Iowa State football history: seasons, coaches, rivalries, bowls

Zeitgeist statureNational Program II#140 all-time– holding

Stature and coaches, 1936–2026

The program’s standing over time, with every coach’s tenure beneath it — read down to see who was there for each rise and fall.

Iowa State is National Program today. Never reached Dynasty tier; National Program is its high, most recently in 2026.

Iowa#1 nationally

DynastyBlue BloodPower ProgramNational ProgramRegional Program

Run↔pass identity, by season

Every coach, tenure by tenure, on the coaching page →

All-time 23-48 since 1895 · .323 win rate

Streak L1 Iowa holds the last 1

Trophy The rivalry itself No trophy — the season is the argument

Next 2026 season date set by conference

No fan reading for this rivalry yet this week. The heat trend and each side’s mood appear when fans start talking about it.

The last 5 · year-by-year

L 2026 Loss 13-16
W 2025 Win 16-13
W 2024 Win 20-19
L 2023 Loss 13-20
W 2022 Win 10-7

Program outlook

Matt Campbell went 72-55 at Iowa State — the best winning percentage in the school's history — and left for Penn State at the end of 2025. The roster largely followed him out the door. Jimmy Rogers takes over a program that spent a century learning how to lose and a decade learning how to win, and now has to figure out which one it is without the man who taught it the difference.

Since Jun 14: W 45-42 vs West Virginia; L 10-24 at BYU; L 3-39 at Arizona; W 51-49 vs Oklahoma State. 4-4 this season.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Jack Trice Stadium is the only Power-conference stadium in the country named for an African-American athlete. Trice, Iowa State's first Black player, was fatally injured in a 1923 road game at Minnesota; the letter he wrote the night before — 'my sole purpose of going to Minnesota is to play the best football I can' — became the program's moral cornerstone decades before it had a trophy case worth mentioning. Iowa State showed up for a hundred years of losing and kept showing up. The patience is not a cliche; it is documented and real.

Campbell arrived in 2017 and converted that patience into wins: a Fiesta Bowl, a Big 12 Championship Game berth, top-15 rankings, Brock Purdy from Ames to a Super Bowl. When he left for Penn State after an 8-4 season that briefly put the Cyclones at No. 12 nationally, the departure had the specific sting of something that wasn't supposed to happen — the good coach who was supposed to stay, leaving with the roster behind him. Rogers, a Campbell assistant, inherits the infrastructure and the depth chart question.

The 2026 season in Ames is a direct test of a question the Campbell era never had to answer: was the decade of winning about the program or about the coach? If Rogers holds the altitude — bowl game, .500 Big 12 record, the talent pipeline still producing — then the Campbell years changed Iowa State permanently. If the program slides back toward the bottom of the league, Cyclone country will have its oldest fear confirmed. The fanbase will show up either way. The question is which version of Iowa State they'll be watching.

On the field

Campbell's Iowa State ran gap-sound, tough, develop-and-keep football — a scheme that out-coached its talent gaps through patience and execution. Rogers inherits that structural identity: a run-first base, physical defense, and a program built to keep players who might otherwise transfer to bigger names. Jack Trice Stadium holds 61,500 and has one of the sport's most devoted tailgate cultures — a fanbase that turned up through a century of losing and doesn't stop now. The rebuild is real; the loyalty is realer.

Program outlook · as of Jun 14, 2026

Iowa State has won 44% of its games since 1895 — 53% at home, 34% on the road.

570-683-45 all-time · 132 seasons · 1895–2026

Home 353-278-29

Away 211-389-16

Neutral 6-16

50%

1890s

62%

1900s

62%

1910s

41%

1920s

38%

1930s

42%

1940s

35%

1950s

37%

1960s

50%

1970s

42%

1980s

25%

1990s

45%

2000s

41%

2010s

60%

2020s

Era record 81-78 13 seasons

Best season 11-3 2024

Top-10 finishes 1 AP polled only

Trajectory · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned

Program quality AP rank (inverted) CFP appearance

Swipe left for earlier seasons

Chapters · 13 seasons · tap to open the archive

'14 2-10 '15 3-9 '16 3-9 '17 8-5 '18 8-5 '19 7-6 '20 9-3 '21 7-6 '22 4-8 '23 7-6 '24 11-3 '25 8-4 '26 4-4

Iowa State’s 2014–2026 record is 81-78.

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers took over from Matt Campbell for the 2026 season.

