***2026 Iowa State Football Season Thread***

[CyValley2]

I'm excited for the season. Some of that is that we don't have the expectations that we've had recently. The past few years, it seemed like every game had so much riding on it and if we lost, my whole week was ruined.

An insurgency is more fun, imho, than an expectation we're one of the favorites for a Big12 championship. Yeah, a title has to be the goal, I got that.

But, recall the first few years of the CMC regime? How much fun was it to knock off high-ranked opponents? Those victories got our Cyclone blood flowing like a river at floodtide. Excitement unleashed!

Myself, I was ready for a coaching change. All honor to CMC in my book, but something new and refreshing, yeah, let's do it.

I've kept up with all of it - the defections, the portal newcomers, recruiting, the coaches' interviews (this is my favorite staff, maybe because an effort was made to introduce them to we fans; but also because they're so well-spoken and you could cut their enthusiasm with a knife, so powerful is it; and not least because they are not hamstrung in expressing themselves without coach-speak muzzles.)

I'm not worrying about wins and losses. It will be what it will be. I'm along for the ride, and I'm hoping it's a fun one.

 

[SolarGarlic]

This was a pretty disappointing listen. Busse didn't have much new info. I thought maybe he'd have some sources on this staff, but apparently not. Bud is always condescending, so that's par for the course.

 

[CyValley2]

This was a pretty disappointing listen. Busse didn't have much new info. I thought maybe he'd have some sources on this staff, but apparently not. Bud is always condescending, so that's par for the course.

My impression was that Busse missed the boat on some of the information he presented, as though he is not as familiar with the subject as I expected him to be.

 

[RagingCloner]

This was a pretty disappointing listen. Busse didn't have much new info. I thought maybe he'd have some sources on this staff, but apparently not. Bud is always condescending, so that's par for the course.

I subscribed to 247 last fall to keep up to date on transfer news from both here and there, and Busse is the reason i canceled that subscription a month later

 

[BryceC]

Listen, I admire your optimism. Really. But, Rogers is started at almost ZERO. Even if he did unbelievably well in the portal, there is no gel in the team; and can't be, yet. The wheels will have to fall off on many of our opponents if we get to 7 wins. 5, maybe 6, wins is a hard ceiling as I see it. And really, I wouldn't hold it against Rogers if we only get 3 or 4 wins.

I’m not going to judge Rogers on this year at all. I think it’s entirely unfair to.

 

[BryceC]

An insurgency is more fun, imho, than an expectation we're one of the favorites for a Big12 championship. Yeah, a title has to be the goal, I got that.

But, recall the first few years of the CMC regime? How much fun was it to knock off high-ranked opponents? Those victories got our Cyclone blood flowing like a river at floodtide. Excitement unleashed!

Myself, I was ready for a coaching change. All honor to CMC in my book, but something new and refreshing, yeah, let's do it.

I've kept up with all of it - the defections, the portal newcomers, recruiting, the coaches' interviews (this is my favorite staff, maybe because an effort was made to introduce them to we fans; but also because they're so well-spoken and you could cut their enthusiasm with a knife, so powerful is it; and not least because they are not hamstrung in expressing themselves without coach-speak muzzles.)

I'm not worrying about wins and losses. It will be what it will be. I'm along for the ride, and I'm hoping it's a fun one.

I’m along for the ride, but as I get older, I only care about the wins and losses. I haven’t paid much attention to the portal, recruiting, interviews, etc. I’m fairly certain I haven’t heard any of them speak outside of Rogers at the Iowa basketball game.

Admittedly I’m about the same age as Campbell so I was kind of hoping he’d stay forever. Don’t begrudge him for leaving and I think Rogers has all of the hallmarks of a coach who can be successful here.