Iowa State Cyclones Will Sorely Miss USC Trojans Transfer Next Season

Which player from the team last year with the Iowa State Cyclones miss?

Sep 13, 2025; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; A Southern California Trojans helmet sits on the field before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross-Ade Stadium. | Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

With the winter months here for the Iowa State Cyclones football program, a lot of the focus has been on trying to make offers for the 2027 recruiting class. 

It has been a wild couple of months for the Cyclones. This is a program that has been turned upside down of late and will be trying to rebuild from scratch. Losing long-time head coach Matt Campbell was always something that they feared, and it came to be this winter. 

The head coach's departure sent most of the players from Iowa State into the portal as expected. While new head coach Jimmy Rogers was obviously hopeful to retain some talent, players followed Campbell to the Penn State Nittany Lions, and some went to other contenders around the country. 

Fortunately, Rogers did a good job getting to work quickly in the transfer portal and was able to add a lot of quality depth to the team. While they won’t have the same level of talent that they were expected to in 2026, the hope is that they will be able to field a competitive team. 

Max Olson of ESPN recently wrote about cornerback Jontez Williams of the Cyclones being one of the top players to go to a Top 25 team this winter, with him joining the USC Trojans. For Iowa State, he is arguably one of their biggest losses.

 Replacing Williams Will be a Challenge

Iowa State defensive back Jontez Williams | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

As shown last year, the Cyclones were not the same team defensively after Williams tore his ACL. The passing defense and really the defense overall struggled to make up for his absence, but other injuries to players also played a role. 

When healthy in 2024, he totaled four interceptions in four straight games and was a second-team All-Big 12 player. He was trending toward more accolades in 2025 before the injury and could have been a potential draft target with another good campaign under his belt. 

For the Cyclones, they have rebuilt the secondary under new defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit and will be hoping that the unit can once again become a strength. Under Campbell, the secondary was certainly a solid unit for the team in recent years, and Iowa State will be continuing to try to have a strong defense in the conference. While the Cyclones will undoubtedly miss Williams, he is a great addition for a talented USC team and should help improve their secondary quite a bit.