Iowa State Cyclones Add More Depth to Tight End Position in Transfer Portal

The Iowa State Cyclones continue to add depth to the tight end room.

Iowa State football coach Jimmy Rogers speaks during a timeout in the first half in the Iowa State and Iowa men’s basketball Cy-Hawk series at Hilton coliseum on Dec. 11, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the transfer portal set to close soon, the Iowa State Cyclones have been extremely busy starting to build their roster for the upcoming season. 

New head coach Jimmy Rogers knew that he was going to need to replace a lot of talent, and that has undoubtedly been the case. Matt Campbell built a great program over the last 10 years, and a lot of his players electing to follow him and enter the transfer portal was to be expected.

While the Cyclones likely were hoping that they would have been able to hold on to some starters, that ended up not being the case for the most part. Fortunately, Rogers was confident that he would be able to come in and use the portal to build a team if needed. 

After just one year with the Washington State Cougars, he made the jump to the Cyclones and will have to build up a roster quickly, as he did for the Cougars. That Washington State team performed well in 2025 and played close games against quality opponents like the Ole Miss Rebels. 

Even though there was a drop in talent on paper, Iowa State isn’t a team that is looking to rebuild. Recently, Rogers was able to bring in another transfer as they continue to build their tight end room. 

Cyclones Add More Depth to the Tight End Room

Committed! @CycloneFB pic.twitter.com/CCEZuxCjoZ

— Ben Haulmark (@BenHaulmark) January 17, 2026

The addition of Ben Haulmark will provide some more depth to the tight end room, and this is a position that the team has done well developing in recent years. Unfortunately, some of the really talented ones are at Penn State Nittany Lions. 

Now, new offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl will be looking to build up the group. He was just recently the tight ends coach for the Detroit Lions and coached one of the best players at the position in the NFL, Sam Laporta. 

Roehl is going to be able to recruit well at the tight end position with that experience in the NFL. That should be a significant benefit for the program going forward, and it should continue to be a position of strength for them. 

According to Rivals Industry Rankings, Haulmark was ranked as the 137th tight end in the portal. He will undoubtedly provide some more depth to the Cyclones, and they continue to round out the roster.