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Iowa State rebuild includes 81 new players — and help from unlikeliest place
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- Iowa State rebuild includes 81 new players — and help from unlikeliest place
He walked into the place as players were filing out, beginning the buildout as they were pulling up stakes .
By the time the whirlwind of player procurement ended at Iowa State for new coach Jimmy Rogers , there were 81 players on the current roster that weren't part of the program a season ago.
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That's 81 of 105 players.
"It's college football now," Rogers says. "It's speed dating."
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But a strange thing happened during that rushed roster buildout, one that probably shouldn't be odd at all considering the source. The outgoing coach and his replacement spoke at length — while many of the more than 50 players from the 2025 roster eventually hit the transfer portal.
They spoke of player strengths and weaknesses, and floors and ceilings. They spoke of priorities and projects.
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Matt Campbell, whose successful coaching career at Iowa State was equal parts winning and loyalty to the university and city he loved for a decade, couldn't walk away and watch it crumble after taking the Penn State job.
So he went over the roster with Rogers, and did his best to help find some continuity. And this was after Campbell took a whopping 23 I-State players with him to Penn State.
If that shocks you, so should this: Rogers did the same thing when he left South Dakota State after the 2024 season for his first FBS job at Washington State — and after a group of players followed him from SDSU to Wazzu.
There's no hard feelings, just stone-cold realities. It's a cutthroat, hired-to-be-fired business, so why make it more difficult than it should be?
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Surely this kind of coaching camaraderie happens all the time at the Power conference level. Or never at all.
"Had a really great conversation with the staff that left," Rogers said. "No hard feelings on my end for the players that left with them. They want to play for their coach. It's where we are in this sport. You love them while you've got them, and and wish them the best as things come their way."
Then get down to the business of roster building.
For starters, the move to Ames left Rogers and his staff — many of whom worked with Rogers at South Dakota State when they won the national title in 2022 (Rogers was defensive coordinator) and again in 2023 (head coach) — in a familiar recruiting territory. They knew the geographic footprint, they knew the high school coaches, they knew transfer portal players because they recruited many to SDSU.
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But that doesn't make the 24-hour process any easier. No matter what Rogers did with high school recruits, the foundation of the buildout would be the transfer portal and the quick interview process.
So while they're recruiting a player in one room, another player entered the portal from another. While they felt good about a handful of these players from the portal, a few of those just won't cut it.
"You have to be willing to let talented players walk if they don't fit with your vision," Rogers said. "There were numerous players we walked away from because I didn't have the best feeling in my stomach."
So they kept grinding and kept pushing, from the day Rogers was hired on Dec. 5 (two days after the 72-hour early high school signing period began), to the day the transfer portal opened (Jan. 2) and long into February.
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They watched video, and graded game tape. They made calls to former coaches, trying to glean anything that could help make critical decisions.
There's is no grace period in college football. It's now or never, every single season.
No one cares the greatest coach in the history of the program just walked out the door with his starting quarterback, top four receivers, leading rusher, top four tacklers and four offensive linemen from a team that lost three one-possession games in a four-loss season.
They want to know what you're going to do — right now — to make it even better than the guy before.
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By the time the nearly 10-week controlled chaos was complete, Iowa State signed 28 freshmen (including eight early enrollees) and 53 players from the portal. Add that to the 21 scholarship players who stayed, and you're three players under the NCAA limit of 105.
Rogers pulled off a near identical flip at Washington State last season, and won six games — and did it with almost no ties to high school coaches in the Northwest and the reality of recruiting portal players to a program without a conference home.
The Cougars lost to College Football Playoff teams Ole Miss and James Madison by a combined seven points, and lost to Virginia by two and Oregon State by three.
That's a handful of plays from 10 wins in less than one season of transition on The Palouse.
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Not long after he completed his Iowa State rebuild, after he and his staff began preparing for spring practice, he marveled at how quickly this patchwork group had bonded. They like each other, they like their environment.
Then Rogers read an early breakdown of the Big 12 race in 2026.
"They had us last out of 16 teams," he said.
Imagine that, a coach who has never had a losing season as an assistant or head coach. Who has a 33-9 career record, including 6-1 in FCS playoffs.
A coach who, as a player, has never been part of a losing team. His Hamilton High School team in Arizona won 58 of 61 games, and his South Dakota State teams not only didn't have a losing season, they reached the FCS playoffs for the first time in 30 years in his senior season of 2009.
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So yeah, he knows how to win.
"I can promise you," Rogers said, "We won't finish 16th."
No hard feelings, just stone-cold realities.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa State football wild rebuild included help from Matt Campbell
