Iowa State Cyclones Likely to Battle Penn State Nittany Lions for Four-Star Recruit

Will the Iowa State Cyclones be able to land a talented four-star recruit?

Jimmy Rogers, left, is introduced as Iowa State’s 34th head football coach on Dec. 8, 2025, at Iowa State University in Ames. At right is athletics director Jamie Pollard. | Cody Scanlan/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Iowa State Cyclones have been busy working on their recruiting classes for the future after a wild winter. Following all of the change, they are also starting to circle back to previous targets from the other coaching staff. 

New head coach Jimmy Rogers and his coaching staff have been working extremely hard to build up classes for the program going forward, and they have been doing a nice job of casting a wide net so far. 

While this winter the team had to use the transfer portal in order to build their roster for 2026, Rogers doesn’t want that to become the norm. Former head coach Matt Campbell was a strong recruiter in the area. Rogers will be undoubtedly trying to do the same. 

As expected, Campbell was able to bring a good number of his recruits from the 2026 class with him to the Penn State Nittany Lions. This should have come as no surprise, and Rogers did largely the same with his recruits from the Washington State Cougars. 

Now, the new head coach will be trying to build up the program and a recent visit from four-star offensive lineman Will Slagle has him back on the radar for the program. Recently, he spoke with William Seals of On3 about visiting Iowa State and that they are very much on his radar early in the process. 

Slagle Would Be Great Addition

“It was nice to get a better feel for who #IowaState’s new head coach is. I feel like I have pretty good relationships with them so far. I’m hoping to get up there this spring.” Former 2027 OL commit @slagle_will has #Cyclones back on his radar.

➡️ https://t.co/7cJBqSsxbR pic.twitter.com/5irf7WLkwI

— Bill Seals (@williamseals) February 11, 2026

According to Rivals Industry Rank, Slagle is a four-star talent and is ranked third in the state of Iowa and 20th at his position in the country. The talented recruit is a very appealing player and has the potential to do very well at the next level. 

For the Cyclones, this is a team that is currently trying to build up their team in the trenches and play a physical brand of football. That mindset was shown by how they attacked the transfer portal of both the offensive and defensive lines. 

Rogers wants to have a team that can run the football well on offense, and having a good lineman is key for that. Slagle is an impact recruit who could be a great addition for Iowa State, but they are going to have competition. Prior to heading to Penn State, Campbell and Ryan Clanton were recruiting him to Ames and they have also offered him. Currently, it seems like this could become a battle between Rogers and Cambell and it will be very interesting to see how it shakes out.