Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Iowa State writer Eugene Rapay talks about the Cyclones matchup with Utah and the start of the Jimmy Rogers era in Ames

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Iowa State writer Eugene Rapay talks about the Cyclones matchup with Utah and the start of the Jimmy Rogers era in Ames · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Eugene Rapay, who's kind enough to join us from the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Des Moines Register, covers Iowa State University. You can see
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: him there at DM Register or at USA Today, some
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of the writing.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Eugene Rapay, welcome to the show. How are you?
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: I'm great. Thanks for having me on, Sean.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you giving us some time here.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: So give me the overall outlook right now in Ames
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and in Iowa in general of this matchup as the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Utes come to town.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: I think if you're an Iowa State fan, you're excited
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: for this. So far, the Cyclones have exceeded expectations. When
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: you bring in a new coach, you have 84 newcomers.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: It's a massive roster turnover after the most successful coaching
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: era in program history. There was definitely a lot of uncertainty,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: a lot of skepticism. They showed that they can hang
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: with power conference opposition. When they played Iowa rival Iowa
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: close in the Cy Hawk game, they bulldoze their way
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: past inferior competition like SEMO and Bowling Green last week.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: And now you finally start big 12 play against, but
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: in my opinion, one of the best teams in the
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  Speaker 3: big 12 and in the country, probably going to make
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: a championship game appearance. but you know, you finally get
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: to see how you measure up in conference play against
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  Speaker 3: the Utah team. That's just so dynamic on both sides
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  Speaker 3: of the ball. And now we're going to get to
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  Speaker 3: see like, or have another data point to figure out
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  Speaker 3: how legitimate or how can Iowa state hang or how
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: competitive will they be as we start to go deeper
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: into conference play and into the season.
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  Speaker 1: When you, when you throw out that number of newcomers,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: even though I like, I think I already heard it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: or I'd read it somewhere.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I balked at it again. Like what?
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  Speaker 1: No, that can't be like, it's just such an insane
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  Speaker 1: thing in college football. And, and, you know, in the,
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  Speaker 1: the big 12, especially sure. If you're, if you're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, an FCS program that. lost the coach to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a higher division, and maybe got picked over roster-wise.
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  Speaker 2: All right, makes sense.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: But Iowa State, they're at least a marginally proud football program.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: It feels like this kind of thing should not happen.
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  Speaker 1: Was there a sense of injustice for many of the fans,
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  Speaker 1: or was it like did people, their names feel like
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  Speaker 1: it was inevitable that Matt Campbell would eventually move on
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and that under the new rules he'd take a lot
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  Speaker 1: with him?
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  Speaker 3: I think just with the way that college sports is,
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  Speaker 3: you definitely expected some players to leave. But for Iowa
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: State fans, it just seemed like heartbreak every day from
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: December 5th when Campbell announced that he was leaving for
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Penn State and then Jimmy Rogers was hired. It felt
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  Speaker 3: like every other day there was a new player announcing
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: that they were leaving. And so for Iowa State fans,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: they were just getting their heart ripped out every other day,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: every week. And there was definitely a sense of injustice. Sure,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: people anticipated departures, some departures, some to go with Matt Campbell.
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  Speaker 3: But 84, that was not what anybody expected. And you
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  Speaker 3: also have to factor in the guys that graduated last
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: year as well. So there was even way more guys
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: that were gone from last season. So it was definitely
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: a bitter pill to swallow for Iowa State fans. And
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: it's been a surprise so far with just how well
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: they've been able to do in the early part of
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: the season. But now Utah is going to provide a
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: whole other challenge. And I think there's definitely excitement to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: be able to host a top 25 team for the
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  Speaker 3: first time under Jimmy Rogers and also the first Big
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  Speaker 3: 12 opponent or the first Big 12 game of the
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Rogers era.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I'll start with the positive for Iowa State offensively. They've
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: got right now the top producing running back, in the conference,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: although we're just now getting into conference play in earnest.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And the run game overall is respectable, kind of right
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the pack in this conference. Give
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  Speaker 1: me a sense of how sustainable that is as the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: competition ramps up with Utah coming to town.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so new offensive coordinator Tyler Roll, who was previously
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  Speaker 3: the tight ends coach with the Detroit Lions. He also
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: was the running backs coach at Iowa State two years
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  Speaker 3: ago under Campbell. He came back, and his philosophy on
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: offense is run, run, run, run a lot, build off
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  Speaker 3: the run, use RPOs, use play action. So the rushing
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  Speaker 3: attack is just paramount to what Iowa State wants to do.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: So far, the offensive line has done a great job.
