Iowa
Hines mailbag: What happened to Cyclones in Iowa State football’s first loss?
Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell on Jaylin Noel’s postgame speech
Matt Campbell discussed the impact of Jaylin Noel’s speech after Iowa State football’s loss to Texas Tech.
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.
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.
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.
Five people were shot and injured at an Iowa City pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa campus overnight, police said Sunday. Students from the university were among the injured, according to school officials.
The Iowa City Police Department responded to a report of a large fight in the 100 Block of East College Street at 1:46 a.m. early Sunday, the department said in a news release. Arriving officers heard gunfire.
Multiple victims were hospitalized, police said. Police confirmed to CBS News that one person was in critical condition, while the other four victims are stable.
University of Iowa President Barb Wilson said in a statement that three students were among those shot. None of the victims has been publicly identified.
No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing. Police said they are seeking information about five “persons of interest associated with this shooting.” The university also shared the request for information.
The pedestrian mall was closed for several hours and reopened Sunday afternoon.
Here are the candidates for High School on SI’s Iowa high school athlete of the week for April 13-18. Read through the nominees and cast your vote.
Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:
Taylor Roose, Pella boys track and field
Roose competed in three events at the Norwalk Invitational, winning all three in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and long jump.
Daxon Kiesau, Urbandale boys track and field
Kiesau swept the throwing events at the Norwalk Invitational, taking first place in the shot put and the discus.
Alex Burger, Southeast Valley boys track and field
Competing at home, Burger dominated, earning four gold medals. He won the 400-meter hurdles and the long jump while running on the winning 4×200-meter relay and shuttle hurdle relay.
Kolby Hodnefield, Clear Lake boys track and field
Hodenfield, a defending state champion, broke the meet, venue and school record in the 200 and the 400 at the Clear Lake Invitational. He added victories as part of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Both relays also set meet records.
Easton Moon, North Polk boys tennis
Moon has started off his senior season on the courts unbeaten, winning all four matches while dropping just one game in 44 played.
Ava Lohrbach, Gilbert girls golf
One of the top golfers in the state, Lohrbach has had a hot start, firing a 35 in her nine-hole debut and a 72 for her 18-hole opener.
Nathan Manske, Algona boys golf
An elite quarterback and basketball player, Manske is showing his golfing skills this spring, coming out with a state-low 30 in a nine-hole event.
Ella Hein, Tipton girls track and field
Hein set school records in the 400-meter run and long jump at the Tiger/Tigerette Relays while also locking in the Blue Standard and qualifying for the Drake Relays. She won the long jump (18-6) and was second in the 400.
Maeve Bowen-Burt, Iowa City High girls track and field
The sophomore helped the Little Hawks land three Drake Relays events on the last night of qualifying, advancing in the 400 hurdles, along with the sprint medley and 4×400 relays.
About Our Athlete of the Week Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The late boxing great George Foreman lies buried in a cemetery in the northwestern corner of Iowa – a place he has no connection to outside of a lone visit to the region nearly 40 years ago.
Foreman died March 21, 2025, at the age of 76 in Houston and was buried in Logan Park Cemetery at Sioux City, Iowa, a month later, city officials confirmed. Foreman’s family returned Thursday to his burial site, holding a news conference with Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott to reveal Foreman’s burial place, marked by a large monument that bears an image of him as a teen following his Olympic gold medal boxing win.
The family explained in a statement released by Sioux City officials that he had visited the Iowa city in 1988, and often recalled the sense of peace he experienced there.
After traveling to the city on April 17 last year to bury Foreman, his family said they immediately understood the region’s appeal.
“Our father lived a life of purpose, faith and gratitude,” the family said in a statement released by Sioux City officials. “To see him laid to rest in a place that brought him peace means everything to us.”
Scott joined the family at Foreman’s monument that lies just a few miles north of the Missouri River in an upper Midwest city of nearly 87,000 people. The cemetery overlooks the scenic Loess Hills, created by windblown silt deposits that reach up to 200 feet high (about 61 meters) and line the river along the Iowa border for 200 miles (322 kilometers).
“Their story is a reminder of how one place can stay with someone for a lifetime,” Scott said.
A native Texan, Foreman rose to fame when he made the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team, winning gold in Mexico City. He became the heavyweight champion of the world in 1973 by defeating the great Joe Frazier, only to lose the title a year later to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.”
A full 20 years later in 1994, Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship at 45, defeating Michael Moorer in an epic upset.
Foreman retired in 1997 with a 76-5 career record.
He then moved on to the next chapter in his life as a businessman, pitchman and occasional actor, becoming known to a new generation as the face of the George Foreman Grill. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and brought him more wealth than boxing.
A biographical movie based on Foreman’s life was released in 2023.
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