Iowa State Cyclones Have Been Incredibly Efficient in One Key Metric This Season

Efficiency in this important area has been through the roof for Iowa State.

Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Iowa State Cyclones have gotten off to a wonderful start in the 2025 college football season, going 3-0 out of the gate.

They have been challenged along the way. Their season opener was in Ireland against a ranked Big 12 opponent, the Kansas State Wildcats. Business was handled, winning 24-21. There was no rest for the weary, playing a week later in their home opener against the South Dakota Coyotes.

A romp occurred, winning 55-7. That set the stage for one of their biggest games of the campaign. The Cyclones were hosting the Iowa Hawkeyes in their rivalry game for the Cy-Hawk Trophy. For the second consecutive year, the trophy will be staying in Ames, with Iowa State coming away with a 16-13 victory. It was their first home win in the series since 2011.

Next, they will be facing off against the Arkansas State Red Wolves in their first true road game of the season. They can expect a raucous crowd since the Cyclones are the first Big 12 team and highest-ranked program to play a game at Centennial Bank Stadium. Not only will they be in a hostile environment, but they will be dealing with extreme weather conditions. Temperatures are expected to break into the low 90s.

Head coach Matt Campbell is going to have his crew ready for the elements, both weather-wise and crowd-wise. If they can play their game, they will have an excellent chance of leaving Jonesboro with their undefeated record intact. One area of the game to keep a close eye on is red zone efficiency.

Iowa State Has Thrived Scoring in Red Zone

Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

That is something Iowa State has thrived in thus far this year. On the season, they are 12-for-16 when entering the red zone. 75 percent is a number that Campbell would love to see his team improve upon, but there is a caveat to that statistic. Three out of their four “failures” occurred because the team didn’t want to run up the score in a win.

As shared by Alex Gookin on X, in all three of the team’s victories this season, they have been kneeling out games in the red zone to run the clock in victory formation. The Cyclones were knocking on the door of adding points on the board, too. Twice their drives “ended” at the one-yard line.

One of my favorite stats this season is that ISU is 12-for-16 in the red zone this season, which isn’t all that impressive… except 3 of those “fails” were the final play of each of the first 3 games — kneel downs in victory formation. Two of those were at the 1-yard line.

— Alex Gookin (@_AlexGookin) September 11, 2025

While technically failures because they didn’t score points, they have only been stopped by the opposing defense in the red zone once this season. 12 out of 13 times they have entered that area of the field, they have scored points. Kicker Kyle Konradry is a legitimate special teams weapon for Campbell to rely on.

Getting into the red zone normally yields positive results for an offense. But when a team has a kicker as good as Konrardy has been, they are in scoring position once they cross the 40-yard line. That changes the entire dynamic of the game for Campbell, having an impactful player of that caliber on his side.