WHEN MATT CAMPBELL was introduced as a football coach from Iowa State on November 30, 2015, he shared a story about a trip to Ames last year with Toledo.
The team’s bus arrived early at Jack Trice Stadium, so Campbell, then Toledo’s coach, walked to the field. He analyzed the facilities of the state of Iowa, soaked in the parking gates of the parking lot and admired the passionate support of fans for what was then a 1-4 team. He called his wife, Erica, after the match, to share his impression.
“You won’t believe this place,” Campbell told him. “This is a really special place.”
Given the history of cyclones up to that point – only 11 home games in 12 decades, zero conference championships since 1912 – few would call the school a destination. But Campbell saw potential. When his job opened a year later, he was drawn to the idea of taking cyclones out of the “laughter of college football,” as he often said, in a place of national importance.
“It was a lot of hard road and a lot of hard water that we had to take back again, clean up and line up,” Campbell said. “The reality is, this has never been the case here.”
In just five years, Campbell has turned his vision to reality – and a consistent one. On Saturday, Iowa State no. 10 meets the number 25 Oregon in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (16:00 ET, ESPN and ESPN), the first appearance of the game with six New Year’s bowls in school history.
This season has been full of similar awards. The Cyclones (8-3) finished 6th at one point in the college football playoff rankings, the highest of all national rankings since their program began in the 1890s. 12 of the regular season, and the eight victories of their conference were an all-time record. A victory in the Fiesta Bowl would be the ninth victory of the season, a school record that took place only twice before: 1906 and 2000.
This impulse began under Campbell.
“When I was playing there, the thought of going to the Fiesta Bowl seemed so discouraged and unreal,” said Allen Lazard, a former Iowa receiver now with the Green Bay Packers. “All the credit goes to coach Campbell and his staff for what they did up there.”
WHEN CAMPBELL ARRIVED, Iowa State had won five games in the last two seasons combined.
His predecessor, Paul Rhoads, led the state of Iowa to three bowls in his first three years, and his teams have developed a reputation for playing hard and occasionally earning eyebrows, none greater than the 2011 upset of No site. 2 The state of Oklahoma, which derailed BCS hopes of the Cowboys title.
But Iowa has gone 8-28 in the last three Rhoads seasons, and athletic director Jamie Pollard has made a change. He beat Campbell, 36, at the time, and started 35-15 in Toledo.
The young coach was a life of football. His father, Rick, was a high school football coach in Ohio.
“Being around the locker room, being around an influential person who influences and empowers young people’s lives and watches what happens in childhood, I think that has had a profound impact on me,” Campbell said.
Campbell’s own high school coach, Keith Wakefield, was another strong influence, along with Larry Kehres, a coach who won 11 national titles at Mount Union and for whom Campbell played in Division III school. Wakefield, Campbell said, “taught us not only the game of football, but also the game of life.” At Mount Union, Kehres’ program was “about relationships, trust and culture.”
This trio of mentors provided Campbell with a foundation to help his career.
“If I hadn’t had this experience at that point in my life, I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to become a football coach,” Campbell said.
In his Big 12 foray, translating Campbell’s success with Toledo into the Mid-American Conference was a tough challenge. In its first year, the team went 3-9. But Campbell’s expectations remained negotiable.
“When coach Campbell and his staff came, they immediately changed the culture from day one,” Lazard said. “They demanded new standards, new expectations and kept us at a much higher level of responsibility than many of us – especially me – we were not usually met.”
Campbell pointed out the details. Punctuality. Technical. “Winning on the sidelines,” as he calls it. Because the cyclones were not stocked with five-star recruits, they should spend time perfecting the little things to have a chance.
“We do not accept the delay in this program,” said Charlie Kolar, the junior team. “In this program, you are on time or not practicing that day, it doesn’t matter who he is.
“That bleeds in training, running on the right route, blocking the right gap, making the right attack.”
Sometimes it can get frustrating, Kolar said, but something that seems pointless during a training camp practice “is the difference between a seven-point win and a seven-point loss.”
Accumulating victories would still take time.
“Year 1, we had to learn how to believe,” Campbell said. “In year 2, we had to learn how to win.”
BLUEPRINT CAMPBELL COMING SOON received an impulse from within. The winter following Campbell’s first season in Iowa, runner David Montgomery set a routine Friday night.
