Jaylen Raynor Wins Iowa State's QB Job Under Rogers
Jimmy Rogers hands his first Cyclone team to a three-year starter he brought with him, and says he's not building this program to finish behind anybody.
Jimmy Rogers has his quarterback, and it's a transfer he already trusts
Jaylen Raynor took most of the first-team snaps through spring and has carried that into fall camp as the clear frontrunner to start under center, arriving from Arkansas State with three years of starting experience and 8,694 passing yards to show for it, per 247Sports. Behind him, Zane Flores — an Oklahoma State transfer — and Connor Moberly are still fighting for QB2, and Rogers isn't handing that spot to anybody either: "These guys need to compete constantly and need to feel like nothing is set in stone," he said at camp.
Rogers didn't tiptoe around expectations for his first year in Ames. Asked about picking his own team to reach the Big 12 championship game despite outside projections that have Iowa State finishing low in the conference, he shot back: "What would you think if I didn't vote on us? You'd wonder why I'm the head coach at Iowa State... They didn't hire me to come here and not be competitive." That's the tone of the whole camp — a coach who watched the roster turn over and is still telling anyone who'll listen that this team is going to be a problem.
Before kickoff, the program pauses to hand out its two most personal awards
Amid the countdown-to-kickoff posts, @CycloneFB carried something that actually mattered this week: the 2026 recipients of the Nick Bassett Perseverance Award and the Curtis Bray Award, presented by players Cody Jackson and Jack Janikowski. Bassett was a lifelong Cyclone fan who battled scoliosis his whole life and died in 2022 at 29; the award named for him goes to the player who shows the same positive spirit and perseverance he did. Bray was Iowa State's defensive line coach for five seasons before his death in 2014, and the award carries his old number, 58.
The 2026 Nick Bassett Perseverance Award and Curtis Bray Award 🌪️‼️ t.co/Pq7WTkqAqv
The account also thanked "the Bassett family, Heather Bray and Cory Morrissey" in a separate post the same day — a reminder that these two names aren't just plaques in the locker room, they're families the program still checks in with every August. It's the kind of post that gets buried under gear drops and hype clips on a school's own timeline, but it's the one from this week actually worth stopping on.
Last season ended on a three-game winning streak, capped at Oklahoma State
After home losses to BYU (27-41) and Arizona State (19-24) put the 2025 season in danger of fizzling out, Iowa State closed it by winning three straight — 20-17 at TCU, 38-14 at home over Kansas, and 20-13 at Oklahoma State to finish last season on a high note in November.
That finish was the last chapter of a decade under Matt Campbell, who left for Penn State in the offseason and handed the program to Rogers. None of that carries over as current form — the record now reads 0-0, and last season's finish is background for what a new staff is trying to build, not a form line for 2026.
SEMO opens a three-road-game stretch of its own by walking into Jack Trice
Rogers gets his coaching debut on September 5 vs. Southeast Missouri State at Jack Trice Stadium, and the line opened with Iowa State favored by 29.5 with the total set at 53.5. Southeast Missouri State is 0-0 with games played this season still at zero, and comes off a 13-30 loss to Lindenwood last year — this trip to Ames is actually the middle stop of three straight road games for the Redhawks, sandwiched between Indiana State and Southern Illinois, per SEMO's own athletics site.
Redhawks coach Tom Matukewicz, entering his 13th season and picked second in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll, has been talking up a more balanced offense: "After six months with this team, I like our talent. Now we have to turn our talent into skill." It's a credible FCS program walking into a 30-point spread, which is exactly the kind of opener a new coaching staff wants — a chance to find out what its own new pieces look like before the calendar gets hard.