Sports

Iowa State Football Coach Won’t Apologize For Abandoning Team To Secure Big Raise

#College Football
by
Jimmy Rogers / Iowa State Cyclones

© Cody Scanlan/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images


The Iowa State football team hired Jimmy Rogers to replace Matt Campbell as its next head coach. The former Washington State leader leaves Pullman after just one season.

He was officially introduced this week in Ames. Rogers refuses to apologize for accepting a better opportunity with the Cyclones.

Campbell had been with the program since 2016. His teams went 72-55 across 10 seasons.

His last two outputs were some of his best. The Cyclones went 11-3 in 2024. They followed it up with an 8-4 campaign in ’25.

He buoyed that success into a job at Penn State. Campbell secured an eight-year contract this week worth a fully guaranteed $70.5 million.

The loss was a big one for Iowa State. The school moved quickly to find a replacement.

Jimmy Rogers is the next Iowa State football coach.

He comes over after one season at the FBS level. Rogers coached Washington State in 2025, replacing Jake Dickert who bolted for Wake Forest last offseason.

Rogers had previously coached in the FCS. He spent 12 seasons at South Dakota State, with the last two coming as head coach. He won a national championship in 2023.

His next goal is to do the same with a Power 4 program.

Washington State did not offer that opportunity. The Cougars went 6-6 last season.

While that wasn’t good enough to compete in the College Football Playoff, it was enough to land interest from Iowa State. Rogers plans to continue his championship pursuits in Ames.

His new gig will come with a significant pay raise after making $1.57 million annually with the Cougars.

His new salary is reportedly $3 million, nearly twice what he made at his last stop. The move to Iowa also offered an opportunity to return closer to home.

The coach will not apologize.

“I didn’t take the Washington State job to move across the country and abandon it in one year. When I went there it was unbelievable,” he said.

“When I got this opportunity, I felt a sense of remorse, but I have to think about my family… I won’t apologize for this because this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my family.”

What happens to Washington State?

When hired, Jimmy Rogers said he was in it for the long haul. Just 12 months later, he’s off to greener pastures.

He’s now on his third program in as many years. Loyalty to the Cougars did not seem a priority.

Stuart Mandel of The Athletic says Iowa State is Rogers’ dream job. He’d been in contact with the Cyclones’ AD for some time lobbying for an opportunity.

“The first time I met him, he said to me, ‘How do I become the head coach at Iowa State University?’ I told him, you’re probably going to need to go one more level (up) before you get here. And we stayed in contact. When I asked him why he was going to Washington State, he said, ‘It was because you told me I needed to go to the next level.'”

-Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard