Southeast Missouri State came in with real reasons for concern beyond simply being the smaller program on the schedule. The Redhawks dropped from a 9-4, share-of-the-league finish in 2024 to 4-8 last year, a slide that started when they lost both their QB1 and QB2 in the same game. Coach Tom Matukewicz has talked about needing more depth ever since, and leaning on backs Cole Ruble and Payton Brown to carry a more run-first attack was the plan walking into Ames.
The plan lasted about a quarter. Iowa State led 14-0 after one and had it at 28-7 by half, the kind of laugher where the only remaining question was whether the new offense would keep the pedal down. Books had installed the Cyclones as 29.5-point favorites, and the final gap of 28 came close enough that nobody's going to remember the number by Monday — this one was decided in the trenches, not on a spreadsheet.
Give Southeast Missouri State this much: it wasn't a total no-show. The Redhawks got a touchdown in the second quarter and answered the third-quarter stall with points in the fourth, avoiding the kind of 40-plus-point wipeout that some FCS-at-Power-Four mismatches turn into. For a program trying to find its footing again after a rough 2025, walking out with points on the board in a true road environment isn't nothing.
For Iowa State, the box score matters less than what the tape showed a staff that inherited 83 newcomers. A clean, low-drama opener is the best-case version of a Week 1 install — no signature statement needed against an OVC team, just proof the pieces fit together before Big 12 play actually starts.