T.J. Otzelberger Played Key Role in Getting Jimmy Rogers to Iowa State Cyclones

The Iowa State Cyclones football team was able to land Jimmy Rogers with a little help from T.J. Otzelberger.

Oct 22, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger speaks to media during Big 12 Menís Basketball media day at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images | Sophia Scheller-Imagn Images

The Iowa State Cyclones are set to embark on a new era with their football program. After 10 years at the helm, Matt Campbell accepted the head coaching job with the Penn State Nittany Lions, creating a huge void to fill.

The person who will be tasked with replacing the best head coach the football program has had is Jimmy Rogers.

After spending one season with the Washington State Cougars and going 6-6, he is coming to Ames, accepting the challenge of building up what Campbell has created over the last decade. It is no small task replacing a coach who was as successful as him, but he came highly regarded from another person Iowa State decision makers hold near and dear: men’s basketball coach, T.J. Otzelberger.

Athletic director Jamie Pollard revealed that Otzelberger played a key role in Rogers eventually being tabbed as the next football coach.

T.J. Otzelberger provided ringing endorsement for Jimmy Rogers

Iowa State new football coach Jimmy Rogers arrives in Ames Municipal Airport on Dec. 6, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"One of the first people I called this morning when I was making the decision was T.J. Otzelberger," Pollard said on Friday, via Alec Busse of Cyclone Alert, part of the 247Sports Network. "Because T.J. knows him and worked with him. And T.J. had no idea that I had been doing all this. And I just flat out asked T.J., 'Okay, tell me,' and he said, 'If he will come, take him.'"

The two had some overlap years ago with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Otzelberger was the head coach of the men’s basketball team from 2016 to 2019. At that point, Rogers was on the football staff as a defensive assistant.

He was working closely with the linebackers and would eventually be promoted to co-defensive coordinator. Rogers was the head coach of the Jackrabbits in 2023 and 2024, going 27-3 and winning a national championship in his first year.

The two coaches got to know each other, and the time spent at South Dakota has led to them crossing paths once again with the Cyclones.

Jimmy Rogers has perfect demeanor to succeed at Iowa State

Iowa State new football coach Jimmy Rogers arrives in Ames Municipal Airport on Dec. 6, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Otzelberger told Pollard that Rogers will be “Matt Campbell 2.0” for the football team. But the Athletic Director likened the new head football coach to someone else he knows.

"He (Otzelberger) said, 'He's not going to minx a lot of words, he's not going to smile a lot, he's going to be disciplined in everything he does all day long,'" Pollard remembers Otzelberger saying. "'And I said, 'So, you really mean he's T.J. Otzelberger 2.0?'"

If Rogers can replicate what either Campbell or Otzelberger has done during their respective times in Ames, the school’s football program is in great hands.