Jimmy Rogers emphasizes zero tolerance for moral victories at ISU

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Iowa State coach is searching for answers after suffering his first defeat of the season, and could care less about losing by three points on the road.

Jimmy Rogers expects his team to win every game, and wants his players to have that same mentality, so there’s no denying that the 16-13 loss to Iowa is going to sting for a little bit. After all, Rogers felt if the Cyclones had better execution on a couple of plays, the Cy-Hawk Rivalry would’ve resulted in a different outcome.

“There are obviously some plays that we’ll want back from a fundamental standpoint, from a schematic standpoint, but proud of the locker room as far as how we played,” Rogers said. “We came here to win the game, we don’t care about the spread, or what the outside world thinks, the guys believed it.”

Iowa State (1-1) gave a gritty performance, and showed some tenacity on defense. Which is why Rogers wants to build on the positive aspects from Saturday’s loss to the No. 21 Hawkeyes. The Cyclones drew first blood, jumped out to a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter, and was up by three points early in the third quarter.

Quarterback Jaylen Rayor did a great job of tuning out the sold out crowd at Kinnick Stadium, and the defense didn’t give up until the final whistle. What Rogers is concerned about is the six penalties his team committed in the second half, after a clean first 30 minutes of the contest.

Offsides on short-yardage situations, and unnecessary holds is what killed drives for Iowa State. Those infractions usually come with the territory when a coach is in his first year at a Power Four program. Regardless, that’s not mental toughness in Rogers’ eyes, and he intends on making it a priority of minimizing the mistakes in practice.

“We had a critical error with subbing, when we first flipped the field, we had to settle for a field goal after a long run, and there were some missed tackles,” he said. “I’d have to review the film, but there’s a bunch in there that we kind of bled a little bit on both sides of the ball.”

Raynor’s night was solid, considering  he completed 10 of his 19 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown. Most importantly, Raynor didn’t turn the ball over, and led the offense on three scoring drives. The Cyclones even scored on all three of their trips to the red zone.

Kicker Kyle Konrardy showed that he still has tremendous leg power and range, after he nailed a 53-yarder. Rogers wanted Konrardy to have a chance near the end to tie the game up, but time expired on the offense. He thought the defense played better than expected, and dominated against the run, which will be beneficial once Iowa State starts Big 12 play.

So Rogers is putting the emotional loss in the rearview mirror, and needs his players to keep their heads up with a daunting schedule looming.

“The guys are hurting, but at the same time, we’ve got 10 games to still play,” the 39-year old said. “We need to work, and get ourselves ready to win every one of them.”

Iowa State will host a winless Bowling Green squad in week three, that lost by 49 points at Nebraska in week two. Rogers is confident that his team will redeem themselves, and bounce back in a significant way.

“Overall, we’ve got to continue to find ways to improve, we’ll review film, get better and get ready for another week.”