Cyclones' new coach believes they can reach Big 12 title game. 'We're not signing up for 2nd place'

New Iowa State coach Jimmy Rogers is nothing if not confident.

The Cyclones are picked last in the Big 12 preseason media poll, return no starters and had 55 players transfer after Rogers was hired to replace Matt Campbell, who took 24 of the best with him to Penn State.

Rogers admitted to reporters in Ames, Iowa this week that he was the one who picked the Cyclones, in an On3.com anonymous coaches poll, to make it to the Big 12 championship game in his first season.

“What would you think if I didn’t vote on us? You’d wonder why I’m the head coach at Iowa State,” Rogers said. "I was brought in to win. Very self-aware. They didn’t hire me to come here and not be competitive. I wasn’t hired for my disposition. I was hired to create a program that competes and wins and that’s the goal. We’re not signing up for second place.

“So I know that’s a bold statement, and they’ll print it everywhere. But the reality is this: the players have to believe in what you say, and you have to act on how you believe. I believe that we can win.”

Rogers is replacing the all-time wins leader at Iowa State, which went 8-4 overall and 5-4 in the Big 12 in Campbell's final season. The Cyclones played in seven bowls in Campbell's 10 years — they opted out of a bowl last season — and appeared in the Big 12 championship game in 2020. The program hasn't won a conference championship since 1912.

Tight end Tyler Fortenberry said Rogers' prediction surprises no one on the team. He said Rogers' abundance of confidence comes from the success he was part of as an assistant and head coach at South Dakota State of the Football Championship Subdivision. In his only year at Washington State, he led a team with 75 newcomers to a 6-6 record and a bowl bid.

“Coach Rogers does a good job in team meetings making sure we're not focused on what Twitter says, what Instagram says or what the media says about what we're going to finish,” Fortenberry said. “They all have us 16th. If you buy into that and believe what the media has to say, you're not going to get anywhere in life.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football