BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 8, 2026

Jimmy Rogers

Ford Center at The Star

Iowa State Cyclones

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Continuing today's press conferences at the 2026 Monster Energy Big 12 Football Media Days, our next guest is Iowa State Head Coach Jimmy Rogers. Coach, we'll start with your opening statement.

JIMMY ROGERS: Yeah, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to represent such a great conference in the Big 12 Conference. I do want to give thanks to Commissioner Yormark, Scott Draper, and everybody involved with putting on such a first-class event. This is truly special, not just for coaches, but for our players.

It's an honor, and I'm truly humbled to be the head coach at Iowa State. We have great leadership starting from the top, our president, athletic director Jamie Pollard. I wouldn't be in this situation, and I have a ton of gratitude to those people that have been a part of my journey thus far.

I know there's a lot of general curiosity about our roster just with so much change from one season to the next, both in coaching staff, but also players. I'm very confident in the players that we've been able to bring in, the team that we've assembled, that we extremely competitive this fall, and I look forward to the challenge in competing in one of the best conferences in the country.

Q. I wanted to ask you, what are some of the important portal lessons that you learned when you built this roster, and what also did you learn about yourself through this process?

JIMMY ROGERS: Well, I have the unique experience of doing this two years in a row. You learn a lot about yourself after you've made mistakes along that journey.

Both scenarios, completely different. Very similar in the amount of players, but I would say more than anything, be true to who you are, stay committed to what got you to that spot, and that's always been about finding the right people that fit the fiber of what you want to be.

I did that in the coaching staff this time, and I did that in the players, and I'm really excited about the type of players and their willingness to come in and work and to buy into something bigger than themselves. I'm really excited for this upcoming fall to see that come to fruition.

Q. Coach, what separated Jaylen Raynor this offseason to make him the definitive QB1 going into this season?

JIMMY ROGERS: I would say, one, he has a really high capacity. He's extremely smart. He initially started fall camp -- or spring ball a little slower than what I imagined, but his progression day in and day out -- I think he was having his best weeks going into the summer.

The most impressive thing about Jaylen is he's extremely talented. You can see that throughout his career. He's been a three-year starter. He took over at starter position three games into his freshman year. He isn't one to ever become complacent, but he's an unbelievable leader.

People naturally gravitate to him. In a roster of what is 84 new players, but 125 new players to him, the ability to be one week into a program and learn every player's name and create a nickname for them and those players to naturally gravitate towards his spirit and who he is and what he's about has been extremely impactful for us as a staff to have a guy like that that people he want to be around, people want to listen to, and they're inspired by how he works.

Q. To follow up what you were talking about with the roster turnover, so many new players, you were able to retain one key player, your kicker Kyle Konrardy. He's been productive in the past. Can you talk about the value that he brings to your team and special teams and being clutch in those situations and having a player like that on the roster?

JIMMY ROGERS: I think he can change the game. I think, honestly, Kyle may be arguably the most talented player on our team. Although people say you brought a kicker to Media Days, I think he's probably one of the best kickers in the entire country.

To witness it throughout a season of watching game film, but also to witness it live throughout a spring ball, watching him kick 60-plus-yarders up the net pretty frequently, he's a special talent. I think when you can do that, it changes the course of how you call a game. When you go for it on fourth down, what is four-down territory for you? It can keep people in a tough situation and how they play you defensively because of what you have as an offensive weapon.

The other part of that is when you have a great kicker, he ends up being some of your best defensive positioning where you are at on the field, being able to pin people, being able to kick it high enough to not allow people to take touchbacks or leave some gray area in whether they should field it or not.

He surely is a talent, and we're excited to watch him compete this fall.

Q. When you look at the reasoning of why you came to Iowa State, just what spoke to you about this specific program, about the Cyclones? Now that you've had some time to reflect on that, why Iowa State, why this program, why right now?

JIMMY ROGERS: I think it's a combination of many things. This is a perfect fit for me. I'm a big people person. I've recruited the state for seven years when I was at my prior tenure at South Dakota State. Had a prior relationship with Jamie Pollard and felt really confident about the leadership that was in place here.

My family is from South Dakota, which is just a four- or five-hour drive. For my kids to have relationships with their cousins and their aunt and uncles and their grandparents was extremely important to me because that is something that maybe I didn't have growing up.

