Raynor named QB1 as Rogers era opens against SEMO
Jaylen Raynor is officially Iowa State's starting quarterback for Jimmy Rogers' first game, and the same depth chart settled a running back battle nobody had pegged as close.
Raynor's job is official — and so is the running back decision that came with it
Iowa State made it official this week: Jaylen Raynor is QB1 on the season-opening depth chart, per Yahoo Sports, closing out an offseason competition Raynor himself described as having gotten "more and more easy the more I do it," per The Gazette. He was voted a team captain within weeks of arriving from Arkansas State, and quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf's explanation for that is blunt: "He's invested not just in himself... He's invested in this team." Offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl has spent camp installing the offense he wants Saturday, and the word he keeps using is violent — "We're a head down, nose down kind of team, and we're gonna be violent," he told The Gazette.
The same depth chart carried a smaller surprise at running back: redshirt sophomore Aiden Flora, who touched the ball just 4 times all last season behind a group that is now entirely gone — Carson Hansen, Abu Sama III and Dylan Lee all transferred out this offseason, to Penn State, Wisconsin and UCLA — has won the starting job over Cameron Pettaway, last year's MAC Freshman of the Year at Bowling Green, per SI. Pettaway's line about the offense's identity — "You never want to be the nail. You always want to be the hammer... just be physical" — reads a little different now that he's opening the season as RB2, not RB1.
There's a stranger footnote to the same week: JJ Kohl, who threw just 4 passes for Iowa State across 2023 and 2024 before transferring to Appalachian State, has been named FIU's starter and debuts on September 5 at South Florida, Yahoo's Pete Thamel reported. While Raynor takes his first regular-season snap in a Cyclones uniform, the quarterback he effectively replaced in that room is taking his own first start three states away.
The Campbell era ended on 3 straight wins — this one starts from zero
Home losses to BYU (27-41) and Arizona State (19-24) had last season's Iowa State team teetering, and then it closed with 3 in a row: 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 turned out to be the last chapter of a decade under Matt Campbell, who left for Penn State this offseason and handed the keys to Rogers. None of it carries over as current form — the record now reads 0-0, and last season's finish is background for a new staff's first opener, not a form line for 2026.
SEMO already has a win this year, and it wasn't cheap
This is not a walkover opponent with nothing on tape. Southeast Missouri opened 1-0 last Saturday, beating Indiana State 23-21 on the road at Memorial Stadium, per SEMO's own athletics site. Braylen Ragland, making his first career start at quarterback, went 26 of 36 for 274 yards and a touchdown; John Anthony Jr. caught 6 passes for 88 yards and an 18-yard score; Khyair Spain ran for 66 yards and an early touchdown. Kicker Justin Keller made 3 field goals, including a game-winning 45-yarder with 7:04 left, to hold off a Sycamores team that had briefly taken the lead.
The Redhawks' defense backed that up — 4 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, with DJ Delmore turning in a career-high 13 tackles, per WPSD Local 6's recap. Rogers is treating it seriously: previewing this game, he admitted the Cyclones "have our hands full" against an FCS opponent that just won its own opener, Cyclone Fanatic reported, adding this week that "will we be perfect? We won't be; I don't expect them to be" — a coach managing expectations rather than promising a laugher. The one injury note on the board is receiver J. Bailey, listed Out with an undisclosed issue as of Tuesday, September 1, per Covers — it's unclear when he returns, and nothing in that report says why he's out.
Kickoff at Jack Trice, and a spread that says this shouldn't be close
Iowa State opened this afternoon vs. Southeast Missouri State as a 29.5-point favorite, with the total set at 53.5 — numbers that sit oddly next to a coach who has spent the week talking respect for an FCS team that just won on the road. It's the debut Rogers, Roehl and Raynor have all been building toward since January, and the record everyone will actually track starts at 0-0 the moment the Cyclones kick off.
A week later the calculus gets tougher: Iowa State is on September 12 at Iowa, where the Hawkeyes open as 11.5-point favorites in what the market is already pricing as a low-scoring rivalry game. For one more Saturday, though, the only thing that matters is whether a rebuilt offense installed over a single offseason looks like itself against a team that has already proven it can play a tight one.