Hines: Welcoming Iowa State and college football back into our lives

AMES – Jon Heacock probably put the situation in context best. For as much as Iowa State football preaches and professes The Process of improvement as a year-long endeavor divorced from results, getting to game week is just different.

Different than those January weight room sessions. Different than those spring practices. Different than fall camp.

“We only get 12 guarantees of this,” the defensive coordinator said of the Cyclones’ impending schedule. “We practice for 300-and-however many days mentally and physically to do it, so it does change a little bit.

“It’s football season.”

Hell yeah, it is.

No matter how much players and coaches can love The Process . No matter how much fans can keep warm all winter at Hilton Coliseum. No matter how we spend our spring and summer with diversions like enjoying the outdoors or actually watching that kids’ Saturday morning soccer game without sneaking a peek at the top-25 scoreboard, it ain’t football season.

And football season is finally here.

Bring on the tailgating, the fight songs, the multi-TV setups and everything else that college football season ushers in every fall. Here comes the hope and the heartbreak and the happiness that this lovely and strange sport brings.

It may not be the most wonderful time of the year, but it might be the most fun.

Iowa State vs. North Dakota at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon at Jack Trice Stadium.

We’re nearly there.

More: Here's what Matt Campbell said ahead of the Iowa State football season opener against North Dakota

“Everybody is really excited,” Iowa State defensive lineman Tyler Onyedim said. “I just love playing at the Jack. The energy is crazy. I’m real excited.”

One person who at least is trying to quell that excitement is the guy in charge over at the Bergstrom Football Complex.

More: Hines: How Iowa State's Ben Brahmer got out of his own head

“I almost hope it doesn’t shift,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said of the team’s mindset on the eve of his ninth season with the Cyclones. “That’s the whole mentality of this program.

“Your mindset day in and day out for the last six months should match what Tuesday practice in the fall looks like Week 1 to Week 6 to Week 8 to Week 12. Great teams that I've been around, they’ve had the same mindset every single day.”

That may be the goal – or at least the unattainable perfect idea – of Campbell’s program, but it’s impossible to devote your entire year to 12 Saturdays and not feel the change when the first is upon you. Ultimately, the aim is to not let those dozen opportunities overwhelm the hundreds of days of work that preceded them.

“You’d be silly to say it doesn’t change because you practice for so many months and days to play 12,” Heacock said. “So it does shift a little bit. You hope that it doesn’t shift a lot.

“You hope preparation is their purpose, and their habits since last January, since the (previous) season was over, you hope all the habits and structure and everything they’ve been doing to get to this point lines them up to have a good week of preparation in order to play.”

That sentiment largely underscores my thinking on this Iowa State team. The talent, it would seem, is there for a potentially special season. Is the maturity, the focus and the resiliency there to turn potential into results?

More: Hines: Imagining Iowa State football's best-case scenario for 2024 season

Harnessing the excitement of Week 1 is maybe not directly translatable to weathering the adversity that will surely come in the weeks that follow, but there’s a throughline there. Can Iowa State be mature enough to shed the pageantry and continue The Process ? That might give us an idea if they can shrug off that first loss or that critical injury later in the fall.

“The teams that are either growing or trying to find their way, you feel like it’s a yo-yo through the season,” Campbell said. “Are we there yet? I don’t know. Are we tough enough to be a team to do that? I don’t know, but we’re going to answer those questions really fast.”

More: Hines: Iowa State football game-by-game predictions for the 2024 season

And that starts with Week 1. When practice jerseys get traded for the real deal and the guy across the line of scrimmage doesn't live in your same dorm.

“Week 1 is always exciting,” Iowa State wideout Jayden Higgins said. “We finally get to play a new team. Someone that’s not in the red and black or red and white.

“The energy is obviously up a little bit because we get to play against the team in green.”

Iowa State may hope not to change much just because the jersey color of its opponent is changing, but it changes so much for the rest of us.

Football season, and all that comes with it, is back. Let's see where it takes us.

Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000 . F ollow him on X at @TravisHines21.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Hines: Welcoming Iowa State and college football back into our lives