Andy & Ari On3 - Iowa State GRINDS IT OUT against Kansas State in Dublin | Cyclones vs Wildcats Instant Reaction

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

It's Farmageddon in Dublin, and Andy & Ari break down Iowa State's big win over Kansas State in Ireland. Matt Campbell put his faith in his offense, and it paid off. Watch as Andy & Ari discuss how good Iowa State can be moving forward in the season and if it's time to re-adjust expectations for Kansas State. While the Wildcats lost one of its top returning weapons in Dylan Edwards early in the game, Avery Johnson and the KSU offense could never seem to get over the hump. Cyclones win 24-21 in Dublin, and Andy & Ari break it all down HERE!(0:00-4:42) Intro: Cyclones knock off Kansas State(4:43-13:49) Rocco Becht & Avery Johnson(13:50-16:00) Both teams moving forward(16:01-18:15) Schedule for the show(18:16-18:58)  Conclusion: Congrats to Matt Campbell & Iowa State!Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube here! https://youtube.com/live/geBa1O0FIYw Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] 

Welcome to your instant reaction for the first freaking college football game of the season. We are Andy and Ari on 3 presented, of course, by BetMGM. And Ari, I know how happy you are. And not just because you took a one game lead in our picks contest for the season, because you did pick Iowa State to win this game. I know why you're happy. I watched this game and thought Ari is going to be so delighted at the way this has turned out. He's going to love Matt Campbell. Matt Campbell's going to be his favorite

coach. Ari, when he sent the offense back out on fourth and three from the Kansas 816, what sort of sound did you make? I don't want to, is that appropriate? Like, do you want to know what sound I made? Because they called time out and they took the offense off the field. I thought maybe they were just, you know, and I thought they were going to. I was sure. Yeah, I was sure after they decided, after they tried to get them to jump off sides, I was like, oh, crap, they're going to kick the field goal and here we go. Nope. God, I got to say, I know we're breaking down the game. It feels so freaking good to be back talking about football with you live.

You know, I'm so happy to see the chat's bump and we're all fired up. That's like, are we in the point in football, though, where that's even not a bold call, the correct call? Like, do you really think going up six with two minutes left and giving another team that just, you know, hit a few wide open touchdowns on you two minutes to go down the field to win the game? like you want to win the if you're what's what's the higher likelihood getting three yards and taking knees or kicking making the field goal well and then kicking it off and yeah like it is the field goal is not a guarantee on that field on that day because like in 2005 everyone's kicking the field goal right like have we we matured as a college football coaching community and knowing that like of course you go for it there um you know what i i think is just great uh more than anything is not only

they did it, but when it pays off, I can't even imagine the importance that it has in permeating through the locker room. You know, you have a foreign flight. It's going to look like the one from Wolf of Wall Street, you know, hopefully not completely like it. But people are going to be excited. They feel good. And they also have like this huge, this is a huge win. It's not just because we're not just excited because football's back. This is a monumental big 12 game against two teams that we anticipated would play in Dallas for the championship. And to start your season like this, then you get to go home and, you know, you have a week or so, you know, or two weeks before you play Army, you have a pretty easy gimmee next week.

Like, this is a huge win for Iowa State, and I'm happy that they won it. And it's like so fitting that, of course, it was a three-point game. And of course, it came down to the two minutes. Well, the best part of that is I'm sitting with my son watching the four. fourth down play. And it's a, it's a pass to Carson Hansen, who Carson Hansen was awesome in the second half, by the way. I don't know if they were resting him or if he was dinged up, but whatever they did, if they want to do the back by committee where they just bring him in for the second half, go for it. Because he was great. But I said when they, when they said that, what play was

a touchdown, I looked at my son, I go, they're going to yell at him for that in film because he wasn't supposed to score there. And then they do the replay and you realize, oh, he didn't score and I'm like three point coin three point coin yeah now I don't know if we can mint the coin because they were three point dog so it was technically six true it yes actually yeah but like that was the quintessential big 12 game and I was like tweeting about it at the beginning of the game Andy it's like anybody in Europe who's learning about football watching um uh them play on a field that looks like it's in some random Kansas city park after a downpour uh cannot comprehend what we're seeing here but like the four turnovers in the first half it

felt like for me, and I don't know if you agree with this, but for the first half of that game that Kansas State was kind of kicking their butt and didn't take advantage of it. Except for one, yeah, except for one thing. Iowa State's defense came up huge a couple times in the first half. The time that mattered the most, if we're going to talk fourth downs. Yeah. Was that fourth down stop after they fumbled and Kansas State got the ball in the red zone.

