Iowa State football will be competing until the end in 2020

How will Iowa State football fare in 2020?

The Cyclones have a serious slate of a nine-game conference schedule and their one additional game for 2020. Their pursuit of an eight-win season is still possible but they will need to see some serious consistency in conference play as opposed to last season.

Here is the breakdown of the schedule in 2020:

• Game 1: vs. Louisiana (W) – The Cyclones will start the season with a big win against one of the top rushing offenses in the nation.
• Game 2: at TCU (W) – TCU is having to recover from a huge rebuilding season where they only return seven starters on their team overall.
• Game 3: vs. Oklahoma (L) – A key game for the Sooners will come down to which offense will be able to sustain a shootout, which will give them an edge.
• Game 4: vs. Texas Tech (W) – The Red Raiders will be building a brand new program from scratch after the departure of Kliff Kingsbury as head coach.
• Game 5: at Oklahoma State (L) – With both offenses looking to show their explosiveness, the Cyclones will not have home-field advantage.
• Game 6: at Kansas (W) – A second consecutive road trip isn’t a generous schedule selection but they will face the Jayhawks where they were 120th in scoring defense last year.
• Game 7: vs. Baylor (W) – The Bears have a struggling inexperienced defense coming in 2020 which could give Purdy another top-efficiency game.
• Game 8: vs. Kansas State (W) – Kansas State’s defense will have a hard time keeping up with the high-scoring potential of Iowa State.
• Game 9: at Texas (W) – The Longhorns’ were one of the worst defenses in the nation in defending the passing game as they were ranked 127th in passing yards per game (292.2).
• Game 10: vs. West Virginia (W) – The Mountaineers are going on a serious rebuilding season with second-year head coach Neal Brown.

Prediction: 8-2, 7-2 Big 12

The Cyclones will go into the 2020 season with a determined and talented team that will compete for a Big 12 title game appearance. The only taste of success that the Cyclones have experienced in the Big 12 was their divisional title in 2004.

Matt Campbell has brought the team to a form of success that could compete for a bowl game. They now have an obstacle of staying in the hunt for a conference title appearance.

Offensively, the Cyclones will be led by their star players in quarterback Brock Purdy and tight Charlie Kolar. Both players are looking to use this season to push their stock more for the 2021 NFL Draft.

They will not have the most explosive offense in the conference due to the inexperience with some of their other receivers and their offensive line. They will expect some surprising results from running Breece Hall as he goes into his second season.

The defense for the Cyclones is looking to be more efficient than last season as they were ranked 50th in the nation in points allowed per game (25.9). Their biggest issue was their efficiency on third down but their experience with their multiple starters returning will help with this. The Cyclones could afford to make some changes to their starting defensive line to become more aggressive in the pass rush.

Their linebacker corps and secondary will see a tremendous impact as opposed to last season due to a large number of starters returning.