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  Speaker 3: They've given up only one sack, minimal TFLs. So they've
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: been paving the way against Iowa. I think was a
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  Speaker 3: big barometer to show that this offensive line and this
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  Speaker 3: rushing attack can move the ball. They weren't able to
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  Speaker 3: finish drives, which is something that I would state is,
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  Speaker 3: is harping on and, and the passing game still needs
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: to open up, but the rushing attack and what Aiden
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Flora has been able to do along with complimentary backs,
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  Speaker 3: Cameron Petaway and Arnold Barnes of third has given Iowa
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  Speaker 3: state a good foundation or a good way to push
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: forward on offense, but there's still more work that needs
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  Speaker 3: to be done. But Aiden floor has been a tremendous surprise.
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  Speaker 3: The guy was a walk on two years ago. He's
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  Speaker 3: now the premier running back and he's a co-captain. He
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  Speaker 3: stayed for the Jimmy Rogers there. And he's been one
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  Speaker 3: of the pivotal guys on offense this season.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: On the flip side of that offensive coin is a
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  Speaker 1: passing game that has struggled to get going so far.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Is this a targets problem, a protection problem, a quarterbacking
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  Speaker 1: problem for Iowa State?
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  Speaker 3: Right now, I think it's a combination of the wide
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: receivers haven't really stood out yet. There isn't really a
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  Speaker 3: receiver you could look at right now and be like, man,
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  Speaker 3: when it's third and long or when it's second and long,
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  Speaker 3: this is the guy that Jalen Rainer needs to get
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  Speaker 3: the ball to in order to advance the change or
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: look for a big play or a spark when you
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: need it. Jalen Rainer himself, while he has been pretty
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: good at making decisions and taking care of the ball,
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  Speaker 3: his accuracy and his efficiency in the passing game. Hasn't
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  Speaker 3: been what anybody expected it to be or what, what
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  Speaker 3: they want it to be. He's only completing about 52%
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  Speaker 3: of his passes. The ball placement hasn't been ideal. He'd
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: been missing open guys. It seems like that this is
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: still a Patrick offense. That's still getting used to one another.
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  Speaker 3: There's a whole new coaching staff, obviously, but all these
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: players haven't played together. And there's just a lack of
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: cohesion that hasn't really shown itself yet. It seems like
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  Speaker 3: the running game has improved week to week. The passing
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: game has just continued to be very inconsistent. There were
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: definitely moments, but for the most part, like you mentioned,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: it hasn't been pretty so far.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: For the small contingent of Utah fans, they're going to
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: travel and see this game on the road in Ames.
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  Speaker 2: What should they expect?
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  Speaker 3: I think they should expect Iowa state fans to still
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: come out. I think the weather is not supposed to
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: be ideal. And also for just for Iowa state fans,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: you know, you go from the back Campbell era, you
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: loved what he was able to do and a successful
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: run of players and all the standouts, you lose all
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: of that. And despite everything that has happened over the
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: last eight, nine months, the fans have been crazy loyal.
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  Speaker 3: Like I, you know, I I'm, I'm from New York,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: so I'm used to Ben Waggoner's like, Oh, This is,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: this team has lost this player. This team lost this
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  Speaker 3: coach fan interest plummets and Iowa state, the fans still
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: come out and they provide a crazy game day experience.
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  Speaker 3: I think the tailgating to the fan atmosphere in the stadium,
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  Speaker 3: like they still show up weekend and week out. And
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  Speaker 3: I think they're going to be very charged up for
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  Speaker 3: a top 25 matchup. So it's going to be a,
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  Speaker 3: an interesting environment, even in the rain.
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  Speaker 1: What is the, what is sort of the hierarchy of
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: sports interest between the men's basketball and football and names.
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  Speaker 1: Like if, if you, if you go to an Iowa
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: state alum who still lives nearby and they've got a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: finite budget and you say you get season tickets to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: either football or basketball, what are they choosing?
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  Speaker 3: I think if you ask them over the last few years,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: it was definitely football, then men's basketball. But I feel
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: like after the turnover and what has happened with football,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: it seems like some of the fans that I've spoken
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  Speaker 3: to or just know from the few years I've been here,
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  Speaker 3: it seems like some of them are starting to move
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: some of that interest or move some of that ticket
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  Speaker 3: investment into men's basketball now. Now that TJ Otzelberger has
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: done a great job with just consistency and consistency There's
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: still a lot of uncertainty with the Jimmy Rogers era,
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  Speaker 3: despite it being off to a pretty good start so far.
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  Speaker 3: But I think for a long time, it was football,
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  Speaker 3: a pretty sizable gap that meant the basketball. Now the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: gap has shrunk a lot.
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  Speaker 1: I was mentioning this in my opening segment today before
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  Speaker 1: you came on.
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's always a tough out when Utah comes to town.
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  Speaker 1: It's not going to be an easy game for the
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  Speaker 1: Utes either. The schedule for Iowa State in these next
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: four or five weeks is, Looks like kind of a bear.
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  Speaker 2: Utah, West Virginia, both of those at home.
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  Speaker 1: Back-to-back road games, I'm not telling you anything you don't know,
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  Speaker 1: against BYU and Arizona.
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  Speaker 2: I still think Arizona's a good team.