Yeah. If you don't make that stop there, you lose. Yeah. And like that to me is the exact thing that, you know, a program like Iowa State and even Kansas State to a certain extent prized themselves on, which is why I think you saw so many instances of running the ball on critical downs in this game. You know, you think about Avery Johnson and Rocco Beck, and you look at these two

programs as teams that want to air it out. And we got 31 points from one, oh, we almost got 31. It was short by an inch. Well, and it's interesting. Avery Johnson, we're going to, if you're just a box score watcher, you're looking at this and going, oh, yeah, a pretty good game. 21 to 30, 273 yards, ran eight times for 21 yards and a touchdown. two touchdowns through the air, but it was too long touchdowns on two busted coverages.

Rocco Beck was the better quarterback down to down in this game, especially with his legs when it mattered most. Yeah. I don't know if we want to get into the Avery Johnson breakdown yet. We're only five minutes into the video and we want to focus on the winners. Is it fair to say that if you are putting together a college football playoff bracket that you have Iowa State in there is the Big 12 champ already? Like, is this win big enough?

I know we're in week zero, and I know the Big 12 is crazy. But, like, this is the one of the tent pole wins that you need to have in the Big 12 in order to get there. Like, Iowa State. It's a great thing to have. And if you look at their schedule, now we don't know what Cincinnati and Colorado are going to be. We'll get a better sense of that next week. But if we're just going on my preseason expectations, the real need of their Big 12 schedule doesn't hit until almost Halloween. They play BYU on October 25th.

So they've got some time to work some kinks out and could be just roaring by then. One thing I will say that was really a big positive, I thought, their offensive lines struggled a bit at first with Kansas State's defensive line. By the end of the game, they were moving those dudes. They were absolutely. Carson Hansen was good at the end of the game, but a lot of it was he had massive holes because they were getting so much push up front. Yeah, and like, I know we're going to,

overreact because that's what we do. Yeah. Like, Mike Campbell is so freaking good, dude. Mm-hmm. Like, it's just consistently good football from that program. And, like, I, I know that, like, three or four years ago he was,

you know, the darling next up, and he stayed there. And I know that if and when he ever leaves, and I'm not even sure that's a certainty at this point, it'll be for a place that he thinks is comfortable and is familiar and that he can continue to be himself at. But when you think about the limitations that Iowa

state and Kansas State and other big 12s are facing from an NIL standpoint. They're not playing the same games as a lot of the teams that are competing for the national championship are from a financial standpoint, but man, you know what you're going to get with this team. They lost their two most explosive receivers after last year and they're throwing the ball down the field. They're playing tough in the trenches. They're winning games on big ball calls.

I just like, I really like, if you're an Iowa State fan, that consistency of knowing that, you know, you might not win the Big 12 every year, but damn. and if you're not going to be good, it's got to be a really good feeling for a program like that. For a program that average four and change wins the season before Matt Campbell got there. He's completely changed the expectations for that program.

Yeah. Also, too. How awesome. I did it again, Andy. Also, too. Sorry, man. Also, how much fun would it be? Like, if I were a fan of a team,

like to go out to Dublin and just drink your ass off and watch that, then, you know, how much fun help just to win that game. what tonight will probably be like for them. The one thing that I will say, and I don't know if this is a, you know, overreaction, but get the freaking field right. I mean, like, you have this one game. Like, do they have crappy fields for soccer?

Like, why couldn't they get a nice field for them to play on? Well, I think there's not much you can do when it rains as much as it did before the game. I mean, you can have good field and good drainage and it could still get torn up because it was pouring all day. Yeah, and I guess that's what it does in Ireland, right? Like Ireland's like Seattle. Yeah, it rains 165 days a year or something like that. There's an active volcano in Ireland, let me know, and I know there's mountains there.

You know how I know that? The Bachelor, watching The Bachelor. They go there a lot. Of course. Of course you do. Now, I was so impressed with Rocco Beckt, keeping them alive a lot of the time, you know, converting a couple fourth downs with his legs.

The QB power was awesome. There was one where they just ran the option and he just kind of slithered through there and kind of okey-doked the guy he was reading. It was outstanding. So it's interesting because, again, if you're box score watching, you think Avery Johnson had the better game,

but Rocco Beck was the better QB in this game. Yeah. So is that a nice, like, natural segue to the number one topic on Twitter during the game? And that's, you know, Avery Johnson and his development and whether or not we've been overrating him, I think we probably have.

I think I can say that now. I feel comfortable saying that. What I asked you, Andy, did you watch the game and feel like, oh, he's playing poorly? I didn't think he was playing poorly. I just think I expected him to develop into something different than he is. It's not fair necessarily to him that people like me saw him as a freshman and thought he could be one thing. And he might just not be that one thing. You know, when the ball dried up, he was chucking it pretty well.

He had some good downfield throws once the ball dried up. But the running game, he had the touchdown early, which was a case where the defensive and then he was reading crashed really hard. Every quarterback in America makes that play. But he's not the lethal runner that we thought he was going to be when he was a freshman. You know what it is because he is really, really good at running the ball. is I think that, and I even made the mistake today on his touchdown run, but we've been hearing comparisons to Johnny Mansell since before he actually was even playing

that you thought in your brain that he's going to be some sort of a lightning rod that is going to be explosive and make your jaw drop. And I think the thing that really is hurting him is the expectation of jaw dropping plays and the lack of production of drop because he's, yeah, it's not, that's not who he is. And that's our fault for putting that on him. It's not his fault because he obviously was never that. It's our fault. Yeah.

But I still thought that he had some productive, like, qualities and plays in him. And, like, I don't think that, like, as we do the victory lap of Iowa State being in a really good position, that, like, they're cooked by any structure of the imagination. No. Like, they say it's going to be fine. But there were a few plays even where he had pressure in his face and he, like, danced around a little. little bit, you know, kept his eyes downfield and you made some, you know, throws that got them five, six, seven yards a few times. I was like, that's like, I mean, that's like high quality quarterback play. But you don't have the make somebody

miss and spin move and, you know, gain 37 yards. That's just not the type of player he is. And I think we need to readjust our expectations for what we think Kansas State is based on that. And I think we got to that point, too, part of the reason why. And you have to acknowledge it is that Kansas State, you know, had an impossible decision to make. They let Will Howard walk he goes on to win a national title at Ohio State and people thought well if they let Will Howard go this guy must be the next greatest thing and like he's from Kansas like you

had to keep Avery Johnson there was no there really wasn't a decision to be made there any revisionist history like of like did they make a mistake because Will Howard also went and played with some really good players and I think that also like I mean I don't know if you want to do this hypothetical right now and go completely off the rails

but like how many games at Ohio State win if every Johnson was their quarterback probably a lot you know like it's probably just as many yeah you know uh it's it's it's unfortunate but i think that we just need to readjust like what avery johnson is um and that doesn't mean that they can't be a product it doesn't even mean they can't win the big 12 this year but i think like as we watched the games i don't know that we should go into them anticipating that he's some sort of x factor that's going to take over the game because he did not make over that game speaking of x factor type players dylan edwards the very

fast back slash receiver got hurt on the first punt the one he might muffed and then he twisted his ankle. And so we didn't see him at all. So probably a big piece of Kansas State's offense was out. Yeah. So they did have to adjust that. But I mean, everybody's going to have to adjust injuries at some point during the season. But we did. If that doesn't happen, if he catches that punt, we may be looking at a different game too. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. They didn't score on the, on the Iowa State didn't catch that in. But because they fumbled. You do take somebody out there that's supposed to have probably between 15 and 25 touches in your offense that changes what you're trying to do and my hope for him is be okay i was amused by the first

quarter of that game or even the first half of like the first punt of the college football season was muffed inside the 10 and then three plays later or four plays later i always fumbled it and he's like yeah we're so back baby we are so because it's just like i i feel like we need to be eased up or eased into the the season like that we can't we can't have perfectly operated football right away. Like, we need something sloppy. Yeah. Well, I don't know.

