Welcome to the first of our Iowa State football position previews for the 2025 season! We’ll start with the offense this week and then discuss the defense next week. Let’s dive right in as we count down the last few weeks of the offseason.
Departures
Former four-star prospect and Ankeny-native JJ Kohl elected to transfer out of the program to Appalachian State in the offseason after finding himself stuck in the depth chart behind Rocco Becht and potentially looking at very little playing time for the next few seasons. It’s hard to blame kids for leaving to find playing time, but it’s always a bummer to lose a player with a lot of potential.
Syndication: The Des Moines Register
The Starter
A man that needs no introduction, Rocco Becht is already well on pace to be one of the best quarterbacks in school history, and has a chance to potentially cement himself as the only viable contender to Brock Purdy in the GOAT conversation if he can take Iowa State to another Big 12 Championship Game appearance and take home the trophy.
NCAA Football: Big 12 Championship-Iowa State at Arizona State
Rocco’s 2024 season was a slight uptick in terms of production from his 2023 season, but his efficiency numbers dropped a bit, likely at least partially due to taking a few more deep shots and overall risks in order to get the ball to his two NFL receivers. However, it was also plain to see that Rocco wasn’t as careful with his throws last season as he was in 2023, and threw too many turnover-worthy passes last year that weren’t intercepted, but could have been.
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The New Guy
Incoming freshman Alex Manske comes to Ames as a highly-regarded four-star prospect, but, barring catastrophe, will almost certainly not see any action this season as he recovers from elbow surgery. That said, Manske projects to be a contender to be the heir to the position after Rocco leaves (presumably after the 2026 season unless he leaves early for the NFL).
Syndication: The Des Moines Register
The Backup
Connor Moberly will be the backup to Becht this season after beating out JJ Kohl for the spot before the 2024 season (almost certainly causing Kohl’s transfer). Ideally, Moberly will only see the field in garbage time action this season, but if his number is called, fans can take some solace in knowing that Moberly is yet another Cyclone quarterback with plus on-field leadership traits and some solid arm talent.
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Moberly and Mankse present the future of the quarterback position room at Iowa State after Rocco Becht leaves. Hopefully, they have two full seasons to figure that out while Rocco continues to chip away at Brock Purdy’s career passing marks and tries to bring home a Big 12 title.
NCAA Football: Cincinnati at Iowa State
2025 Outlook
In 2025, I think we can expect to see Rocco’s efficiency climb back above 60%, ideally close to or above 65%. The difficult thing to predict exactly what the passing attack will look like in terms of the distribution of targets between the receivers, tight ends, and running backs.
The prevailing belief this offseason is that we’ll see a notable uptick in targets to the tight ends this season while the wide receiver room sorts itself out, in contrast to 2024 where a huge portion of the targets went specifically to Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins. Given the talent in the running back room, it also wouldn’t shock me to see his attempts come back down a bit, especially if Carson Hansen, Abu Sama, and the rest of that room are effective and productive.
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If Rocco can end up with a season in the neighborhood of 3,300 yards, 25 TDs, 6 Ints, and 66% completions, I think that would be a great sign that Iowa State is once again an efficient and productive offensive team and is giving itself a chance to return to Arlington and try securing its first Big 12 title since before World War I.
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