{"id":18756,"date":"2021-09-01T20:25:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=18756"},"modified":"2021-09-01T20:25:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T20:25:19","slug":"no-6-iowa-state-cyclones-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/no-6-iowa-state-cyclones-season-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 6 \u2013 Iowa State Cyclones Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matt Campbell has been the hottest name in the coaching world for the last few offseasons. What Campbell has done at Iowa State has been incredible considering the Cyclones were long mired in the cellar of the Big 12 along with Kansas. Paul Rhoads won just eight games in his last three seasons in Ames, but Campbell has taken the Cyclones to four straight bowl games. Iowa State has the second-best odds<\/a> to win the Big 12 this season, and the Cyclones might end up playing in a New Year\u2019s Six Bowl for the second straight year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iowa State Regular Season Win Total<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 9.5 Wins -105<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under 9.5 Wins -125<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OFFENSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brock Purdy is one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Purdy beat out Spencer Rattler to win First Team All-Big 12 honors in 2020, as he completed 66.6% of his passes for 2,750 yards with 19 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He was the second leading rusher on Iowa State too with 382 yards and five touchdowns on 4.4 YPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breece Hall was a First Team All-American running back in 2020. Hall was very effective whenever he touched the ball, running for 1,572 yards and 21 touchdowns while averaging 5.6 YPC. He could see more action as a receiver out of the backfield this year too after ranking third on Iowa State in receptions last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iowa State\u2019s receiving corps is stacked. Tight ends Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen were both all-conference selections last year, and Xavier Hutchinson was one of the Big 12\u2019s best receivers. Hutchinson hauled in 64 receptions for 771 yards and four touchdowns last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This offensive line returns four of five starters from 2020, giving Iowa State 10 starters back on offense. Guard Trevor Downing was the only player that didn\u2019t start last year, but he started every game for Iowa State in 2019 before missing the past season due to injury. Colin Newell and Derek Schweiger were both all-conference selections in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DEFENSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine starters return on defense for the Cyclones. Defensive end Will McDonald was a First Team All-Big 12 pick in 2020 after recording 10.5 sacks, and he will anchor one side of the line. Eyioma Uwazurike is seen as a very good talent too at defensive tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These linebackers are the best in the Big 12. Mike Rose is the conference\u2019s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and he is seen as a potential first-round pick in next year\u2019s NFL Draft. O\u2019Rien Vance and Jake Hummel are likely to play on Sundays too, proving there are some Big 12 teams that can play defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cyclones should have one of the top secondaries in the conference too. While this is the \u201cweak link\u201d of the defense, most of the teams in the Big 12 would love to have their experience and talented defensive backs like Isheem Young, Anthony Johnson Jr., and Greg Eisworth II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SCHEDULE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iowa State\u2019s only difficult non-conference opponent will be in-state rival Iowa on September 11. If the Cyclones can make it through that game unscathed, they have a great chance to be unbeaten<\/a> heading into November. The schedule gets more difficult from there though, as the Cyclones face Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and TCU in that month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PREDICTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be disappointing if the Cyclones won less than nine games. Iowa State has more returning starters than almost any team in the country, and the schedule for the first two months of the season is favorable. November is going to be difficult with at least one likely loss, but Iowa State should be able to win 10 games<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow our <\/em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to our <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Campbell has been the hottest name in the coaching world for the last few offseasons. What Campbell has done…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18764,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756\/revisions\/18764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}