Yeah. As the ball dried and the conditions got better, the play also improved. So I'm sure that that had something to do with it. Early game jitters. The fact that they had to fly to Europe, the turf suck. Like all those things were probably going to,

you know, produce high levels of grab ass. But I do, you know, anticipate that both of these teams are going to be very hard to beat in the Big 12 moving forward. And I would not be surprised if they played again down the line. Well, and that's right to get. How often do you get that? A game between two.

Right. Now it was a three-point game last year with Florida State and Georgia Tech, but it didn't feel like this. Now, we didn't know what Florida State was going to do next. After that, we just assumed Georgia Tech had played really well. But I do feel like we were watching two pretty good teams here that slopped it up because of sloppy conditions. At any time you have a game between two teams that are favored

to win their conference that you have three plays or four plays that you can go back and change the outcome of and it changes the outcome of the game. That's probably like I, I've always struggled with this as somebody who spent so many years covering the Big Ten before the Big Ten was really fun to watch. And like I feel like SEC games are really, really exciting and very physical and Big Ten games were to a certain extent in a very different way. But how do you analyze or identify high level football if it's ugly? like you know because at times you know the the the big 10 would be playing in these 17 to 14 games and the SEC will be 38 to 31 and you'll think that 38 to 31 is more high level because it's more entertaining but like I do you when you look at this game do you feel like that was a high level football game not in the first half

second in the second half it was but you had you had a muffed punt you had four first half turnovers you had broken coverages yeah you know you had all the elements of of like, well, that's sloppy as hell, you know, but at the same time, too, I don't know if I look at that game and go, you know, neither of these teams can win their conference. I think it's quite the opposite. That's how I, that's how I, I do feel still confident in both teams. It's a really fun way to start the season. Sailor Joe has a question in the chat. Are you still pre-recording or going live during the week since we're in season? Love you guys. Let's go watch Kansas and Jalen Daniels now. Okay. So here's the schedule for the season. through Thursday, shows will drop at 3 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Central every day. They will be pre-recorded unless there's crazy breaking news and we need to go live. Saturdays, we will be live, 11.30 p.m. Eastern. Now, I will tell you that first week, we're going to be at Clemson.

If that game goes long, or if there's a chance Brian Kelly might pound the table in the press conference, we might delay a little bit before we go, just to make sure we have all that stuff for you um yeah and also too i feel like we'll be going uh live after games quite a bit on saturdays just in general so you'll get the 10 30 p m uh live show every night to recap the saturdays but like when crazy stuff happens during the day on saturdays we'll be doing videos like this too so and also just subscribe to the on three sports youtube channel so you will get a push on your phone when we go live so it'll tell you exactly when that happens and that way if we have a situation during the week where there's really wild breaking news

that we need to go live, then you'll know. And you don't have to worry about following, you know, seeing the tweet or anything, it'll just show up on your phone. Yeah. And I also too want to address like a lot of the people because there are some people who are upset that we aren't live every day at 8.30 in the morning anymore. Let me tell you this, this new schedule for the normal person like that, that watches it, not the diehards that were there live with us every morning.

is probably more advantageous because it gives us the mornings if something happens so our episodes aren't outdated and it lets us come back with a more refined product. So I know that you guys miss the live daily shows and trust me, we do at times too. We'll do our best to mix in, you know, maybe more aggressively on Saturdays this year to give you that element because I know how important it is to a lot of you. And if it does mean a lot to you, it means a lot to us. So thanks for sticking with us and dealing with the change of schedule. we're really fired up for this year and we're excited to have a really good show. And we had a really good game to start.

And if a coach making the right call on fourth down, trusting his team, trusting his quarterback, having that attitude permeate the team for the rest of the season, what a way to start. Congratulations to Matt Campbell and the Iowa State Cyclones. As Sailor Joe said, we got games now to watch. We got Fresno State, Kansas later tonight. We got Stanford, Hawaii. Ari, this is just the beginning.

Yeah, don't forget Sam Houston State. I got a few shekels on that. All right, let's go.