I know it was announced earlier this morning but its never too early to start thinking about assistants. I don’t know much about women's wrestling but I'm excited to learn!

Anyone have any ideas or early leads on who could be on Coach St. John's staff?

Official Coaching Staff
Head Coach - Alli St. John
Associate Head Coach - TBD
Assistant Coach - Jake Kadel

Please provide a critique of the Carolina Hurricane pregame siren.

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I saw an article from Slate.com that got bumped recently that discussed "Musical nostalgia". A lot of people my age listen to oldies music exclusively and it gets tiring to me. Whenever we have a bonfire or are in the car together, they play only play music from their youth. To me, it's ok, but I prefer newer music that I haven't heard so many times over and over.

Turns out that there is science confirming that it is a effect they are calling "Neural Nostalgia".

"In recent years, psychologists and neuroscientists have confirmed that these songs hold disproportionate power over our emotions. And researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we’ll hear as adults—a connection that doesn’t weaken as we age. Musical nostalgia, in other words, isn’t just a cultural phenomenon: It’s a neuronic command. And no matter how sophisticated our tastes might otherwise grow to be, our brains may stay jammed on those songs we obsessed over during the high drama of adolescence."

What you all think about this?

https://slate.com/technology/2014/0...ong-preference-and-the-reminiscence-bump.html

Top 10 dropped today.


One of my favorite places in my neck of the woods (Dan's in Cresco) made the cut. It's legitimately one of the best burgers I've ever had. They sold like 21,000 burger baskets in the first year they were open. If you're heading up to the Driftless Area to canoe or bike this summer, it's definitely worth the stop.

Iowa State is currently ranked 4th in the nation in the Shooty Hoops Living Top 25. This is a new website with very detailed NBA 2K type ratings. Interesting to see that they have Johnson rated as our best rated player for next year.

As a bonus, I have already gotten Iowa State up to 3rd in the nation in the Shooty Hoops game which is a basketball video game playable on web app and mobile featuring Flappy Bird style graphics. I need someone to take the torch and get us to 1st. Mississippi Valley is somehow over 16000 points higher than the next highest team.

Iowa State earned another commitment to its 2027 recruiting class in Waukee Northwest 3-star TE Joe Vinyard.


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What daily games do you play?

I've got

Maptap.gg - One of my more recent favorites
Globle
Puzzle Shikaku
Wordle (NYT)
Sudoku (NYT)
Strands (NYT)

I used to do a couple more through the NYT before they paywalled them.

I met my wife at Iowa State.

I also have two brothers, a sister, and a niece that met their significant others in Ames.

I'm curious to hear how common this is amongst fellow CFers.

And, it's the offseason, so embarrasing stories are encouraged.

This week our topic is songs with the following words in title or lyrics: all variations of the word mistake, error and blunder.

“On That Note” is presented each week on Cyclone Fanatic by @MeanDean, @cyclones500 and myself.


Last Week: Throw Me An Anchor

Since there is little to go off of for production as far as college, I have linked all of our current RB room's (Senior Year/Most Recent) highlights from HUDL. While a lot has changed, it's really cool to see their different play styles in action. I'm sure a lot have already seen these highlights, but with spring ball leaving more questions than answers, it might help to see them all in one place.​

Cameron Pettaway #0 (Projected Started)​

PositionRB Academic Year R-So.Height 5' 10'' Weight 175 lbs

Cameron Pettaway Highlights

Jayden Jackson #2 or #47​

PositionRB Academic Year R-Fr.Height 5' 11'' Weight 190 lbs

Jayden Jackson Highlights

Salahadin Allah #7​

PositionRB Academic Year Jr.Height 5' 11'' Weight 222 lbs

Salahadin Allah Highlights

Aiden Flora #21 (Projected Starter)​

PositionRB Academic Year R-So.Height 6' 0'' Weight 190 lbs

Aiden Flora Highlights

Ryver Peppers #22 (Injured)​

PositionRB Academic Year R-Fr.Height 5' 11'' Weight 205 lbs

Ryver Peppers Highlights

Easton Miller #25​

PositionRB Academic Year R-Jr.Height 6' 1'' Weight 225 lbs

Easton Miller Highlights

Feel free to comment your thoughts. I tried to keep notes short and free of cons since they were high schoolers and outside of raw talent a lot has changed.

This will pump you up.

What are you growing this year?

I just got done pruning my seedlings after some prolific germination this year. I usually do a few seeds per pod to help germination rates but I had multiple pop through in nearly every pod.

