PETERSON: Iowa State has proven anything is possible, as Matt Campbell embarks on his 10th season

How about another 7-0 Iowa State football start?

Say what?

Yep. How about it?

Beat Kansas State in a few days, and bingo. I’ll see your seven consecutive wins — and also raise you one.

Sure, that’s mathematically possible. Eight opportunities. Eight wins.

But is that realistic?

Was it realistic a decade ago that Matt Campbell would still be a Cyclone in 2025 and since last December, contractually on board until 2032? After all the injuries on the defensive side of the ball, did winning the first seven games last season seem realistic?

How about two receivers going to the same NFL team in the same NFL draft, and Brock Purdy doing what he’s done?

That stuff’s real.

So, anything is possible, now that Campbell’s program has proven that it, indeed, can string early-season victories. Bet against them at your own risk.
Actually, the schedule sets up ideally. Against Kansas State in Ireland on Aug. 23. Home against South Dakota and Iowa. Win at Arkansas State – and then a Sept. 20 weekend without a game.

To recap: That’s a Big 12 game, followed by three of the non-league variety – and a weekend off to recover, regroup and return to preparing for the eight Big 12 opponents remaining.

The toughest among the first four, of course, will be Saturday against the Wildcats, conference favorites among the many alleged experts. Coach Chris Klieman’s team was ranked 17th on the Associated Press poll, and is about a field goal favorite against the No. 22 Cyclones in the season-opener.

The trickiest of the first eight games? At Arkansas State on Sept. 13.

Sure, the Cyclones smothered the Red Wolves 52-7 last season in Ames, and will be favored to win easily again during their first visit to 31,000-seat Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro.

Butch Jones, yeah, that Butch Jones, is the head coach. Formerly the coach at Tennessee and Cincinnati, the 57-year-old Jones is coaching one of the Sun Belt Conference’s pre-season favorites.

That Sept. 13 game (at 3 p.m., on ESPN2) is Iowa State’s fourth of four in a row, before a Saturday off to prepare for eight consecutive Big 12 opponents.

It’s a sure-win game, or at least it should be, but avid Cyclones can recall another “sure-win” road game that turned into disaster.

A season after beating Ohio University 43-10 at Jack Trice Stadium in 2023, Campbell’s team played at Ohio in 2024. A heavy favorite, Iowa State showed up not only with a bunch of sickness running through the team, but also unprepared players, and heap of bad play to go along with it. The resulting 10-7 loss in Athens, before just 22,000 fans, was a head-shaker – and a wake-em up.

Eight rushing yards on 12 rushes in the first half. Longest rush? A four-yarder by quarterback Rocco Becht. Average yards per rush? Zero-point-seven.

“The simplicity of it, is that I thought their kids wanted it more,” Campbell said after the game at Ohio.

“At the end of the day, to win a football game, I don’t care who it is or where it is, your physicality has to show up. Your want-to has to show up.”

Iowa State responded to Campbell’s most intense verbal spanking since becoming the Cyclones’ coach, by winning 17 of the next 24 games, playing in a Big 12 title game and beating Miami of Florida in the Pop-Tarts bowl.

Thus, by the time Becht has found his go-to receivers after his season’s first-fist full of games this season, the 2025 team could be on its way to another big season.

That’s realistic, too, in college football’s new Anything Is Possible World.

(Columnist Randy Peterson, a multiple State of Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at [email protected] or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)