Welcome to Season 1

Larkdight Studios Iowa State Cyclones' Program Rebuild (Season 1) July 1, 2025 9:00AM CST

Welcome to the first season of the Iowa State Cyclones’ Program Rebuild, inside of College Football ’25! If you have been following me, you will know that I am one of the best at College Football Rebuilds. I have done six College Football Program Rebuilds so far with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (won National Championship in second season), San Jose State Spartans (lost to Nevada in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl) and the UAB Blazers (lost to Georgia in the first round of the CFP), Colorado (won National Championship in first season), Washington Huskies (won National Championship in first season), and the Florida Gators (won National Championship in first season). I will currently be working on rebuilding the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors and Iowa State Cyclones this time around, as well as doing my first-ever Team Builder Series with the Aurora State Swarm (a team I created using EA’s College Football 25 Team Builder program).

Just like in those rebuilds, there is a new head coach taking over the program and his name is Axel Armani. He was a forceful running back for the Iowa Hawkeyes about fifteen years ago, before he blew his knee out and was informed that his playing days were behind him. He had such a burning passion for the game though, so he figured the only way he could stay involved with college football was to get into coaching. He worked his way up through the college coaching ranks before being named the wide receiver coach for the Cyclones back in 2020. Now, it is 2024, and the Athletic Department is looking to fill the position that HC Matt Campbell recently left open when he accepted the Head Coaching position for the Chicago Bears (just go with it!). Let’s see if Armani can continue building off the foundation that Campbell walked away from.

Like all my rebuilds, I like to set three-year goals that the program needs to reach in order for the rebuild to be deemed a success. Here are those goals:

• Have at least 3 winning seasons (0/3)

• Recruit a Top 10 Class (0/1)

• Have 5 players drafted (0/5)

• Win the Heisman Award (0/1)

• Win the Coach of the Year Award (0/1)

• Win a National Championship (0/1)

• Land at least 3 5* Recruits (0/3)

• Reach #1 in the AP Polls (0/1)

You can follow along here on this blog for most of the storied content, while catching all of the games over on my YouTube channel – Iowa State Cyclones' Program Rebuild – Season 1 playlist.