AMES − We know how young Iowa State’s football team is. We’ve seen it. New starting quarterback. True freshman backup running back. True freshman starting at linebacker. Two true freshmen playing lights-out at tight end. Just four senior starters during last Saturday’s embarrassment at Ohio.

Those are facts, but just how did this team get so young during Matt Campbell’s eighth season as the Cyclones’ head coach? Before delving into that issue, I’ll tell you something that backs up what Campbell’s young team faces darn near every weekend.

Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State at Jack Trice Stadium not only brings the Big 12’s two most tenured coaches to the same field, but the 3 p.m. game on FS1 also involves one of the conference’s youngest teams against one of the conference’s oldest.

That’s right. Oklahoma State’s starting lineup in its 33-7 loss at home against South Alabama last Saturday included a whopping 15 seniors, while Iowa State started just four in its 10-7 loss at Ohio. The Cowboys started one redshirt freshman. The Cyclones started a true freshman and two redshirt freshmen. Of the 45 or so Cyclones who have played this season, only 19 are juniors or seniors.

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“In all honestly, the last two weeks, we’ve had that same story - you’ve played two of the oldest teams in college football,” Campbell said during his weekly press gathering Tuesday. “What I think you’ve witnessed, at least from a positive, is that you’ve seen great growth.

Campbell hasn’t used youth as an excuse for losing two of three non-conference games. He doesn’t have to. We know how young this team is. But again, how did this roster, which just two seasons ago was maybe the best football roster Iowa State ever assembled, suddenly become so outrageously young?

Let’s start with the 2021 team – an extremely veteran group

The 2021 team should have fared far better than 5-4 in the Big 12 and 7-6 overall after losing against Clemson in the Cheez-It Bowl.

That team included four players selected in the following NFL Draft – Breece Hall, Brock Purdy, Charlie Kolar and Enyi Uwazurike. That’s All-American running back, best quarterback is school history, All-American tight end, and starting defensive lineman. Losing that much talent in one season is tough on anyone, and especially a tough rewind for Iowa State, but there’s more.

The 2021 team included 14 seniors among its most-used starting lineup – six on offense and eight on defense. Besides the draftees, the seniors on offense that season were tight end Chase Allen, offensive lineman Derek Schweiger and Xavier Hutchinson. On defense, the other seniors were Zach Petersen, Mike Rose, Jake Hummel, O’Rien Vance, Greg Eisworth, Anthony Johnson Jr., and Datrone Young.

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Johnson, Hutchinson and Vance used their COVID eligibility season in 2022, but you get the point.

The 2021 team was as veteran as it gets. Losing so many star players from that team, including Hall going to the pros after his junior season, was significant.

“If you look back to 2021 (and) and the COVID year, you see how old we were during that time frame,” Campbell said. “There were a lot of veterans those seasons.”

The transfer portal was a contributor to Iowa State’s youth factor.

Between the end of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, at least 12 players transferred out of the program – either because they didn’t foresee playing time, or because they thought somewhere else provided a better fit.

Safety Isheem Young, a sophomore, entered the portal a season after being the Big 12’s co-defensive freshman of the year. He left with a 19-game starting streak. He started nine games last season and is a key contributor in 2023.

Starting safety Kym-Mani King (sophomore) and reserve linebacker Aric Horne (redshirt freshman) entered, too. So did receiver Ezeriah Anderson (redshirt freshman) and reserve defensive end Corey Suttle (redshirt freshman).

Receivers Tarique Milton (redshirt junior) and Joe Scates (redshirt sophomore), defensive backs Jaquan Amos (senior), and Virdel Edwards (redshirt freshman), linebacker Arquel Smith (true freshman), and defensive lineman Cordarrius Bailey (redshirt junior) also left. So did defensive back Craig McDonald.

That’s at least a dozen players who left during a two-season span. While maybe that affected the team at the time, most weren’t game-changers. To the program’s recruiting success, none of the transfers paralyzed a position.

Here’s where some of them are now:

King and Horne are at Florida A&M, where King starts and Horne is a backup. Anderson starts at Campbell. Suttle plays significantly at Miami of Ohio. McDonald transferred to Auburn and now is at Minnesota

Milton played one season at Texas. Scates has seven receptions this season for Memphis. Amos, who transferred to Ball State, was waived by the Baltimore Ravens in August. Edwards starts at Hawaii. Bailey is a Northern Iowa starter.

“I would say at least the last three years, we’re as good as anybody in retention rate in college football,” Campbell said.

Another reason the 2023 roster is so young: the gambling situation

Iowa State’s charged players in the state's underage gambling probe included starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers, starting running back Jirehl Brock, starting defensive lineman Isaiah Lee, starting tight end DeShawn Hanika and starting offensive lineman Jake Remsburg.

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Remsburg was suspended 50% of the season by the NCAA. He’s eligible under NCAA rules to play Oct. 14 at Cincinnati. Brock and Lee left the team. Dekkers and Hanika are still on the roster.

“In a positive way, there’s a lot of sophomores and juniors that are playing really good football,” Campbell said. “The strength of the recruiting classes we’ve been able to have over the last three seasons have guided our youth to getting on the field so fast.”

That includes this season’s true freshman starter, linebacker Jack Sadowsky, and five true freshmen who have played.

Jeremiah Cooper, who started last season as a true freshman and now is tied for the nation’s interceptions lead with three, knows what rookie starters go through.

“Last year, there were a lot of emotions for me,” Cooper said. “It’s your first time on the big stage. There’s lots of things going through your head.

“It was a big jump from high school to the big stage, but I felt I was able to handle it. It was challenge for me, but all my teammates and coaches helped me through it.”

Now the coaches and older players are helping this season’s batch of young players.

“Watching those guys – they’re fun to watch,” senior tight end Easton Dean said. “They’re growing and getting better at the same time.”

A total of 33 redshirt sophomores or younger have played the first three games. I don’t know how that compares throughout the Big 12, but it seems like a lot.

“It pushes us to mature at a faster rate,” offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase said. “It pushes us to do the little things – the small, mundane, simple stuff – really, really well.”

It’s part of the deal when players of the future are doubling as players of the present. The experience they’re getting – like against Mike Gundy's veteran Oklahoma State team – that’s Iowa State's 2023 season’s silver lining.

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, and on X @RandyPete

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State's football future on display every week with young roster