AMES – We are officially underway. 

The Iowa State football season has hit its first patch of adversity while the top-10 men’s and women’s basketball seasons, along with wrestling, have tipped off. 

We are in the thick of it. 

We’ll know how football handles its first loss well before we know a whole lot about either the men’s team (first difficult opponent: Nov. 25 vs. No. 11 Auburn) or women’s team (Nov. 28 vs. No. 1 South Carolina), but this month of overlap keeps things humming on campus. 

While coach Matt Campbell’s bunch suffering their first loss of the season certainly put a damper on things, it’s still an incredible time for Iowa State athletics . Much of it has built on anticipation, but now is the time for the doing. 

Football needs to get back on track. Hoops needs to deliver when it’s time later this month. 

If they do, it’ll be one heck of a winter in Ames. If they don’t, well, we can worry about that in March. 

Let’s get to your mailbag questions. 

Football: The offense last Saturday just looked off. Was it the Tech defense, the bye week, injuries, play-calling? What are your thoughts? 

I have a few. 

I think it’s likely that all those factors you mentioned played a part as well as some others. Probably. 

But I think more generally speaking, one of two things happened against Texas Tech. 

Either Iowa State just had a bad night or the Cyclones’ improvement is starting to get incrementally smaller (or going the other way). 

I think it’s more likely it was just a bad night. 

The Cyclones have been great at winning the turnover battle. They lost it while losing their first fumble of the season. The came into the night the least-penalized team in the country. They were flagged time and again against Tech. They’ve made the big play when it mattered most all season long. Against Tech, they couldn’t get that final stop. 

That seems like a lot of out-of-character stuff coming out of a bye week. You certainly can’t just dismiss it, but the simplest answer is the Cyclones finally had a poor game. And it cost them. 

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If you’re more on the pessimistic end, I do think there’s evidence that there’s something more structurally afoot. 

The injuries could be catching up to them. The play-calling could be getting predictable from a first-time play-caller. The grind of the season – and the pressure of real expectations – might be weighing on the team. Opponents might be game-planning better with more film. 

Even if those things are true, all of those, save one, are correctable. 

The one that can’t be fixed is injuries. In fact, I’d guess Iowa State’s injury situation gets worse before it gets better. 

None of the linebackers are expected back until December, if at all. The lingering issues aren’t going to go away during the season’s most physically demanding month.  Which is to say, I don’t know that you can count on seeing a 100 percent healthy Carson Hansen or Cael Brezina again this regular season. Or anyone else dealing with the physical stressors that come from a demanding season.

That’s the concern I have. Iowa State has to make due with what it has now – and maybe even less, given how injuries are possible on every snap. 

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Basketball: Can we get more explanation on why Milan Momcilovic isn’t starting, after he did last year? 

We got some coach-speak from T.J. Otzelberger about his lineup after Monday’s pummeling of Mississippi Valley State, but here’s my assessment. 

Tamin Lipsey and Keshon Gilbert are locks to start. If Momcilovic starts at the three, you can’t start Curtis Jones. If you start Jones at the three and Momcilovic at the four, you’re stressing both of them in defensive mismatches while also likely surrendering rebounding. 

In order to do that, you have to score enough to offset that situation. And, thus far, the evidence is not there to suggest that lineup can deliver over long stretches. In spurts? Sure, but I don’t think it’s there yet to survive over the bulk of 40 minutes. 

So that leaves you with a Jones or Momcilovic starter question, and it’s clear the staff has decided Jones is the better option. At least for the moment. 

I think the staff certainly wanted to get more out of Momcilovic at times – basically begging him to shoot more aggressively – but I think this is more of a “making the pieces fit” issue than this being used to light-a-fire type deal. 

I imagine both Jones and Momcilovic are part of Iowa State’s core and probably closing lineup, but it may have to be staggered or without one of those two other guards on the floor for Iowa State to make it work right now. 

Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.