GAME DAY: Iowa State vs. Iowa
Sixteenth-ranked Iowa State will try to keep the Cy-Hawk trophy in Ames and record a victory for the third time in the past four years when it hosts Iowa on Saturday in the 72nd meeting of the in-state rivalry. The Cyclones enter off a 55-7 win over South Dakota and are seeking to move to 3-0 during a season that began one week early with a 24-21 victory over Big 12 rival Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland. The Cyclones edged the Hawkeyes 20-19 last season in Iowa City. Not only will this weekend’s game be nationally broadcast on FOX, but it brings along the network’s Big Noon Kickoff show which will take place outside of Jack Trice Stadium. This marks the 72nd meeting in the rivalry, with Iowa holding a long-term edge in the series, though the last 26 years have featured a tighter split. After going winless in his first five tries, in much the same fashion as Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz had early in his tenure, ISU head coach Matt Campbell got over the hump in 2022 and has won two of three. Both wins have come in Iowa City, however. The 10th-year leader of the Cyclone program has yet to record a win in Ames.
Iowa State enters play Saturday riding the momentum from a 48-point victory over an FCS program in last Saturday’s home opener. It scored on nine of 10 possessions in the game, with the only non-score coming as the game ended with the ball spotted at the USD 1-yard line. The Cyclones racked up 529 total offensive yards, while holding their opponent to just over 200. After the Coyotes’ first two offensive possessions, they were limited to just 80 over the final seven. It was a record-breaking day for ISU’s third year starting quarterback Rocco Becht, who completed 19-of-20 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns, doing so in just a little more than two quarters of football. The Cyclones’ tight ends continue to be a story through the early part of the 2025 season, as they accounted for all three of Becht’s touchdowns on Saturday. The fourth-year junior completed 13 passes to tight ends for 165 yards. Field goals are often minor footnotes during a game in which one team wins by seven touchdowns, but Kyle Konrardy’s school-record boot from 63 yards helped him earn Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
In just the way he probably liked it, Ferentz rolled out a pretty vanilla game plan against Albany in Iowa’s season opener. The Hawks fell behind early in the second quarter, 7-3, as the head coach and his offensive coordinator Tim Lester tried to get new starting quarterback Mark Gronowski comfortable in Iowa City, before opting to just ground and pound the Great Danes into submission. The Hawks finished the game with 31 unanswered points and racked up more than 300 yards rushing on the day. It was the most rushing yards in an opener since the 2002 season. Last Saturday marked the debut of Ferentz’s 27th season as Iowa’s head coach. He’s the longest-tenured active head coach in college football. Ferentz is currently tied with Ohio State’s Woody Hayes with 205 wins for the most victories in Big 10 history. In his 200th game as a head coach, he won the 2023 matchup at Iowa State and will be looking to make a little more history during his return to Jack Trice Stadium. This is a Hawkeye squad that seems to have a few more question marks than usual on both sides of the ball, in terms of some personnel changes. They had nine first-time starters in the black and gold against Albany, including four on the offensive side and five defensively. Seven of those nine were making their first collegiate starts. One who wasn’t making his first collegiate start was the South Dakota State transfer Gronowski, who could still have some rust to shake off after completing just 8-of-15 passes for 44 yards.
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