Era Jimmy Rogers · 2026–presentPrev: Matt Campbell (2016–2025)OC: Tyler RoehlPrev OC: Taylor Mouser (2024–2025)DC: Jesse BobbitPrev DC: Jon Heacock (2016–2025)

The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →

1 year · era

Iowa State and Iowa, meeting by meeting

Iowa leads the series 48-23-0 (since 1895); in the last 10 meetings, Iowa State is 3-7

2026: Iowa won 16-13. After this game, Iowa led 48-23-0.

Last 25 meetings: ▲ Iowa State won, ▼ Iowa won, by how much

Each step is one meeting: up when Iowa State wins, down when Iowa wins, flat for a tie. Counts every game in our records since 1895. Tap the line for any season.

Moments in Iowa State history

Iowa State 38, Oklahoma 31Oct 7, 2017
Texas Tech 23, Iowa State 22Nov 2, 2024
Iowa State 24, Oklahoma State 21Oct 23, 2021

On this date, Nov 4, 2017: West Virginia 20, Iowa State 16

1923

Jack Trice’s last game

Trice is fatally injured at Minnesota; his letter the night before becomes the program's moral cornerstone

Wound

2020

First Big 12 Championship Game berth

Campbell's Cyclones reach the league title game for the first time ever, capped by a Fiesta Bowl win

2025

Campbell leaves for Penn State

The architect of the rise departs after an 8-4, top-12 season, and the roster largely follows

Heartbreak

Moment of the year · 2026

Won 51-49 vs Oklahoma State

Week 9 of 2026. Won as a 10-point underdog — the result the market didn't see coming. It turned on one snap in Q4 — Kyle Konrardy, a 70-point win-probability swing.

Iowa State’s chance to win through the game; the line turns dark at the play.

Sucks because Oklahoma state missed a field goal early in the game.. But this game was on the defense and special teamsr/CFB game thread

Upset · was a 10-point underdogvs AP #24

2022–2026

Iowa State has sent 13 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — one of them in the first round.

Steady. Reliable mid-tier pipeline.

13 picks · 1 in round 1

#15 Will McDonald IV Outside Linebacker · 2023 ·

New York Jets · #50/387 final season

#34 Jayden Higgins Wide Receiver · 2025 ·

Houston Texans · #5/466 final season

#36 Breece Hall Running Back · 2022 ·

New York Jets · #11/315 final season

#96 all-time · 2 first-round picksthe talent factory →

#	Program	Record
1	Utah	5-0
2	BYU	4-1
3	Texas Tech	4-1
4	Arizona	3-2
5	Baylor	3-2
6	Houston	3-2
7	Oklahoma State	3-2
8	Arizona State	2-3
9	Cincinnati	2-3
10	Iowa State	2-3
11	TCU	2-3
12	UCF	2-3
13	West Virginia	2-3
14	Colorado	1-4
15	Kansas	1-4
16	Kansas State	1-4

Iowa State’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026

2014–2015 · Mark Mangino2016–2017 · Tom Manning2019–2022 · Tom Manning2023 · Nathan Scheelhaase2024–2025 · Taylor Mouser2026 · Tyler Roehl

Defense2014–2026

2014–2015 · Wally Burnham2016–2025 · Jon Heacock2026 · Jesse Bobbit

Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)

Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Jack Trice Stadium

since 1923

Jack Trice was a Black ISU football player who died from injuries in a 1923 game vs Minnesota. ISU renamed the stadium for him in 1997 — the only FBS venue named after a player rather than a donor or coach. The story is the program's moral identity anchor.

Tailgate Lots

since 1970s

Ames tailgating is among the most-cited 'great experiences in CFB' in the Big 12 — converted Iowa farm-country sensibility, multi-generational families, the simple food + good neighbors aesthetic. The fan culture pre-dates and survives the football program's competitive ups and downs.

Matt Campbell Era (2016-2025)

since 2016

Matt Campbell's hire (2016) transformed ISU from chronic doormat into Big 12 contender. The 2020 Fiesta Bowl appearance and the program's first sustained top-25 era are the Campbell era's headline. Brock Purdy (2019-2021) was the most-popular QB in program history. Campbell's ten seasons (2016-2025, 72-55) ended after 2025; Jimmy Rogers took over for 2026.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.

BowlsLast 5 bowls 2-3, 6-13 since 1971

Recent postseason (1971-2024): 6-13

Most recent: 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl — win 41-42. Last 5 postseason: 2-3.

2024 W 2023 L 2021 L 2020 W 2019 L

Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/CFB moments

1.3k

[Postgame Thread] Iowa State Defeats Northern Iowa 29-26 (3OT)

Aug 2019 · r/CFB

[Postgame Thread] TCU Defeats Iowa State 62-14

Nov 2022 · r/CFB

All-time top community posts

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Iowa State

Stature and coaches, 1936–2026