Rocco Becht's Comments After Iowa State Exit Spark Backlash From Cyclone Fans

While the Iowa State fan base unanimously loved Rocco Becht’s time as a Cyclone, things have switched tunes a bit lately. Not necessarily from the fan side of things, but from Becht himself.

After committing to join his former coach, Matt Campbell, at Penn State, Becht provided some interesting quotes about the decision. One read as a backhanded shot at his old program, and it’s starting to make the rounds on social media.

“We were listening to him talk yesterday, and something about him changed,” Becht said. “He’s got the resources and people behind him and a program behind him to do what he wants to do — compete for a National Championship.”

Look, no one is arguing that Iowa State has a similar NIL base to that of Penn State and their laundry list of donors. It’s not true, and it wouldn’t make sense to say that, but to say that Iowa State’s program couldn’t compete for a National Championship due to resources and program support is rich.

As many commenters noted on the post, take a look at the four-game stretch in October that knocked the Cyclones out of playoff conversations. They faced Cincinnati (7-5), Colorado (3-9), No. 11 BYU (12-2), and Arizona State (8-5) and went 0-4 with a combined point differential of 34 points. In those four outings, Becht played some of the worst football of his career, posting 90 completions for 1,016 yards with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4-5. The yardage may sound nice, but you aren’t going to win many games turning the football over more times than you score.

Social media has taken off with the quote, and here are some of the best responses to the situation. Mind you, the Cyclones were 5-0 until their four-game losing streak, and could be seen on playoff projections lists everywhere up to that point.

Probably a “hard environment to win” because Rocco’s October stat line includes three games with a QBR under 39.0 and a 4th under 48.0 and a 4:5 TD:INT ratio https://t.co/xTbjMw8UyF

— tyler naughtrip (@tylernaughtrip) January 5, 2026

Does Rocco not understand that his piss poor play in October is the main reason ISU didn’t compete for a national championship? https://t.co/XD4KIQVk2O

— Eric Hessing🌪️🚨 (@Cylights) January 5, 2026

> Couldn’t even win a Big12 championship with our players

> Guts entire Iowa State team. They all transfer to Penn State.

> Complains about “resources” aka players that can’t compete with big12 competition. Yet they all go to Penn State.

> Expects that it’ll be any… https://t.co/VJuK9dhHDe

— Cyclone Investments (@CycloneInvest) January 5, 2026

It’s a little vague, and Becht probably didn’t mean it to come across as bad as it sounded, but it’s pretty hard to ignore. You tell us, did Rocco Becht take a shot at Iowa State here?

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