Iowa State Flips Key Class of 2026 Special Teamer From Washington State

The Iowa State Cyclones continue adding to their Class of 2026 with former Washington State Cougars commits.

Sep 7, 2024; Pullman, Washington, USA; A pirate flag on the back of Washington State Cougars helmet in memory of Mike Leach during a game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the first half at Gesa Field at Martin Stadium. | James Snook-Imagn Images

Iowa State Cyclones fans were incredibly disappointed when head coach Matt Campbell announced he was leaving for the same position with the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Seeing the winningest coach in program history walk out the door was certainly not easy. Especially because he was on the heels of securing one of the best recruiting classes the football program had ever seen.

On Signing Day, Dec. 3, the Cyclones had a 22-player class. Since his departure, the number of holdovers from that class has dropped to six, with a lot of the recruits following Campbell and several coaches to Penn State.

That has left his replacement, Jimmy Rogers, with a lot of work to do. Not only did Iowa State lose nearly its entire Class of 2026, but more than 50 players entered the transfer portal, including 16 starters, which was the most a single program lost this cycle.

Iowa State adds Ethan Gurney to recruiting Class of 2026

Sep 7, 2024; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; An Iowa State Cyclones helmet sits on the sidelines before the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. | Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Rogers and his staff have done a great job replenishing the talent on the roster, taking a similar route as Campbell did with the Nittany Lions. There are a lot of players, both via the transfer portal and high school recruits, who are following him to Ames.

The latest addition to the Iowa State Class of 2026 is Ethan Gurney. He will fill the team’s void at punter, flipping his commitment from Washington State to the Cyclones.

Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, Gurney will head to Ames via the same ProKick program that sent Nick Haberer to the Cougars and has also produced NFL talent such as Michael Dickson, Mitch Wishnowsky and Tory Taylor.

Gurney will have four years of eligibility remaining. He is the second specialist to flip from Washington State to Iowa State, following the same path as redshirt freshman Adlai Lunsbury.

Iowa State gets their punter. https://t.co/nd3z5p17ye

— Jake Brend (@JakeBrendTV) January 16, 2026

A three-star rated player by the 247Sports Composite, Gurney is the No. 11 ranked punter in the Class of 2026, No. 13 ranked player from Australia and No. 2,984 overall.

With him aboard, Iowa State’s Class of 2026 now has six signees, all holdovers from when Campbell was still head coach, and 19 hard commits. 43 players have been acquired in the transfer portal, 15 of whom were former Cougars players under Rogers.

The Cyclones were in need of a punter with Tyler Perkins declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft. Gurney will have some big shoes to fill after Perkins performed as well as the team could have asked for in 2025.

He landed 47.62% of his punts inside the 20 and had only two touchbacks all season on 42 punt attempts.