Cyclones up to challenge of tough 4-game stretch that opens the 2025 season

FRISCO, Texas — If Iowa State earns a second straight appearance in the Big 12 Conference championship football game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in early December, no one can say the Cyclones took an easy route there.

ISU, which logged a school-record 11 wins last season at 11-3 overall, opens the 2025 season in Ireland on Aug. 23 against Kansas State and follows with a home date against South Dakota on Aug. 30, a Sept. 6 clash with in-state rival Iowa, and then a trip to Jonesboro, Ark., to face Arkansas State on Sept. 13. After that, ISU has two weeks off before resuming play Sept. 27 against Arizona at Jack Trice Stadium.

“Yeah, certainly a unique challenge when you look at the start of the college football season. We’re very honored to play in this game (in Ireland),” ISU head coach Matt Campbell said on Tuesday at Big 12 football media days. “As big of a challenge as it is, it’s certainly a great opportunity and happy to be able to be a part of it.”

Campbell is not only thinking about ensuring his Cyclones are well prepared to kick off their season against the Wildcats in Dublin, but he and his staff also are looking bigger picture, namely how ISU will fare against South Dakota, Iowa and Arkansas State.

“I think if you look at the history of the Week 0 game, I don’t know if anybody’s really handled it very well,” he said. “They won or lost the game, but they had some tougher moments post that game.”

Last season, Georgia Tech defeated Florida State, 24-21, in Dublin and won against Georgia State the following week before dropping a shocker two weeks later at Syracuse. In 2023, Notre Dame defeated Navy, 42-3, in Ireland and started 4-0 before losing, 17-14, to Ohio State in South Bend in Week 5.

Starting the season in Dublin is a unique opportunity, but one which Campbell and the Cyclones will be ready for.

“Obviously, there’s challenges, sleep or how you’re going to practice when you get over there, the scheduling,” quarterback Rocco Becht said. “There’s always going to be challenges when you travel overseas and Coach Campbell has done a good job of finding contacts who have been over there and come back, understanding what they’ve been able to do wrong and right.

“That’s going to help us.”

Senior offensive lineman Tyler Miller speaks for the entire team in saying they all know what a strong challenge starting the 2025 season with four games in four weeks presents for the Cyclones, but they know they’re up for it and ready to embrace such adversity.

“Yeah, I’ve been talking about being forged in fire. That’s going to be a tough stretch, and we have to be mentally tough, physically tough to get through it. I think the entire team knows that,” Miller said. “Take it one week after the next, no one game is more or less important than the other. Every game is extremely important.

“I think the entire team has done a great job coming together and building a culture that embodies that.”

And if the Cyclones do book a return trip to Arlington to again play for the league title, Campbell knows it will be because of one thing his team displayed in abundance along the way, including during this tough four-game stretch to begin the season.

“We’ve changed a lot of things in football, but the one thing we haven’t changed is are you tough enough? That toughness isn’t just physical, sometimes it’s mental too,” Campbell said. “We’re going to figure out if we’re tough enough to be able to do it again.”

Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas