'Table for 12' Week 0: Iowa State's Ireland win reveals why Rocco Becht is so underrated

College football doesn’t tease its fans with a lengthy preseason of meaningless football games. For better or worse, it dives right into the deep end. For the most part, in a wet and rainy Farmageddon first half in Dublin, it was for the worse. 

Our first taste of college football in 2025 included four fumbles, six punts, a turnover on downs, and a missed field goal. Maybe it would’ve been better if it didn’t count. Nonetheless, No. 22 Iowa State and No. 17 Kansas State made it worth it after halftime and kick-started the title race in the most chaotic conference in college football. 

Week 0 gave us just six games, but if you know college football, you know it provided plenty of drama. It wasn’t quite No. 1 Texas vs. No. 3 Ohio State like we get next week, but Saturday was the first step towards the postseason, and it had some major developments. 

If Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti has his way, half of his league would play for a national championship at season’s end, but for now, at least, there are only 12 seats at the College Football Playoff table and 136 FBS teams hoping to make their reservation. Let the game of musical chairs begin. 

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1. Rocco Becht survives with new-look receiving corps (Iowa State 24 K-State 21)

Our main course is farm-to-table this week. Iowa State’s 11 wins last season were the most in program history, and with starting quarterback Rocco Becht back for his redshirt junior season, Matt Campbell has his No. 22 Cyclones thinking Big 12 title. They got one step closer to that goal on Saturday with a 24-21 Week 0 win against Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland, but they failed to answer the biggest question hanging over the 2025 roster. 

A high-level passing offense catalyzed Iowa State’s historic 2024 season, but that production was led as much by star wide receiver Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel as it was by Becht. Now, both Higgins and Noel are Houston Texans, and week 0 revealed that it may take time for Becht and Campbell to develop their replacements. 

Becht finished the game 14/28 for 183 yards passing and two touchdowns, but generated -0.17 expected points added (EPA)/dropback, and barely managed more than four yards per pass play. Becht was precise in spurts and appeared to be building a rapport with Brett Eskildsen, who, wearing Higgins’ No. 9, flashed with a beautiful route on his 24-yard touchdown grab. However, East Carolina transfer Chase Sowell, brought in to make some noise in the passing game, was noticeably silent. 

Sowell and Becht didn’t connect on the long, deep shot, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser dialed up, and that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. While the 6-foot-3 speedster averaged nearly 20 yards per reception last year, he was also plagued by a 15 percent drop rate. He’s too volatile to be a No. 1 target, so even if Becht displayed growth with his decision-making, pocket presence, and was hyper-efficient as a short-yardage ball-carrier (more on that later), his statistical output could take a step back in 2025. 

2. Chris Klieman’s costly gambles (Iowa State 24 K-State 21)

Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman gave us an indication that the analytics revolution might be complete. Fourth-down attempts are up across all levels of the sport, and they were way up on Saturday. Kansas State finished 1-for-4 on fourth down against Iowa State, including a failed fourth-and-1 conversion inside the Iowa State 10 in the first quarter, and an unsuccessful fourth-quarter fourth-and-1 conversion on its own 30-yard line, which led directly to the Cyclones' game-winning score. 

The first gamble was worthwhile, as was another failed attempt on fourth-and-long in no man’s land, but the stuffed QB sweep in K-State territory cost the Wildcats 12.1 percent win probability, the second-biggest win probability swing of the game on a non-scoring play. Only the muffed punt by running back Dylan Edwards, which was recovered by Iowa State at the eight-yard line, was more significant. 

The flipside of Klieman’s fourth-down failures was Matt Campbell’s aggressiveness, forgoing a field goal to take a two-score lead with 2:18 remaining, and sealing the game with a fourth-and-3 play-action pass. Klieman needs to stay aggressive to reap the rewards of analytically-driven decision-making, and after Week 0, he’s due some positive regression. 

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3. Jalon Daniels is back… at least for now (Kansas 31 Fresno State 7)

Jalon Daniels has been at Kansas since 2020, and for the first time last season, he finally started all 12 games. Yet, the results were underwhelming. Daniels has dealt with shoulder injuries and back issues that have kept him from tapping into his tantalizing talent. This is the last chance for it all to come together, and so far, so good. 

Kansas christened its new stadium on Saturday, and in the Jayhawks' 31-7 season-opening win over Fresno State, Daniels put on a show. For a player known for his out-of-structure playmaking, the redshirt senior was surgical, completing 18 of his 20 throws for 176 yards and three touchdowns, while adding 47 yards on eight carries. 

Once the 2023 Big 12 preseason Player of the Year, Daniels has been overshadowed by Sam Leavitt, Sawyer Robertson, and Josh Hoover, the conference’s most prolific passers, but with his dual-threat ability and newfound precision, he could be the most difficult player to defend in the conference. He just needs to avoid injury scares like this one.

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4. Matt Wells and Avery Johnson may have found something

ESPN’s Taylor McGregor reported that first-year Kansas State offensive coordinator Matt Wells was keeping a notecard and building a list of playcalls that his quarterback liked throughout the game, and even if you didn’t hear the sideline report, you could tell. 

It’s been a while since the former Texas Tech head coach has called plays, and it showed in the first half. In sloppy conditions, the Wildcats averaged 0.25 EPA/play in the first half with a 34 percent success rate. Wells didn’t get Avery Johnson on the move, and because he’s not much of a scrambler, with 73 percent of his rushing yards coming on designed carries last season, the K-State offense lacked its most dynamic element. 

In the second half, with conditions improving, Wells asked less of Johnson as a dropback passer, instead creating conflict with the threat of his legs and getting him comfortable on designed roll-outs. The results were explosive. 

He finished 21/30 for 273 yards and two touchdowns. Johnson may not be the star K-State hoped it was getting when Klieman let Will Howard walk to Ohio State, but the second half was too promising to write the Wildcats off in the Big 12 title race. 

5. Lance Leipold hit big in the Transfer Portal (Kansas 31 Fresno State 7)

Jalon Daniels’ injuries have stymied Kansas’s progress, but last year’s late-season surge was proof that Lance Leipold and general manager Rob Ianello have built a sustainable winner in the Big 12. Then, in Week 0, Daniels wasn’t the only reason that Kansas cruised to a dominant win over Fresno State; Ianello’s top transfer additions were just as impressive. 

Ball State transfer Cam Pickett was Daniels’ favorite target, catching six passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns, with most of his damage coming after the catch. He’s the perfect style of receiver to alleviate the heavy playmaking burden that Daniels attempts to carry on his oft-injured back. Another way to ease that burden is with an improved defense, and Bengally Kamara might be the leader of it. 

The former Pitt Panther opted to redshirt and preserve his final year of eligibility after just four games at South Carolina last season. The veteran linebacker was a force on Saturday with four tackles, a strip-sack, and two tackles for loss. It’s a long shot, but if Daniels stays healthy and Leipold and Ianello hit it big in the portal, the Jayhawks could find themselves in the mix for the Big 12 title. 

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6. Iowa State’s unlikely short-yardage solution (Iowa State 24 K-State 21)

For all the attention I paid to Avery Johnson’s performance, I have to give Rocco Becht some love. No, the Iowa State passing offense won’t be the same without Becht’s top receivers, but that could mean that Becht is even more valuable to the Cyclones this season. One of his most underrated attributes is how slippery he is in the run game, and his rare vision with the ball in his hands. 

It was an interesting juxtaposition between Becht and Johnson on Saturday, because Johnson has all the tools, but Becht was a more efficient rusher by EPA/carry last season, and was incredibly effective in Ireland. Three of Becht’s nine carries went for first downs, and a fourth went for the game-winning touchdown. As a runner, Becht added 25 percent win probability for Iowa State, compared to Johnson's -14 percent WPA. Last year, 56.1 percent of Becht’s carries went for either a first down or a touchdown, and he’s the Cyclone’s go-to option in short-yardage. 

7. A YouTube kicker is Hawaii's hero (Hawaii 23 Stanford 20)

I can assure you that this game will have no bearing on the CFP, but if I promise to deliver a sweet treat, there was nothing sweeter in Week 0 than Hawaii's win over Stanford. Trailing a truly dreadful Stanford team 20-17 in the fourth quarter, hobbled redshirt freshman quarterback Micah Alejado drove the Rainbow Warriors into field goal range twice for Kansei Matsuzawa to kick the game-tying 37-yarder and game-winning 38-yarder.

Matsuzawa is a JUCO transfer and a 2017 high school graduate who learned how to kick from YouTube videos after seeing an NFL game on a vacation to the United States. He began his kicking career at Hocking College in Ohio when he, as the story goes, spoke almost no English. I may focus almost exclusively on the Power Conference programs' quest for the national title and the millions of dollars they pour into it, but that's the beauty of college football. No matter where the sport goes in its unceasing evolution, stories like Matsuzawa's need to be preserved.

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8. Dan Mullen has an answer at QB and a bunch of questions on defense (UNLV 38 Idaho State 31)

When Dan Mullen replaced Barry Odom at UNLV this offseason, he added not one, but two former Power Four starting quarterbacks. Mullen planned to play both in Week 0 against Idaho State, but after an opening drive fumble into the end zone by former Michigan Wolverine Alex Orji, Virginia transfer Anthony Colandrea got the majority of the work the rest of the way. 

Colandrea is the better passer of the two, and did his fair share of damage on the ground, adding 93 yards on 13 carries to running back Jai’Den Thomas’s 147 yards and three scores on 10 totes. The only issue for the Rebels was on the other side of the ball. 

The UNLV defense, relying on nine transfers in the starting lineup, was rife with miscommunications that led to explosive plays for Idaho State. More concerning, though, was the FCS opponent’s down-to-down consistency, managing a 49 percent success rate. UNLV is a CFP dark horse, but Mullen’s group has a long way to go before they play UCLA in Week 2.