Kansas State rolls into Ames with a returning starting quarterback and a bowl memory to lean on, while Iowa State is still finding its footing in a rebuild that started from absolute zero.
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FRI NOV 27 · 11:00 PM CT
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Kansas State
Iowa State
Avery Johnson is back under center for the Wildcats after a 2025 season that ended with 2,385 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions, plus 477 yards and eight scores on the ground. He capped it with a 25th touchdown of the year in a comeback Rate Bowl win over Rutgers, erasing the largest bowl deficit in school history. First-year head coach Collin Klein, a K-State alum, built his staff around that continuity, bringing in Sean Gleeson to call plays and Jordan Peterson to run the defense.
Iowa State is playing a completely different game this year. Matt Campbell left for Penn State and took most of his staff and eligible roster with him, and more than 50 players hit the transfer portal on the way out. New head coach Jimmy Rogers, who went 15-0 and won an FCS title at South Dakota State before a 6-6 season at Washington State, is rebuilding with zero returning starters and a roster leaning on FCS transfers to fill gaps.
The schedule gave Rogers a small mercy early — Iowa State doesn't leave the state until mid-October — but by late November this is a young, unproven roster facing a veteran K-State group that knows how to win close games. Preseason forecasts have the Cyclones picked to finish dead last in the Big 12, with zero players making the preseason all-conference teams, while K-State projects closer to the middle of the pack with a favorable slate.
Kansas State Wildcats
Iowa State Cyclones
K-State's floor is a 6-6 team that found a way to win when it mattered, and Johnson's return gives Klein a proven engine even in year one of a new staff. Iowa State's ceiling right now is just competitive snaps — real reps for a roster that's still learning each other's names, let alone a Big 12 opponent's tendencies.
Kansas State Wildcats
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Iowa State Cyclones
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
By the time Friday, November 27 rolls around, this should read like a program with a plan against a program still building one. Ames crowds can be a factor late in the year, but crowd noise doesn't replace experience at quarterback or continuity on the depth chart — and right now Kansas State has both.
