Randy Peterson
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August 01, 2025
He’s thrown touchdown passes in 18 consecutive games – to 10 different receivers, including a combined 24 to now-gone Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins. He’s led Iowa State into a Big 12 championship, and already he is one of the best quarterbacks in Iowa State history, holding a top five position in many career passing categories.
So, what’s left, Rocco Becht?
Winning The Big One, that’s what.
Sure, that’s a big ask for a guy that lost two of the best Cyclones receivers ever – Noel and Higgins – to the NFL Houston Texans. It’s a huge ask, considering Iowa State hasn’t (yet) won a football conference championship, but it’s possible.
That’s right. Given the Big 12’s balance, and given its lack of a dynamite team that can blow the doors off each and every opponent – why can’t Matt Campbell’s 10th team win its first conference championship game?
Quarterback? Check.
Becht is among the best in a quarterback-heavy league that includes around a dozen that have started at least one Big 12 game.
Defense? Check.
That’s never a problem on coordinator Jon Heacock’s side of the ball. Even last season, when the linebackers had enough injuries for a decade – yet still cobbled together one of the top units in the Big 12.
Special teams? Check.
Making that 54-yard field goal against Iowa last season – with 6 seconds to play in Iowa City – showed me that Kyle Konrardy is dependable . . . .
Schedule? Check.
Bottom-heavy and daunting with tossups in four of the final five games – but manageable. Beat Kansas State on top, and buckle up the excitement that can follow with potential standings tie-breaker opportunities against Arizona State, K-State, TCU and Kansas.
Offensive line?
Maybe this is the year it becomes dominant.
Defensive line, you wonder?
Rarely a problem, and it looks like the Cyclones portaled nicely to go along with all-world Dom Orange.
Secondary?
OK, that’s a question, and will be until we see how younger guys perform.
Which brings me back to quarterback. To Rocco. To moving the chains with his legs as well as his arm. To his decision-making. To his smarts and leadership.
Like the longtime starter before him, that’d be Brock Purdy, Rocco has the chance solidify his place as an all-timer, but how much of an all-timer?
This is as good a place as any to remind you that Rocco Becht’s Iowa State career will not, I repeat, will not, be defined by what happens this season. On and off the field, his legacy has already been established.
He’s the face of the program right now. What the heck, Rocco is the face of Cyclones athletics. I’ll even go as far as saying he’s the face of the university. Whomever becomes the next president had better get to know Becht as quickly as possible. And everyone in the athletics department, too.
Candidates are expected to have “Knowledge and understanding of the role of intercollegiate athletics, its current environment, and its substantial impact on the university,” according to a posting on the Iowa State president’s office web site.
To me, that includes knowing key players.
No one currently enrolled at Iowa State has done as much for the university’s overall brand and success as this Floridian, fixin’ to start his third season.
Few right now are more significant than Rocco Becht.
(Columnist Randy Peterson, a multiple State of Iowa Sportswriter of the Year winner, can be reached at randypete4846@gmail.com or at any Okoboji-area beverage/food establishment between the hours of open and close.)