This is such an Iowa State thing to say. Now that we are Projected to be ranked the highest in the program’s history you come out with that take? Lol.
Greg McElroy: 'Ludicrous' to call Iowa State football a top-four team
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So they are planning nine instead of eight, which is still less than ISU plays on an annual basis, heck WV had 11 scheduled a couple of years ago. Alabama has not played in a true away game outside the conference since 2011, 10 seasons, they are the master of playing games at neutral sites, all in the South. They have the best talent in football year after year, more advisory coaches that any other team, and they refuse to schedule a non conference away game.
The SEC has been gaming the system for years, before under the BCS they all scheduled a non conference cupcake before the last regular season conference game. You are correct Saban has said he would like to increase the number of conference games, but the only way it happens is if the playoff committee makes a rule, forcing it to happen.
We used a vanilla game plan in the Fiesta Bowl. How’d that work out?
UNI ain’t Oregon.
FWIW, this is the last year of the Neutral Site Games for Alabama. They are back in the home and home OOC business starting @ Texas in 2022, @ USF in 2023, @ Wisconsin in 2024, @ Florida State in 2025, @ West Virginia in 2026, @ Ohio State in 2027, @ Notre Dame in 2028, @ Georgia Tech in 2030, @ Oklahoma in 2032, @ Arizona in 2033 and @ Virginia Tech in 2034.
This is from the Athletic's Stewart Mandel in his mailbag column today:
As some of the preseason rankings trickle out, it seems sportswriters really don’t know what to do with Iowa State. They have been ranked as high as No. 4, as low as No. 15, and everywhere in between. Iowa State is certainly in uncharted territory, so does that make them this year’s team that could shock the world … or fall hard? — Mike
Iowa State finished No. 9 in the country last season and brings back 20 starters. If Iowa State’s jerseys were burnt orange instead of cardinal and gold, that combo would be an automatic recipe for starting in the top four. Even if the Cyclones were, say, Wisconsin, with that same profile, I’m thinking no lower than No. 6 (behind Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia and Ohio State, in some order). But because Iowa State is Iowa State, and has literally never swum in these circles before, I can understand why there’s hesitation. This is after all still a team that lost 31-14 to Louisiana in last year’s season-opener, and whose big Fiesta Bowl win came against an Oregon team that finished 4-3.
I had the Cyclones No. 7 in my early 2021 Top 25 in January, and I see no reason why they shouldn’t be right around the same place in my spring version, because, unlike some teams, not much has changed in Ames over the past three months. They’ve lost a few backups to the transfer portal, and picked up a couple of possible contributors. Brock Purdy is still the star QB, Breece Hall still the star running back, Big 12 sack leader Will McDonald is still priming to bring down QBs and Big 12 defensive player of the year Mike Rose is ready to rack up another 100 or so tackles.
The one thing that’s impossible to predict is how Matt Campbell’s team will handle unprecedented expectations. While Oklahoma remains the favorite in the Big 12, the Cyclones will start out with the kind of ranking that suggests it’s the type of team that should win at least 10 games. This is wild, considering Iowa State has never in its entire history won 10 games. (It went 9-2 in 2020.) Campbell’s program has thrived as the scrappy underdog for whom it’s still a big deal to beat Texas, as it has the past two seasons.
This year, Texas beating Iowa State would count as a big win for the ‘Horns.
As some of the preseason rankings trickle out, it seems sportswriters really don’t know what to do with Iowa State. They have been ranked as high as No. 4, as low as No. 15, and everywhere in between. Iowa State is certainly in uncharted territory, so does that make them this year’s team that could shock the world … or fall hard? — Mike
Iowa State finished No. 9 in the country last season and brings back 20 starters. If Iowa State’s jerseys were burnt orange instead of cardinal and gold, that combo would be an automatic recipe for starting in the top four. Even if the Cyclones were, say, Wisconsin, with that same profile, I’m thinking no lower than No. 6 (behind Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia and Ohio State, in some order). But because Iowa State is Iowa State, and has literally never swum in these circles before, I can understand why there’s hesitation. This is after all still a team that lost 31-14 to Louisiana in last year’s season-opener, and whose big Fiesta Bowl win came against an Oregon team that finished 4-3.
I had the Cyclones No. 7 in my early 2021 Top 25 in January, and I see no reason why they shouldn’t be right around the same place in my spring version, because, unlike some teams, not much has changed in Ames over the past three months. They’ve lost a few backups to the transfer portal, and picked up a couple of possible contributors. Brock Purdy is still the star QB, Breece Hall still the star running back, Big 12 sack leader Will McDonald is still priming to bring down QBs and Big 12 defensive player of the year Mike Rose is ready to rack up another 100 or so tackles.
The one thing that’s impossible to predict is how Matt Campbell’s team will handle unprecedented expectations. While Oklahoma remains the favorite in the Big 12, the Cyclones will start out with the kind of ranking that suggests it’s the type of team that should win at least 10 games. This is wild, considering Iowa State has never in its entire history won 10 games. (It went 9-2 in 2020.) Campbell’s program has thrived as the scrappy underdog for whom it’s still a big deal to beat Texas, as it has the past two seasons.
This year, Texas beating Iowa State would count as a big win for the ‘Horns.
We also lost to Louisiana 31-14. You are in denial if you think we don't struggle the first couple weeks every season.
My comment had nothing to do with how we had or hadn’t struggled at the start of the past few seasons. It had to do with using a “vanilla” offense, and how we have the personnel now to get away with that. Feel free not to be an ass and tell me I’m in “denial”.
Since you brought it up? For simple facts’ sake, we lost to what proved to be a Top 20 Louisiana team when half our team was just getting back from missing weeks of conditioning due to COVID protocols.
And in 2018, we were in the process of totally trashing SDSU—when the lightning came. A dismantling which would have concluded that “struggle every couple of games” moaning right then and there.
This isn’t going to be the same team of the first few CMC years. Not hardly. Get over it.
I quit watching people talk about Iowa state not as good as advertised. It’s poisoning the koolaid. The theme seems to be that we reached our peak last year and with basically the same team we should be around the same record as last year. Which would still make for a heck of a season but would leave a little sour taste in my mouth. Hard to imagine winning 9 or 10 games could even be looked at as disappointing but is our reality I think for this season. They also don’t take into account that those same players will get better especially with the coaching staff we have
Yep. There are two main reasons in my mind that this game won’t be close…
1. When we last played UNI, we were an overall above average team who hadn’t found a sliver of an identity yet on offense. This year, we will be far more talented, experienced, and know exactly what we want to do.
2. UNI was a far better team in 2019 then they will be in 2021. That year, they went 10-5 with losses to ISU (solid P5 team), Weber State (#3 and went to FCS Final 4), NDSU (#1 and National Champion), SDSU (#7 who UNI beat in the playoffs), and then they lost to #2 James Madison in the Elite 8, who lost in the finals to NDSU.
