Today, who laid out the conference standings after the release of the Preseason All-Big 12 team. In that forecast, Iowa State landed at the very bottom of the 16-team league.
That’s a brutal spot for a program trying to find its footing again, especially with a new coach and a roster full of fresh faces. The Cyclones also did not have a preseason All-Big 12 player, which only adds to the sense that this group is being overlooked before it even takes the field.
Still, Rogers has already shown he can work without much outside belief. In his first season at Washington State in 2025, he guided the Cougars to a bowl game despite plenty of obstacles. That team kept battling all the way to the end against Virginia and Ole Miss, and Rogers earned a reputation for getting more out of his players than expected.
Iowa State may not have the star power right now, but the talent level should be better than what Rogers had in Pullman last season. The bigger question is how quickly all of these new pieces can come together.
A last-place finish in the Big 12 would be a surprise, but it also gives Rogers and the Cyclones a clear target to push against. In the end, the season will decide far more than any preseason projection.
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Texas Tech Just Pushed Its Big 12 Drama To A Breaking Point
Texas Techs latest off-field mess has only deepened the sense that its relationship with the Big 12 is fraying. The situation has already spilled beyond one player and into conference politics, with the league taking a hard line and the Red Raiders left to absorb the fallout as the season moves on without the quarterback they had been counting on.
What makes this one linger is the bigger question hanging over the program now. The punishment has sharpened the tension between Texas Tech and the conference office, and the chatter around a possible exit has grown loud enough to make people around the league wonder what comes next, including whether the Big 12 would eventually have to look elsewhere to fill the void. [Read more 🡒]
Jimmy Rogers Made A Stunning Pick For Iowa States Best Player
Big 12 Media Day offered the first real glimpse of how Jimmy Rogers plans to frame Iowa States season, and the message was clear enough: this is a team in the middle of a reset. With a coaching change and plenty of roster turnover, the Cyclones are being viewed externally as a rebuilding group, but Rogers spent part of his time making the case that there is still a foundation worth talking about, especially on special teams.
One of the more notable parts of that conversation was his praise for kicker Kyle Konrardy, whom Rogers pointed to as a major strength on the roster. In a year when Iowa State may need every edge it can find, that kind of confidence in the kicking game matters, because special teams can swing field position, scoring range and close games while the rest of the lineup takes shape. [Read more 🡒]