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AMES — Iowa State’s new head football coach, Jimmy Rogers, made it 113 words into his first answer at his introductory news conference before choking up.

The topic: His journey from his native Arizona — some 15 miles from Cyclone icon Brock Purdy’s hometown — to Brookings, S.D. to play for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits roughly two decades ago.

The background: Rogers was a lightly-recruited, highly-driven linebacker prospect who talked legendary head coach John Stiegelmeier into putting him on scholarship before the 2006 season. He went on to become South Dakota State’s all-time leading tackler as a junior and senior. Rogers then spent 14 of the next 15 years as an assistant at his alma m

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