My seed planting this year:

Peppers
Biquinho
Hungarian Hot Wax
Zapotec Jalapeño
Chocolate Beauty
Mini Bell
Piri Piri
Moruga Trinidad Scorpion
Carolina Reaper
NuMex 6-4 Hatch
Sandia Hatch

Tomatoes
Wooly Kate Yellow
Rio Grande Valley Tomatillo
Queen of the Night
Peron
Blush Tiger
Chadwick Cherry

Fruits
Alexandria (Alpine) Strawberry
Schwartzenbeeren Blackberries(aka Huckleberries)

After trimming:



I have some quite leggy tomatoes at the bottom which concerns me a little but I’ll go the burying the stem route when I repot to the next container and likely again when I move them to the final container.

Also as you can see, only 3 pods didn’t germinate out of 72. All the same plant, the Carolina Reaper, which were free seeds from the pepper seed haul AND they’re known for taking up to 45 days to germinate so having one healthy looking guy after less than 2 weeks is pretty decent in my book. Maybe the rest will come through.

I absolutely do not have the space for all these to go to full maturity since I am balcony gardening in downtown Chicago. The plan was gonna be 5ish of the best looking plants as more of a testing season. But I might try for 10 now, don’t think I can fit 1 of each type (18) out there but maybe we’ll create an urban jungle.

What have you got this year CF?

With yesterday's rumors of the LIV Golf League perhaps in financial trouble:

What are your thoughts and have you watched any of their events?

Would you welcome the LIV players back to the PGA tour, or make them requalify / pay a penalty?

Jake Brend explains why Cyclone fans should take a page out of Aaron Rodgers' playbook and "R-E-L-A-X" about T.J. Otzelberger's buyout on his newest contract extension. Presented by Wyffles Hybrids in the Northwest Bank Studios. Login to view embedded media

Jake Brend, Rob Gray, and Ben Hutchens break down all there is to know about T.J. Otzelberger’s newest extension and what it means for Iowa State Athletics. The three discuss the impact of the $4 million buyout and where it ranks among other top coaches. Plus, they dive into Brend’s interview with OL commit Will Slagle and what it says about the future of Iowa State football. Presented by Kelderman Manufacturing.

I submitted an ot suggestion to Angie, and she asked if I could go ahead and post since she was going to be busy today.

My suggestion will be lame to some but it's kind of topical with recent celebrity passings we have had. The topic is a celebrity passing that affected you the most.

The one for me that comes to mind is George Carlin. One of my favorite comedians.

Former player who was dismissed from the team is suing the University, former AD Alberts, and present woman’s coach Amy Williams. Seems an an Asst coach was having sexual relations with her, they told him to deny everything. His lawyer just stated that the allegations were true!

T.J. Otzelberger agrees to a 10-year contract extension worth $6 million annually, making him the sixth-highest paid coach in college basketball.

DETAILS: https://cyclonefanatic.com/2026/04/...to-a-10-year-contract-extension-through-2036/

April 23-25 in Pittsburgh, PA

I did this the last couple years. Its now more important than ever to win these games for the conference. If the Big 12 wants to be taken serious we have to have an impressive non-con record.

Week 0/1:

TCU N UNC (Dublin week 0)
Colorado @ Georgia Tech
Baylor N Auburn (Atlanta)
Cincinnati vs Boston College

Week 2:

Utah vs Arkansas
Kansas vs Missouri
Arizona State @ Texas A&M
Oklahoma State vs Oregon
Iowa State @ Iowa
UCF @ Pitt

Week 3:

Colorado @ Northwestern
West Virginia N Virginia (Charlotte)

Week 7:

BYU vs Notre Dame

Teams not playing a P4 team (SHAME, SHAME, SHAME):

Texas Tech - no P4 scheduled until 2030
Kansas State - no P4 scheduled until 2028
Arizona
Houston
*having three of our upper half teams not playing a major non-con game really hurts

Conference splits:

Big10: 3
SEC: 4
ACC: 5
Indy: 1

Jake Brend explains the latest college sports gambling scandal with Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby. What does it mean for Iowa State and the Big 12? Presented by Whiskey River in the Northwest Bank Studios. Login to view embedded media

These are YouTube shows from around 2000-2012, that my family was introduced to by my daughter. We laughed so much watching them. We lost my girl in October of 2025, and for some reason I thought about them. I knew I could find Marcel because he's a world wide sensation with a book and a movie, and I thought Llamas with Hats wouldn't be too hard and it wasn't, but I couldn't remember the name of Kid History, and the only one I knew would know it immediately isn't with us anymore. It took a while but I finally hit the correct set of clues and Google provided the answer. My girl always made me happy. I'm glad I got to relive some of that today.
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Chris Williams and Brent Blum react to Brendan Sorsby’s gambling allegations. What does it mean for the rest of the Big 12? Kansas lands the nation’s top player while Otzelberger brings a huge recruit to campus. Diving into the latest NBA mock draft and more courtesy of Mechdyne.