Exuberance was the mood in Ames on Wednesday morning, and Jimmy Rogers seemed to welcome every bit of it.
When Iowa State wrapped up its first fall camp practice, several players let out loud cheers, and the Cyclones’ first-year head coach stood at the podium grinning as he spoke with reporters.
“You can see how excited they are after practice,” Rogers said.
For Rogers, that kind of energy matters. It also fits where Iowa State is right now: the start of a new chapter, with a new coach, a new approach and a roster that is still being pieced together. Rogers, who arrived in December, said the Cyclones are “light years ahead” of the Washington State team he coached last season when it comes to cohesion and understanding entering camp.
“Depth is being created every day,” Rogers added, explaining that the staff is using practice reps to help freshmen grow mentally while also giving them the physical work they need to execute. “There are 126 players on the roster.
Two of those guys (who are injured) technically can’t participate. My goal is to try to get everyone of those kids close to as ready as possible.
If they’re not ready, they’re not ready, but I don’t know where they’re gonna be at game three, game, five, game seven. I think it’s about giving people opportunities to separate themselves.”
Rogers has already made his stance on the program clear. He was the only Big 12 coach to pick Iowa State to win the league title this season, even as outside projections have moved in the opposite direction.
Las Vegas has lowered the Cyclones’ win total from 5.5 to 4.5. Rogers, though, isn’t interested in that number.
“I wasn’t hired for my disposition,” Rogers said. “I was hired to create a program that competes and wins, and that’s the goal.
We’re not signing up for second place. So I know that’s a bold statement, you know, printed everywhere, but the reality is the players have to believe in what you say, and you have to act on how you believe.
I believe that we can win. So they need to feel that.
They need to experience that. They need to see it every day in order to become it.”
That message has been consistent since he took over: this is not a rebuild, even if the roster looks drastically different. Rogers keeps framing it as a remolding, built around new pieces, new concepts and the kind of internal standards he wants his team to carry from day one.
He said that same idea applies all the way through camp, not just on opening day.
“I don’t buy into every year is a new year, every team is a new team,” he said. “There’s new personnel, there’s new emotions that come with everything.
Football’s an emotional game. You have to manage that - the competitive maturity - every single year.
And you have to push your players to get out of their own comfort zone. ….
They are extremely excited about day one of practice. Every team in the country is, and every team says the same thing.
Who are they gonna be the third and fourth week of camp is what separates the great teams.”
Rogers said the Cyclones are already farther along than where he was at Washington State a year ago. That matters to him.
So does the noise from outside, even if it’s mostly skepticism. In his view, the job now is to turn the belief inside the building into something that shows up when the season begins Sept. 5 against Southeast Missouri State.
In Other News...
Iowa State Enters New Big 12 Era Without One Revenue Boost
Iowa State football will head into the 2023 season with a look that is mostly unchanged from a branding standpoint, even as the Big 12 moves further into an era where corporate sponsorships are becoming part of the uniform. Athletic director Jamie Pollard said the Cyclones will not have a school-specific logo on their jerseys, leaving the Nike swoosh and Big 12 mark as the main visual identifiers, along with the Monster Energy logo that comes from the conference-wide deal.
For a league in transition, that leaves Iowa State a step behind several of its peers in the revenue chase. BYU, Oklahoma State and Kansas have already announced their own jersey sponsorships, while Iowa State is still without one of its own. The program will still benefit from the broader conference arrangement, but the absence of a separate deal is a reminder that not every Big 12 school is navigating this new marketplace at the same pace. [Read more 🡒]
Jimmy Rogers Is Setting An Early Tone Iowa State Fans Will Feel
When Jimmy Rogers met the media on the first day of fall camp, he sounded like a coach eager to turn a new chapter into an immediate standard. Introduced in December 2025 as Iowa States head football coach, Rogers framed the early stages of camp around progress, roster depth and the kind of player development that can keep a program competitive when the season starts to tighten.
For Cyclones fans, the early message matters because it gives a first look at how Rogers wants this team to operate before a snap is played. He did not talk like someone focused on shortcuts, but like a coach intent on building something sturdy, with enough depth to survive the grind and enough development to raise the level of the roster over time. The next few weeks should start to show how much of that tone carries onto the field. [Read more 🡒]