First look at No. 16 Iowa State as No. 15 Arizona State prepares for Big 12 title game

The Cyclones are the toughest team the Sun Devils have faced this year

Kansas State v Iowa State
Kansas State v Iowa State | David K Purdy/GettyImages

Back in July at the Big 12 media days, Commissioner Brett Yormark made a bold proclamation about his new-look conference:

"On the football front, we will be the deepest conference in America. Every week will matter. Let me say that one more time. We will be the deepest conference in America and every week will matter.

November will be incredibly exciting and we will brand it as a race to the championship."

Yormark has proven to be prophetic, as the final week of the regular season kicked off with four teams in a tie for the top spot in the conference. Even after Arizona State and Iowa State won their games against Arizona and Kansas State, respectively, they were waiting on other conference games to wrap up before final tiebreakers could be determined.

The Big 12 race quite literally came right down to the wire, and it has now pitted the Sun Devils and Cyclones against each other this Saturday in Dallas. To make matters more interesting, the recent College Football Playoff rankings have made this game into a winner-takes-all showdown between the 15th and 16th ranked teams. The Big 12 champion will make the first ever 12-man playoff, while the runner up is almost certainly going to miss out.

The Cyclones present a fascinating matchup for the Sun Devils, too. Iowa State looked like a conference frontrunner for much of the year, despite being picked sixth in the preseason media poll. They started out 7-0 before falling to Texas Tech in a fourth quarter nail biter. A week later, they were upset on the road by Kansas, but the Cyclones won their final three games to maintain their spot atop the Big 12 hierarchy.

Iowa State is led by ninth year head coach Matt Campbell, widely recognized as one of the best coaches in college football. Campbell came from Toledo, where he went 35-15 as the head coach, and has now gone 63-50 in Ames. He's had the Cyclones bowl eligible in six of the last seven seasons and now has a chance to take them to their first ever playoff.

Campbell has received heaps of praise for the job he's done in elevating a program that's long been a doormat of the Big 12. His reputation as a culture builder has resulted in his name being floated for seemingly every job opening, even at the NFL level. But Campbell has remained in Ames despite overtures from the likes of USC and LSU.

Last year looked like it might be the beginning of the end, though. Following a 4-8 campaign in 2022, Iowa State's starting quarterback was suspended indefinitely for gambling just a few weeks before the season started, pushing freshman quarterback Rocco Becht into starting action. The offense was predictably uneven to start the year, and Iowa State stumbled out to a 2-3 start. But then things clicked for Becht, and the Cyclones won five of their final seven to finish 7-5 and reach a bowl game.

That momentum has carried over into the new year, as Becht has helped lead an efficient offense that reflects all the typical characteristics of a Campbell coached team. The Cyclones run a wide variety of formations and focus on ball control, as reflected by the fact that they're sixth in the nation in time of possession.

The defense is where the Cyclones shine, though. Defensive coordinator Jon Heacock is known as a mad scientist of sorts, and he uses a deep rotation of defenders at every level to throw the kitchen sink at opposing quarterbacks. They finished the regular season ranked 18th in the nation in scoring defense and first in the Big 12. Their pass defense ranks third in the nation, though their run defense has left a lot to be desired.

That should be music to the ears of Heisman candidate running back Cam Skattebo and Sun Devil fans everywhere. Arizona State is 24th in the country in rushing and Skattebo ranks inside the top 10 of backs in both yards after contact and runs of 10+ yards. He's also third in the nation in scrimmage yards and needs just 134 yards to become just 100th player in college football history to hit 2,000 scrimmage yards in a year.

Whether or not Skattebo hits that figure this week, the Sun Devils will likely be leaning on him a lot, as they have all year, but likely more so with top receiver Jordyn Tyson out with an injury. The Sun Devils' next leading receiver after Tyson is, ironically, Skattebo. Receiver Xavier Guillory and tight end Chamon Metayer are the only other players to have hit 200+ receiving yards on the year, but against this vaunted Cyclones secondary passing yards will be hard to come by as is.

We'll have in depth analysis of Iowa State's offensive and defensive schemes later in the week, but this is shaping up to be Arizona State's toughest opponent of the year. That's just the way it should be when competing for a conference championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Schedule

Schedule