The Wide Right Natty Lite staff predicts the 2025 football season.
Levi Stevenson
What Makes or Breaks the Season –
This team is very deep at a lot of positions, so I don’t know if any one thing is really capable of “breaking” the season on its own, but the offensive line taking a step forward and powering a Top-40ish running game would likely be enough to get them back to Arlington for another try at the Big 12 Championship.Overall Record – 12-3
Conference Record – 7-2
Offensive Team MVP – Rocco Becht
Defensive Team
MVP – Domonique Orange
Offensive Breakout Star – Chase Sowell
Defensive Breakout Star – Ta’Shawn James
Breakdown of Season – Iowa State kicks off the season with a close victory over Kansas State in Dublin in arguably the biggest Week 0 game in at least the last 25 years. However, the international travel nearly comes back to bite as a very good South Dakota team gives the Cyclones a scare at home, but Fourth Quarter Rocco comes to play and helps Iowa State escape 2-0.
Then Iowa comes to town, and Mark Gronowski has a very difficult day trying to complete passes to a lackluster group of receivers and tight ends in the middle of a very experienced Iowa State secondary, and Iowa State takes the CyHawk trophy for the third time in four years.
Next up, the Cyclones head to Jonesboro to face a plucky Arkansas State team with some real firepower, but the Red Wolves’ complete lack of interest in playing defense turns this game into a blowout fairly early on.
The Cyclones then rattle off three straight wins against Arizona, Cincinnati, and a Colorado team that’s still trying to find its identity and is beginning to find itself embroiled in a QB controversy.
The Cyclones are now 6-0 and in the AP Top Ten with as good a resume as anyone in college football.
BYU comes to Ames in a game that is still highly anticipated, but maybe just slightly less so with BYU coming back down to earth a bit from last season due to struggles in the passing game. No matter, as Iowa State takes care of business against the Cougars and moves to 7-0.
Then, in what will likely be the biggest game of the regular season, Arizona State comes to town for a rematch of the 2024 Big 12 Championship. Sam Leavitt is mostly living up to expectations, but Matt Campbell’s group is out for blood and puts away the Sun Devils by two scores in a fashion reminiscent of the 2018 upset of West Virginia.
Iowa State is now 8-0 and knocking on the door of the top 5 as they head to Fort Worth.
Unfortunately, this is where Iowa State’s undefeated season comes to an end as the talented Horned Frogs grab the win at home, while Iowa State has maybe its poorest showing of the season.
When it rains, it pours, and the Cyclones drop a second consecutive game, this time at the hands of a Kansas team that has repeatedly given Iowa State fits in the Lance Leipold era. Their scheme is just a nightmare to defend with Jon Heacock’s scheme, and suddenly, everyone is wondering what’s wrong with Iowa State.
Matt Campbell and company take care of business in a sneaky tough road game in Stillwater, despite the opponent being a rudderless Oklahoma State team that is playing without Mike Gundy roaming the sidelines for the first time in two decades. It seals Iowa State into a return to the Big 12 Championship, where they will play the Baylor Bears.
Baylor becomes the trendy pick to win the title after Dave Aranda successfully saves his job and Iowa State loses two of four to finish the season. However, the deeper and better coached Cyclones are too much for Baylor, capturing the first conference title in well over a century and locking up a berth in the College Football Playoff.
Because of the new seeding structure in the playoff, conference champions are no longer guaranteed a top five seed, causing the Big 12 Champion Cyclones to end up as a 6-seed and earn a home playoff game in the first round against an Illinois team that rode an easy schedule to an at-large berth. The Cyclones take down the largely untested Illini and earn a quarterfinal date with Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, the dream season comes to an end against an extremely talented and well-coached Fighting Irish squad that’s hell-bent on getting back to the National Championship game.
All-in-all, it’s an amazing accomplishment for everyone involved to be able to follow up the best season in school history with an even better one.
Iowa State begins the 2026 season ranked #24 in the AP Poll after losing almost nobody from a CFP quarterfinalist team.
GIF To Summarize The Season –
David Braga
What Makes or Breaks the Season – The Wide Receiver Room. Replacing the production of Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel is something that not a lot of teams have to go through, but Iowa State will have to this year. Guys like Chase Sowell, Xavier Townsend, Eli Green, Dominic Overby, Daniel Jackson… I could go on… will need to play an important role in the success of this team. Catching passes from Rocco Becht should help with that.
Overall Record – 11-4
Conference Record – 7-2
Offensive Team MVP – Rocco Becht
Defensive Team MVP – Domonique Orange
Offensive Breakout Star – Eli Green
Defensive Breakout Star – Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman
Breakdown of Season – There is no chance on the planet I’m picking Iowa State to lose to Kansas State. Kinda like how there’s no chance I’m picking Iowa State to beat Iowa (I know we did it last year, but until we do it in Ames, I don’t think I can.) Beyond that, I don’t particularly like this non-con schedule knowing we start the year traveling across the Atlantic. Coming home to play a Top 5 FCS team rattles my core far more than it should, and we’ve already seen what going on the road in the non-con against “lesser” conference opponents does… *shudders at the mentioning of Skyline Chili.* I do think the Cyclones get to the first bye at 3-1 before starting the meat of conference play where I think things get interesting. I love hitting the ground running against Arizona and what should be an improved Cincinnati team. 2 good wins to get to 5-1 before traveling to take on Colorado and the Fighting Deions. I think there’s another win before going back-to-back at home against BYU and Arizona State. The Cyclones split there, beating BYU and losing a close one to ASU. Then I think there’s an interesting spot here at TCU, at home against Kansas, and closing out at Oklahoma State. We saw the Cyclones hit an odd rut last year against Texas Tech and Kansas last year, and I could see something similar happening here. I see us dropping one of those three, but still sitting 7-2 in the conference and very much eyeing a spot in the Big 12 Title game. I think we’ll see us back in Arlington against Texas Tech in what will be a sloppy and messy top of the Big 12 with us, the Red Raiders, the Sun Devils, and the Mildcats. The Cyclones will take down the Red Raiders and secure one of the CFP bids that sees us in a road playoff game against someone that probably shouldn’t be ranked higher than us. We’ll then matchup well against whoever in the semifinals, but come up a few plays short and finish the year with our second straight 11-win year, thanks to some postseason success.
