Following its big upset loss to the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, Iowa State was able to regroup and regather itself with a bye week before it heads to Fort Worth, Texas, to play the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday.

Head Coach Matt Campbell and company were able to reflect on the past couple weeks and assess the upcoming Big 12 battle with TCU.

Steadily improving

There was a lot that went wrong for Iowa State in its 31-14 season opening upset loss to Louisiana. An offense struggling to move the ball, special teams mishaps burning the team and a worn out defense consistently returning to the field.

The Cyclones were able to get some time to hone in on their weaknesses that were present in the Louisiana loss, with Iowa State having a bye week between their season opener with Louisiana and their Big 12 opener against TCU.

“I think the big thing for us, not per se it was another week of fall camp, but it felt like you’re just continuing to evaluate yourself and continuing to mold yourself as a football team moving forward,” Campbell said. “It’s kind of the card you’re dealt in the situation we’re in and you got to see a lot of where you were and where you’re not from the game two weeks ago.”

For things to work on the defensive side of the ball, junior linebacker Mike Rose highlighted being able to hold teams on third downs and give the offense better field position to work with after forcing punts.

The result of having a week dedicated to improving on the things Iowa State needs to work on will be seen in its Big 12 opener against TCU on Saturday.

A TCU mystery

One thing that may work in the Cyclones’ favor come Saturday is that the matchup between Iowa State and TCU will be the first time the Horned Frogs step foot on a field in the 2020 season.

TCU was slated to open its season against its only nonconference foe in Southern Methodist University back on Sept. 11, but the game was postponed after some TCU players and staff tested positive for COVID-19.

For TCU, this means Iowa State will now be TCU’s season opener and Big 12 opener with no chance to prepare for conference play like the Cyclones.

One thing that doesn’t go in the favor of the Cyclones is the lack of updated film on TCU.

Since TCU hasn’t played, Iowa State’s game preparation slightly differs from normal, while TCU is able to get a look at the Cyclones’ current roster from the Louisiana game.

“You prepare the same way you did for week one,” Rose said. “You look at film from last year, you can even go back two to three years of film against them. That’s something that’s nice about TCU is we’ve played them for two to three years playing the same defense.”

Status of Kolar and Downing

Iowa State started the game against Louisiana missing one of its key components on the offense and it ended the game missing two key components of the offense.

All-Big 12 tight end Charlie Kolar didn’t suit up for the Cyclones after dealing with an injury and during the game, redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Trevor Downing went down with an injury, forcing the Cyclones to lose one of the few offensive linemen with starting experience.

“Overall, I think we played pretty well in the situation,” said redshirt junior offensive lineman Derek Schweiger. “Our communication just increased a little bit more to make sure everybody knew what they were doing.”

Campbell addressed the situation with Kolar and Downing and labeled the Cyclone standouts as a “day-to-day” status.

He also added both players have shown great progress and expects that both will be making the trip to Fort Worth, although he did mention Kolar wasn’t 100 percent and they’d reevaluate both as it gets closer to the TCU game.

Losing Kolar and Downing for the TCU game could be a big blow to an Iowa State offense that struggled in its first game of the season.