Jimmy Rogers is introduced as Iowa State’s next head football coach by Jamie Pollard in December, 2025. Photo by Jacqueline Cordova

AMES — Exuberant cries erupted from the mouths of several Iowa State football players after the conclusion of Wednesday morning’s practice.

And their first-year head coach, Jimmy Rogers, smiled at the impromptu outburst of enthusiasm while he addressed the media at the podium.

“You can see how excited they are after practice,” Rogers said.

Maybe that’s because the first practice of fall camp was over. Maybe it’s because the in-season process of building toward the Sept. 5 season opener against Southeast Missouri State was just beginning. Either way, hoots and hollers beat silence any day for Rogers, who took over the program in December and said the Cyclones are “light years ahead” of the Washington State team he coached last season in terms of cohesion and knowledge entering fall camp.

“Depth is being created every day,” added Rogers, who guided the Cougars to a 6-6 regular season mark in his one season leading the program. “Just by them (going through) practice and being able to double rep and trying to push our freshmen to get to the point of (being) an experience player mentally, and then giving him physically those reps to go out and execute those things. There are 126 players on the roster. Two of those guys (who are injured) technically can’t participate. My goal is to try to get everyone of those kids close to as ready as possible. If they’re not ready, they’re not ready, but I don’t know where they’re gonna be at game three, game, five, game seven. I think it’s about giving people opportunities to separate themselves.”

Rogers famously — or infamously, depending on one’s perspective — was the lone Big 12 coach to pick ISU to win the league title this season. Las Vegas oddsmakers are far less bullish about the dawn of the Rogers era with the Cyclones, as their over-under prediction for wins has fallen from 5.5 to 4.5. But ISU’s leader doesn’t give one rip about those outside expectations. Nor should he. No coach does, especially when instilling confidence is paramount to success in the nascent stages of a new regime.

“I wasn’t hired for my disposition,” Rogers said. “I was hired to create a program that competes and wins, and that’s the goal. We’re not signing up for second place. So I know that’s a bold statement, you know, printed everywhere, but the reality is the players have to believe in what you say, and you have to act on how you believe. I believe that we can win. So they need to feel that. They need to experience that. They need to see it every day in order to become it.”

That’s true the first day of fall camp. It’s true week one, week three, week seven and week 12, as well. Rogers has repeatedly said he’s not rebuilding ISU’s program even though most of the roster is entirely new. Instead, he’s remolding it with a lot of fresh pieces, concepts and sky-high internal expectations. So being “light years ahead” of a similar situation last season in Pullman is as important as his players’ early enthusiasm, as vocalized at around noon on Wednesday — a full month before the 2026 campaign starts.

Few expect the Cyclones to have more than sporadic success. Rogers’ job is to puncture those understandably low external expectations and turn year one at the helm into a memorable and remarkable ride.

“I don’t buy into every year is a new year, every team is a new team,” he said. “There’s new personnel, there’s new emotions that come with everything. Football’s an emotional game. You have to manage that — the competitive maturity — every single year. And you have to push your players to get out of their own comfort zone. …. They are extremely excited about day one of practice. Every team in the country is, and every team says the same thing. Who are they gonna be the third and fourth week of camp is what separates the great teams.”

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