Oh, and also we’ll wear the black unis enough to make the random nonsense talking point CFB twitter accounts talk about it.
GIF To Summarize The Season –
Austin Keeney
What Makes or Breaks the Season – Does Rocco Becht have one more level up in his game? Last season, we saw Becht be incredibly clutch down the stretch, but unfortunately some of that was necessary due to mistakes he made. As a now 2 year starter, and not having 2 NFL receivers to throw to, it’s going to be on Rocco to sustain the offense. If he has another good-to-great, the Cyclones will be competitive in a lot of games. There’s no one on the schedule that Iowa State cannot beat. If he cleans up the turnovers and play at an elite level with the new pass catchers, Iowa State can push for a Big 12 Championship, and he might just throw himself in the GOAT QB conversation.
Overall Record – 8-4
Conference Record – 6-3
Offensive Team MVP – Rocco Becht
Defensive Team MVP – Caleb Bacon
Offensive Breakout Star – Xavier Townsend
Defensive Breakout Star – Jamison Patton
Breakdown of Season – Maybe I’m afraid to be optimistic, but I have a hard time believing Iowa State will win in Dublin. I would love nothing more than to be wrong. Iowa State and Kansas State play close games every year, and we have had their number a bit lately. I can almost guarantee Farm O’Geddon will be close, so the law of averages levels things out, but we will come away from the game with a lot of positives.
Same story for the Iowa game. Iowa State hasn’t won the CyHawk game at home since before I was in college, and I’m 31 years old now. That game, as always, will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes. It’ll be competitive and close but I have Iowa State dropping a heartbreaker at home.
From there, the season gets back on track. Iowa State will go on a surge, taking care of Arkansas State on the road and winning the first 2 “normal” Big 12 games to get to 4-2 overall. I have us dropping the Colorado game. It’s a weird road trip that this staff has never done. Colorado will have talent. Asking us to win back-to-back road games in conference play feels like a stretch. We will beat BYU and Arizona State at home, and while I’m a little lower on the Sun Devils this year, that will still count as a Top 25-ish win. TCU is going to be pretty good. Iowa State will lose on the road in Ft. Worth to fall out of Big 12 championship contention, but finishes the year strong with wins over Kansas and Oklahoma State.
GIF To Summarize The Season –
Tom Turner
What Makes or Breaks the Season –
You hear it everywhere but it’s the trenches for me. How well do the O-Line and D-Line play this season? The secondary and linebackers are good enough to hold their own, but if the D-Line consistently doesn’t get pressure, it becomes a huge problem. For the offensive line, just stay healthy, and let the running backs and tight ends do their thing. I think the running back room is a big part as well. It’s never easy to share a backfield, especially with the problem of finding a rhythm. But if Sama and Hansen start to cook….watch out.
Overall Record – 9-3
Kansas State: L
South Dakota: W
Iowa: W
@ Arkansas State: W
Arizona: W
@ Cincinnati: W
@ Colorado: L
BYU: W
Arizona State: W
@ TCU: W
Kansas: W
@ Oklahoma State: L
Conference Record – 6-3
Offensive Team MVP – Ben Brahmer
Defensive Team MVP – Dom Orange
Offensive Breakout Star – Carson Brown
Defensive Breakout Star – Jamison Patton
Breakdown of Season – I think the season will have a lot of highs, but the lows feel so much bigger. Everytime Iowa State builds some momentum, a tough loss occurs. Playing at Colorado is never easy and I truly don’t like the spot. Week 0 I truly can’t decide who will win but at the end of the day, I go loss. Then I do believe Oklahoma State is prime for a 2011 and 2021 revenge game against the Clones. Though the 3 losses do sound bad, wins against Iowa, Arizona State, and at TCU will be quite nice.
GIF To Summarize The Season –
Matthias Schwartzkopf
What Makes or Breaks The Season-
I think it’s the offensive and defensive lines for Iowa State. We got plenty of talent behind both of those lines right now but if these two groups can take a step forward and create havoc on both sides of the line scrimmage, it just makes life easier. This is year three of Ryan Clanton the time is now to put your money where your mouth is. On the same token this year three without Will McDonald and an elite pass rusher, the Cyclone defensive line has to find a way to be nasty with it’s front three in order for the 3-3-5 to work the most effective.
Overall Record- 16-0
Conference Record- 9-0
Offensive Team MVP- Rocco Becht
Defensive Team MVP- Caleb Bacon
Offensive Breakout Star- Dominic Overby
Defensive Breakout Star- Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman
Breakdown of Season- Pain and suffering for opposing teams.
GIF To Summarize The Season –