The other portion of that is the opportunity to compete in a Power 4 school and to compete in the Big 12, a tough conference, a conference that the point differential is extremely hard. I mean, the point differential between winning and losing is the closest in the country.

To play every single game knowing that you could be playing a team that could beat anybody in the country any given week, as a competitor, that's intriguing. You win this conference, you punch your ticket into the College Football Playoff. You have an opportunity to compete for a national championship. That is the goal.

Whether that happens this year or next year or the years to come, that is the goal. That is the mission. The mission is winning, and to expect anything less or to take a year off, you know, to say that this is a rebuilding year, I don't think anybody in the NFL says that, and their rosters look different every single year, so I'm not going to buy into that.

We have a team that is committed. We have the right people in the building. We have to put it on the field and put in process and feel confident about where we stand.

Q. Can you talk about your decision to transition from the 32 split defense that Jon Heacock was running at Iowa State for the last several years to the 4-2-5 that you guys are running with four down linemen? Does that change your recruiting approach? Because now, instead of kind of getting back eight athletes, you need to get an extra lineman? Also, if you don't mind, is Isaac Terrell one of the guys who can kind of play a two-for-one on sacking the quarterback and the running back when you are playing a guard tackle counter and making both reads? Is he that type of player for you?

JIMMY ROGERS: To answer your first question, when we took over this, obviously there's an overflow of defensive backs and you're transitioning from a three-man front to a four-man front. And so there is a definite need to get more D-linemen into the building if you want to be a four-man-front team.

I believe in the four-man front because of I believe in stopping the run and keeping the line of scrimmage as flat as possible. Having the extra hat in there to rush the quarterback and not always relying on patterns and blitzing rather than technique and overall skill set of getting the right people on the field and bringing them in as like a wave of a hockey line-up, you're able to stay fresh and not take as many snaps up front to be able to withstand the season.

The next, you know, answer for me is Isaac Terrell I think is one of the best players maybe in this league as far as how he plays, and I haven't watched every single player in the league. I just know how he plays.

His style is relentless. He has unbelievable motor. I think he had seven and a half sacks last year and 13 tackles for loss. He's a guy that we can rely on to give his best day in and day out, and it shows up by how he performs on the field.

Q. You have Aiden Flora, who is a former walk-on. I'm wondering, have you seen a drop-off in that walk-on mindset when it comes to getting a look out of your scout team and getting the best out of your guys in practice?

JIMMY ROGERS: Well, right now there is no scout team. Everybody is fighting to earn a position. Aiden Flora was one of the guys right away, when I watched the film, stood out to me as a specialist. This guy is an All-Big 12 guy, returner for us. That was one of our first actions that we had done is call Aiden and put him on scholarship.

I think he's special because of how he trains, how he works. And none of that has dropped off. He's probably one of the hardest workers in the building.

We put the guys through a series of gauntlet drills in the spring, and he wants to know -- while many are trying to survive those days, he wants to know if he had any lack of efforts marked down on his name or how he could have been better.

I think that's who he is. He's a winner. He's a worker. He's a high school wrestler and a tough kid that's going to find himself impacting this football team at a really, really high rate this year.

Q. Your guys' nonconference-Power conference rivalry game against Iowa is something that fans look forward to. It's only scheduled for 2026 and 2027. Is that something you would like to see continue long-term?

JIMMY ROGERS: Yeah, there's no question. I think that's the pageantry of college football is the competitive nature and who you play week in and week out. That's why this, again, this opportunity was so intriguing to me.

Iowa is a great football team, and to take a rivalry away from the state, I would hate to see it. I think all rivalries across the country should be played. I think more teams -- what is it, in the state of Texas, is there eight FBS teams, and none of them play each other? I think that's crazy. That's just my opinion.

Q. Building off of what Matt Campbell did here, what is the identity of the Iowa State Cyclone football team for your program?

JIMMY ROGERS: Toughness. Toughness. A team that will buy into one another. A team that will be united when they step on the field together and that they have precise clarity what their intention is to accomplish something that they said that they were passionate about, and then having an unfaltering focus to finish, to be their best and to give their best to their teammates.

I think you can do that. You just got to get the right people in the building. They have to have the right coaches. There has to be the right belief system that is ego-less and that is bound by trust, purpose, and accountability.

I feel like we have that right now. But we've got to do something about it. It can't be all talk.