Iowa State Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2019

Iowa State football finished 8-5 in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, two of its best back-to-back seasons in program history. How will they fare in 2019?

Before the 2017 season, it had been since the 2000 season that Iowa State had won more than eight games. It has now won eight games in back-to-back seasons, which is their best win total in consecutive years since the mid-to-late 1970s. This success is largely due to head coach Matt Campbell, who will be entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Cyclones.

Campbell has shifted the culture at Iowa State to go from where they were hoping just to get to a bowl game to entering the 2019 season with hopes of making it to the Big 12 Championship Game. Iowa State is looking to continue progressing forward in 2019 and have their best year yet under Campbell.

Iowa State loses a lot of talent from the 2018 season, but also returns a lot of talent to the 2019 squad. The Cyclones will have to replace their star running back from the past few seasons, David Montgomery, who was drafted by the Bears. They will also have to replace their No. 1 receiver, Hakeem Butler, who was drafted by the Cardinals.

The good news is that Iowa State returns one of the best quarterbacks in the conference in sophomore Brock Purdy. He took over last year and started the last eight games for the Cyclones and could be the best quarterback in the Big 12 by the end of the season.

The Cyclones also return a lot of their key players on defense and should have one of the best defenses, if not the defense in the Big 12 this year. So even with the key losses the Cyclones have, they have one of the best coaches in college football and return enough talent to make a run at the Big 12 title.