Iowa State’s Jaylin Noel (13) runs to the endzone to score against Iowa during the Cy-Hawk game Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. © Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
After this week’s bye week, Iowa State football will have face 10 more opponents in the regular season in the next 11 weeks.
Here’s a power ranking of the games that lie ahead for the Cyclones:
10. Arkansas State (Home)
Be wary of this spot in the rankings for Arkansas State. I don’t think Iowa State is getting a pushover Sun Belt team here like it did when it trounced an eventual 5-7 Louisiana Monroe, 72-20, in 2019. Arkansas State was a perennial winner under Blake Anderson, who’s now at Utah State. Butch Jones now enters year 4 at the helm and the Red Wolves had the top-ranked recruiting class in the conference in 2022. On Saturday, ASU will travel to Michigan before making the trip to Ames.
9. Houston (Away)
Houston was poised to take the No. 10 spot after it got ran off of its home field in the season opener against UNLV. While the Rebels were slated to have a good year, Houston looked incredibly mismanaged and lost in its season-opening loss. It saved itself with last week’s game against Oklahoma (a 16-12 loss). The Cougars looked completely different. It’s still early and OU may have overlooked the Cougars, but this should still be Iowa State’s ‘easiest’ road game left on the slate.
8. Cincinnati (Home)
Cincinnati gave up 22 unanswered points to Pittsburgh at home to suffer its first loss of the season on Saturday. The Bearcats are coming off of a 3-9 season in which they had just one Big 12 conference win. Former Iowa State linebackers coach Tyson Veidt is leading the defense there. This program still has some building to do in the grand scheme of things and Iowa State drawing them before Utah could pay some dividends.
7. Baylor (Home)
Baylor was getting ran off of the field as many suspected would happen at Utah — at least until quarterback Cam Rising left the game with an injury. The Bears salvaged a 23-12 result in the loss, but like Cincinnati, they have a ways to go. Iowa State should be favored in this game by double digits.
6. Texas Tech (Home)
I made a bold prediction before the season started that by the time Texas Tech came to Ames for Iowa State’s Homecoming game, the Red Raiders would be 6-2 at worse. I thought there was a real possibility that Tech could be 8-0. However, in two weeks they’ve been bullied by an essentially conference-less Washington State and taken to overtime by Abilene Christian. There’s still plenty of time for the Red Raiders to improve, but there’s no bye week to take a rest. Texas Tech faces North Texas this week before starting Big 12 play the next weekend.
5. UCF (Home)
Iowa State fans should be thankful this game isn’t in Orlando at what UCF fans call, ‘the Bounce House.’ UCF looks to have an electric offense and prides itself on its homefield advantage. Although, the Knights are 2-5 in their last seven road games. If this was a tier list, they’d be at the top of this tier, but I think there’s some space between UCF and Kansas.
4. Kansas (Neutral, Arrowhead)
Iowa State fans will flock to Arrowhead Stadium to see the Cyclones face Kansas this November, which could be an advantage in this one. KU got taken down by Illinois over the weekend when it went away from the run. The last two games in this series have been down to the wire, and Iowa State fans will remember Jaylin Noel’s touchdown on the sidelines that got called back. This will be a revenge-type game for this group.
3. West Virginia (Away)
West Virginia presents the biggest test for Iowa State before the bye week that separates this season’s final five games. The Mountaineers return quarterback Garrett Greene, who helped the team to a 9-4 record a season ago. It’s too early to tell whether WVU is a spot too high or too low on this list, especially with the blowout loss it suffered to Penn State, but this is certainly the biggest spot over the next five games.
2. Kansas State (Home)
Depending on how the rest of the season goes, this Senior Night Farmageddon could be one of the biggest in the series’ 107-year history. The Wildcats had a close battle with Tulane this week and face No. 20 Arizona (will not count as a Big 12 game because it was previously scheduled) on Friday. Kansas State brought a lot of hype into this season, and if it can perform, this season finale could be a matchup that decides a Big 12 title game tiebreaker.
1. Utah (Away)
Utah has to be the No. 1 team on this list – the Utes have a number of potential future NFL players on its roster – but it comes with the caveat of the health of quarterback Cam Rising. This is a different team when QB1 isn’t on the field and it leaves a big question mark to what this game will look like in Salt Lake City.
Iowa State’s remaining schedule w/power ranking
Sep. 21 | Arkansas State (No. 10)
Sep. 28 | @ Houston (No. 9)
Oct. 05 | Baylor (No. 7)
Oct. 12 | @ West Virginia (No. 3)
Oct. 19 | UCF (No. 5)
Oct. 26 | Bye
Nov. 02 | Texas Tech (No. 6)
Nov. 09 | vs. Kansas (No. 4)
Nov. 16 | Cincinnati (No. 8)
Nov. 23 | @ Utah (No. 1)
Nov. 30 | Kansas State (No. 2)