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  Speaker 1: And then Oklahoma State, we'll find out before then what
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: they really are, but at their ceiling, they're good enough
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to beat a very, very talented Oregon team. He got back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Really tough test for this Iowa State team. What is
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: that stretch going to look like?
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  Speaker 3: I think this is going to be a very telling stretch.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's going to be one that's going to
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: test Iowa state, not only on the field, but also
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: just in the locker room. How are they going to
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: handle this? There's going to be inevitable losses. I looked
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  Speaker 3: at this going into the year, like if they don't
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: win against West Virginia, they're going to be underdogs in
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: all these other games that you mentioned in the five-game stretch.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: They could potentially start conference play 1-4, 0-5, 2-3. That's
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: not what Iowa State fans are used to. That's not
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: what the program has done in recent years, like it's
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: going to be rough at times. And the opponents that
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: they're facing too, are just all talented. Like I really
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: love this Utah team. Then, like you mentioned after this,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: they got to play West Virginia, who seems beatable on paper,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: but can cook and that rushing attack. And they got
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: that big winner against Virginia recently. So they're looking better.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: And then of course, you know, you got BYU, Arizona
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: and all that. And I still think that, you know,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: anytime you go on the road, it's, it's never easy.
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  Speaker 3: So this is going to be a very telling stretch
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: for Iowa state to see how competitive are they, but
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: also how are they going to handle the shortcomings or
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: if the losses come, because if you're one in four
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: to start big 12 play, can you rally back from that?
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: How do you handle that? Does the conference go, does
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: the confidence go out the window? Does the morale go
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: down the toilet? How are they going to handle the stress?
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: So I think it's going to be very telling in
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: many ways.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Speaker 2, I know that the programs are in two
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: different places, but both Utah at Iowa state have brand
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: new coaches and I don't expect fans to be reasonable,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: but I, I asked the question before the season began
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: for Utah fans, what is an acceptable first year for
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Morgan Scali? And there were a lot of people who
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: with a straight face said, he's got to go 10
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and two. And I'm like, this is a first year
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: head coach.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: What are we doing? I don't necessarily feel that way.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And I don't know the level of like insane fanaticism
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: in Ames, Iowa, but what would be a reasonable baseline
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: performance for Jimmy Rogers in his first year as the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Cyclones head coach.
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  Speaker 3: Speaker 3 I think the expectations and uncertainty was so
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: all over the place that it felt like people would
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: have been happy with like a five and seven season.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: And then you come back and then, you know, given
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: all that you lost, you have another year and you
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: go right back at it. I think the best case
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: scenario was a bowl appearance. You get six wins and
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: you get to the post, you know, you get a
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: post-season appearance that No one really thought what would happen.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: And I still think that that's kind of like the
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: same sense, especially now that I was stated started two
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: and one and they've looked better than fans and media
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: and people seem to have initially thought they would do.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: So now a bowl game is pretty doable. It's pretty,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: it's not a unreasonable ask anymore. So now I think
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: the expectation really is if they can get to a
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: bowl game, six wins or keep it interesting where they're
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: possibly in position to for that six wins. You don't
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: want it to be where they're out of the running early.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Like if they're going into November and they're at five
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: wins or they're at four wins and they're searching to
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: get the six, I think that that would be a
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: successful first season for Jimmy Rogers. And I think that
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: was the sentiment that I've gotten from a lot of
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: fans this off season home.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Home whites for, it looks like a whiteout game for
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the cyclones. Did you know that was going to be
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: a thing? I, I was surprised to see Utah wearing
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: red on the road.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. They usually do their white-out game, and I
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: think going in, usually it's like the first. I don't
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: know if it's always this way, but it seems like
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: it's always the first Big 12 home conference game they
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: do a white-out. It's not going to be great weather,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: so I don't know. They'll get those white shirts or
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: white clothes dirty. But, yeah, it should add to the
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: atmosphere on Saturday.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: When an Iowan says it's not going to be great weather,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it's probably different than when a Utahan says it's not
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: going to be great weather. So how much– How much
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: rain are we expecting here?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: So I just saw a headline this morning, and I
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: was joking with a colleague earlier that it feels like
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: we're in the Pacific Northwest and we feel like we're
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: in Britain. And I think the headline said that we've
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: seen more rain over the last three weeks than Seattle did.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: And that's something that I've never really seen since we
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: were in Iowa. It's been a very rainy stretch. And
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: then I saw that it's supposed to turn back out.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: We get a little break today, but it's supposed to
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: turn back on tomorrow and Sunday. Sorry, tomorrow and Saturday.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Eugene, I hope you enjoy the weekend, although not too
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: much because we're the home of the Utes, and a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: loss would be very, very bad for me to have
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to talk about coming up on Monday. But I appreciate
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you giving us some time today.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me, Sean, and I hope you
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: guys enjoy the game.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Eugene Rapay, kind enough to join us as an Iowa
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: State insider from the Des Moines Register.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Big thanks to him.