Schedule Storylines: Iowa State Looks to Take the Next Step as a Program

We’re already to Week 8 in our series previewing the top storylines of Oklahoma State’s schedule, and it could be a huge game for both Oklahoma State and the Big 12 title race.

The Cowboys head to Ames [?] on October 26 for an early Halloween — hopefully minus the horror — in search of some payback for what the Cyclones did in Stillwater last season.

Let’s take a look at four storylines to watch for the Cowboys’ tilt with the Cyclones starting where we often do, at quarterback.

1. Brock Purdy is a/the Dude

For the first time in quite some time, Iowa State has its guy under center in Brock Purdy. Through the first three years of Matt Campbell’s tenure, he’s had a mixed bag on a carousel at QB. Now he’s happy to have an entrenched starter in Purdy, whose coming out party came at the expense of the Cowboys last year.

“We have been fortunate that we have had guys step in and really do a great job for us when their number has been called starting really with Kyle Kempt and Zeb Noland and last year with Brock [Purdy],” said Campbell at Big 12 Media Days.

“The nice thing about having Brock is Brock was a freshman and now you get the opportunity to build an offense around a guy and you get the opportunity to help him create ownership in an offense and continue to build with him, and I think one thing we have seen in this league, the great quarterbacks, they own it.”

(I love what Campbell said there about building the offense around one guy and creating ownership. Hopefully, Oklahoma State can be in a similar situation sooner than later.)

The next wave of Big 12 quarterbacks seems to be coming into their prime with the likes of Purdy and Texas Tech’s Alan Bowman — both freshmen who made a splash last year — and Charlie Brewer at Baylor. This could be the year that this next batch of QBs really stamps their mark on the league and Purdy may have the biggest ceiling based on the team he has around him.

2. Who Totes the Rock?

Campbell and Co. are tasked with replacing All-Big 12 tailback David Montgomery, and heading into fall camp it was a five-man race. Kene Nwangwu, Johnnie Lang and Sheldon Croney all return with experience, but freshmen Jirehl Brock and Breece Hall are very much in play for reps in 2019.

Whoever gets the lion’s share of carries will do so behind an experienced offensive line that returns five starters from a year ago.

3. The Year of JaQuan Bailey

If you don’t know the name by now, you haven’t been paying close enough attention. The Big 12’s returning sack leader was the best player on the league’s best defense last year, and he’s ready to take the next step.

Bailey has been Iowa State’s sack leader the last three years, starting with his 3.5-sack freshman campaign and then a combined 15 the last two seasons. His career total of 18.5 is tied with Shawn Moorehead for the most in school history. He’s set to push that far out of reach in early fall.

4. Can Iowa State Take the Next Step?

The Cyclones are coming off of back-to-back 8-5 seasons under Matt Campbell, an historic run for a program that hadn’t stacked up similar win totals in 40 years. And Campbell spurned offers from other schools and even turned down an interview request with the New York Jets, doubling down on his rebuild in Ames.

Oklahoma figures to be the favorite to win the league until someone changes that, and Texas (at least aesthetically) headlines a group of teams with aspirations of toppling the Sooners in Arlington in December. But Iowa State will have plenty to say about it.

Glancing over their schedule, a 4-0 conference start is not out of the question if the ‘Clones can avoid tripping up in Waco and at Texas Tech. But that’s when things get real interesting and the conference title race should take form.

Iowa State faces a three-game stretch of Oklahoma State, at Oklahoma and Texas that will decide whether or not the Cyclones can take that next step and compete for a conference title.

Can Campbell continue the program’s historic rise in 2019 or will the Cyclones take a step back? A lot of that will be dependent on the result of this game and whether or not Iowa State can win consecutive meetings with Oklahoma State for the first time since 2001.