Instead of going out and enjoying college life, Montgomery – now a runner for the Chicago Bears – began watching movies and training late at night on the team’s team. Soon, Bailey’s twins – defensive end JaQuan Bailey and defensive forward Joshua Bailey – joined. After a few weeks, a small handful of players turned into a few dozen.
Overtime and a focus on details paid off. In 2017, the Cyclones went 8-5, hit an 18-game streak against Oklahoma, peaked at 14 in the Associated Press poll and won the Liberty Bowl. Campbell and the Cyclones were turning their heads, especially with their victory over the Sooners, who left for the college football playoffs later that season.
“Winning a game like we did against Oklahoma showed us and our kids that ‘Here’s what it takes to be successful,'” Campbell said before the 2018 season.
That discovery was just the beginning. In the past four seasons, the Cyclones have gone 31-19, making the current senior class – which was recruited in Campbell’s debut season 3-9 – the most successful in Iowa history. These teams have won eight games three times and seven in the last season. This will be the fourth consecutive bowl game, a feat so far in the history of the program.
Stability and flexibility were major factors.
Campbell brought with him more than a dozen employees from Toledo to Iowa, and many remain on the cyclone team, including offensive coordinator Tom Manning and defensive coordinator Jon Heacock.
And he found reliability with three-year-old defender Brock Purdy. Ever since he came in line with a victory over a sixth-ranked West Virginia team in his first career start in 2018, the junior has offered a steady hand in a position that had significant revenue before his arrival. to.
Purdy is 22-11 as a starter, 19-7 against the Big 12 and 12-1 at home. The first All-Big 12 quarterback was the first cyclone to win this honor from John Quinn in 1981. In the 33 games he started, Iowa has an average of 432 offensive yards and 32 points.
“We grew as a program as Brock grew,” Campbell said. “I feel like a lot of the lessons we learned and a lot of the growth we had, it was really nice for all of us to be able to do it together.”
Campbell also built a strong running game around Purdy. In the quarterback’s first year campaign, he had Montgomery, the second leader of the Big 12 in 2018, and had Breece Hall in the last two seasons. After a solid freshman campaign in 2019, Hall emerged as a candidate for the Heisman trophy this season and is second nationally in yards (1,436) and quick touchdowns (19).
The stability of the program is complemented by the flexibility displayed by Campbell and his staff. In the middle of the 2018 season, Heacock changed the defensive philosophy from a four-man front to three lower lines to better suit the talent of the defensive list. This season, Campbell changed the strength and conditioning of the staff and even adjusted details, such as how they structured the meetings.
Heacock’s defense was a force throughout the Iowa race. The Cyclones ranked in the top three in the Big 12 in defending the score in the last four years and gave up on average less than 23 points per game during this period.
The staff was also open to player feedback on the evolution of the program, increasing the buy-in from the list.
“Much of it was just the willingness to listen and really understand the contributions that players could make,” said safety Greg Eisworth. “Our coaching staff … has been very successful and I’ve been doing this for a very long time, so it can be hard to change the philosophy or understand what the players could say.
“But to have the humility to carry only those conversations, from coach to player or player to coach, so that we can all be on the same page and move in the same direction … I think that helped us a lot “.
Even if the cyclones gain more and the talent on the list improves, Campbell hits his message.
“Yes, we may have aged and our talent has been able to grow,” said Campbell, “but I think in order to become the best version of us, the best team we can become, the difference is in the details. our ability to do the little things. “
HOW MUCH IOWA State football can go on and on, but the trend line is promising.
Campbell, whose name is speculatively thrown away when coaching jobs open, seems pleased. He signed a contract extension until 2025 after last season and, during the most recent coaching carousel, nothing meant the intention to make a move.
Pollard acknowledged the likely interest during a recent interview on SiriusXM Big 12 Today – “I’m not naive enough to think he’ll never leave Iowa,” he said – but he’s confident in the trust the people have built. two and the quality of their relationship.
Campbell, who enjoyed the challenge of building something when he arrived in Iowa, lived up to it.
“Right now, he’s proven you can be successful at Iowa State,” Pollard said.
The level of achievement is unprecedented for the program. At one point this season, the Cyclones were right outside the playoffs. They were on the verge of a conference championship, which they had not won for 108 years.
After a November victory over Texas, Campbell was asked if he imagined this success. Referring to his freshman year in Iowa, Campbell said he hadn’t set goals beyond one: “Can’t we be the laughing stock of college football?”
Under his supervision, the state of Iowa no longer had to worry about it.