Oct 18, 2025; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach Jimmy Rogers looks on from the sidelines against the Virginia Cavaliers in the fourth quarter at Scott Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
AMES — So, who is Jimmy Rogers? And why is he Iowa State’s new head football coach after Matt Campbell left for Penn State?
The Cyclones’ longtime athletics director, Jamie Pollard, had a pretty good idea about the former after a chance meeting with Rogers a couple of years ago, but he turned to an expert on the matter for greater guidance in Friday’s breakneck speed replacement process.
That would be ISU’s men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger — who spent time in the South Dakota State athletics program with Rogers several years ago.
“(He) said to me, ‘He’s Matt Campbell 2.0,’” Pollard said of his discussion with Otzelberger, whose tenth-ranked team will face top-ranked Purdue at 11 a.m. Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind. “He said, ‘He’s not gonna mince a lot for words. He’s not gonna smile a lot. He’s gonna be disciplined in everything he does all day long.’ I said, ‘So, you really mean he’s T.J. Otzelberger 2.0,’ and he laughed, and he said, ‘Well, you can say that. I can’t.’”
Rogers, Pollard said, saw 69 Washington State players go in the transfer portal when he was hired to lead the program. He replaced them quickly and guided the Cougars to a 6-6 mark and a bowl game anyway. Three of those losses came to teams currently ranked in the College Football Playoff — and they came by a combined nine points.
“You have somebody (who’s) no-nonsense driven,” Pollard said. “(Who) just loves recruiting, loves coaching football, loves being around young men that he’s helping become great citizens. And he’s proven he can do that and win a lot of games.”
Pollard noted Rogers’ own journey as a player for the Jackrabbits, eventually becoming a captain on the program’s first team that made the FCS playoffs in 2009.
“(He) had zero — zero — football scholarship offers,” Pollard said. “And he talked his way onto the South Dakota State football team, and went on to be an amazing football player. And he didn’t do it because he was getting NIL or a scholarship. He did it because of the love of the game — and I think that’s what it takes to be good at Iowa State.”
Rogers grew up in Chandler, Arizona, a stone’s throw from former Cyclone star quarterback Brock Purdy’s hometown of Gilbert. He’s been broadly considered an over-achiever his entire career as a player and a coach, and dreamed of leading ISU’s program.
“This feels a lot like coach Campbell,” Pollard said. “Many have heard me tell the story that Matt Campbell shook my hand (in 2015) and took the job, and I said, ‘I didn’t even offer you any money yet,’ and he said, ‘I don’t need to know what you’re offering me, I trust you.’ That’s unheard of, right? And that just happened all over again. When I talked to Jimmy to say, ‘If Matt takes this job, would you accept (ours) if I offered?’ He said, ‘Stop. You don’t even have to tell me what you’re gonna pay me, I’ll accept it if you offer me the job because I want to be there, and I know T.J., and he trusts you, so I trust you.’”
But will the current Cyclones “trust” the newest version of “the process?” That’s anybody’s guess, but Rogers is ready to put his stamp on the program — not as a version 2.0 to anybody, but to quote Campbell generally, “as the best version of himself.”
“This university has everything needed to compete at the highest level in college football,” Rogers said in a news release. “I am honored to be given this opportunity and responsibility and cannot wait to get started.”
