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Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series. The first, on Iowa State’s worst-case 2024 scenario, can be found here.
How do you discuss a best-case scenario for a college football team?
It would be easy to type “12-0 regular season followed by a conference championship game victory and a three-game coronation doubling as the College Football Playoff.” It might even be fun for you to read, but, while technically possible for 100-some-odd teams, it’s probably only a true possibility for fewer than five teams nationally.
And I don’t think Iowa State is one of them.
But I do think the Cyclones have the chance to do something truly special this season.
Consider the things never achieved by the Cyclones:
10-win season
Conference championship game victory
College Football Playoff appearance
College Football Playoff home game
College Football Playoff victory
Sure, there’s some gimmickry there considering this is the first year anyone can host a CFP game, but, hey, it’s still a milestone now available.
I don’t know that I would pick any one of those possibilities as likely to happen, which is to say a greater than 50 percent probability, but I absolutely think they all fall in the real range of “best-case scenario” for Iowa State football in 2024.
But for best-case, a lot of things have to go right. So let’s talk about ‘em.
Beat Iowa
Kirk Ferentz’s mastery over Matt Campbell’s program at this point is rather astounding.
Even the really good Iowa State teams (except for the best one, 2020, that didn’t play the Cy-Hawk because of COVID-19) have gotten chopped down by the Hawkeyes. Only Campbell’s worst team since his debut Cyclone season (2022) has beaten Iowa. But I’m guessing the key to beating the Hawkeyes again isn’t to have a bad team.
Iowa has real CFP hopes in the new continent-spanning Big Ten,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/hines-imagining-iowa-state-footballs-110741490.html
Author : The Des Moines Register
Publish date : 2024-08-22 11:07:41
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