Iowa State football: FOX Sports predicts Cyclones finish with last season’s record
By Brian Spaen
Expecting much change for the Iowa State football team this year? Not according to FOX Sports Southwest.
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FSSW writer David Ubben released all of his record predictions in the Big 12 on Tuesday, and he believes that the Cyclones will finish with a 3-9 record and two wins in conference play.
Here’s his reasoning:
"The Cyclones will be improved from last year, when they were the league’s worst rushing defense, one of its least explosive offenses and lost four Big 12 games by 31 points or more. That said, the depth of the Big 12 and a difficult nonconference schedule make cracking a bowl game seem like a big reach."
The prediction is legitimate. Fans can’t confuse positivity, hope, and hearing good things from fall camp to the immediate assumption that it should result in a bowl berth. It’s still a high hurdle to obtain six wins.
At least Ubben goes further than the simple nonresearched claims of oh, Iowa State sucked last year so they’ll suck again this year, or not even getting their record straight.
It does mean that Ubben believes the team will lose two non-conference games out of the pool of Iowa, North Dakota State, and Toledo. Considering the Hawkeye game is a road game and NDSU are three-time FCS champions, I would assume he believes the lone win is coming against the Rockets.
A counter argument could be to instead of looking at the 4 touchdown-plus losses in Big 12 action in 2013, there were three games lost by 7 points or less. The loss against Texas was a sham, a slow start cost them against Texas Tech, and if Grant Rohach threw more like he did in the last two games of the season they could have beaten TCU.
So, add three wins to last season’s win total and that’s a bowl. It was closer than most people think.
My vote is a higher win total for Iowa State in 2014, but I’m a little biased. What are your thoughts?