Matt Campbell's Herculean task: He has changed how people view Iowa State
AMES, Iowa — The ultimate compliment to what Matt Campbell has built at Iowa State in six seasons is not that Associated Press voters ranked the Cyclones No. 7 out of the gate. It’s not that ESPN is bringing College GameDay there Saturday for the second time in three seasons, which is also the second time ever.
It’s that Iowa State won its opener and we’re all trying to figure out what’s wrong with Iowa State.
Let’s stop and think about this. The institutional memory of college football recognizes the absurdity of questioning any season-opening victory by the Cyclones, even the 16-10 stomach-churner over FCS Northern Iowa last week. This is a program that began its 124th season of college football 124 games under .500, that last won a conference championship in 1912, that never has won double-digit games in a season.
But in a sport whose fans live by the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately creed, Campbell has changed how we view Iowa State. He has, to use one of his pet phrases, set a standard. Iowa State has finished each of the past four seasons with winning records, which hasn’t happened since World War I. Iowa State running back Breece Hall, a unanimous All-American and the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year last season, begins 2021 as a Heisman favorite.
And perhaps the ultimate sign of respect: Iowa State opened this season by barely beating an FCS team, and the AP voters dropped the Cyclones only to No. 9. That’s one slot ahead of No. 10 Iowa, which comes to Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
It takes a lot of self-confidence to refute history and believe you can win at Iowa State. It takes a lot of a self-confidence to become a Power 5 head coach at age 35 and decide to stick to the system that worked for four seasons as the coach at Toledo. It takes a lot of self-confidence to be a head coach at 35 and already have a system.
“Everybody wants to be like that guy, or this guy, or this guy,” Campbell said. “I think that’s where you get lost in our profession. Man, who’s the authentic you? Because the kids know. They’re 18 to 22 years old. They know. The coaches know. I see how you can get lost in our profession, especially sometimes when you coach for some of these legendary coaches. I think why they’re legendary is they did it their way.”
Campbell can develop RBs
Campbell made NFL backs out of David Fluellen, Kareem Hunt and David Montgomery, who came out of high school with two, zero and zero stars, respectively. Fluellen and Hunt played for Campbell at Toledo. Campbell signed Montgomery two months into his tenure at Iowa State, in his first recruiting class with the Cyclones. Iowa State beat out MAC schools Ball State, Buffalo and Miami (Ohio) for Montgomery.
“I remember saying, about a week and a half in (at Iowa State), we’re going to have to recruit like we’re in the MAC,” Campbell said. “We’re going to have to be willing to dig in every area, and we’re going to have the find the guys who fit us. We’re either going to fail that way, or we’re going to have the ability to have success that way.”
Hall may have the highest upside of any of them. Hall, now a 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior who can run around you or through you, started out as a three-star recruit. A step up for Campbell, yes, but Hall came to Iowa State because Campbell dug him out of the pile. Hall didn’t make the varsity his sophomore year at Wichita (Kan.) Northwest.
Campbell watched five plays of video of Hall as a junior and made the decision to offer. That’s the sign of confidence in a system. Your Aunt Frances can watch a five-star recruit and offer a scholarship. It takes guts to be first in line.
“I knew I was good,” Hall said. “I didn’t know how good I was, though. It kind of surprised me to see these coaches looking at me.”
Hall ended up getting offers from schools in every Power 5 conference except the Pac-12. He got offers from six Big Ten schools, including Michigan; from Tennessee and Ole Miss, from Iowa and TCU. He told them all no.
“I remember a quote Coach Campbell told me,” Hall said. “It has to do with five-star culture. It has to do with going to the big schools, being a part of all the glitz and glamor. I didn’t want to go to a school to be someone; I wanted to come here and do something. Coming here and raising the standard and transforming this place into what we are today, that was a big deal.”
It can be hard to maintain a coaching system. A little success makes your head turn. If I won this many games with two- and three-star guys, let me go chase the big fish. Your staff begins to cherry-pick. The assistants have aspirations, too. Campbell solves both issues by taking former players and giving them entry-level jobs.
“None of us came from Ohio State or Alabama,” Campbell said. “We’re a lot of Division III guys.”
‘Put your ego aside’
Taylor Mouser, who played for Campbell at Toledo, was the recruiting analyst who discovered the video of Hall. He’s now the Cyclones tight ends coach. Jeff Myers, another former Toledo Rocket under Campbell, is the Cyclones’ offensive line coach. Mouser is 30, Myers is 29.
“The bigger thing in our profession is are you willing to put your ego aside and say if this guy can or can’t do it, instead of always trying to push your own recruits,” Campbell said. “ ‘I’ve got to sign every player because if I sign every player, I get the next job, I get paid more money.’ In our profession, that’s a thing.
“If we’ve done anything really well, we’ve been able to be unified in our vision of what we’re trying to do, and kind of keep our ego at the door and have the willingness to work together to find the right answer.”
Defining team culture is as easy as eating soup with a fork. It’s hard to speak without buzzwords. Campbell is long on work and short on ego, which may be why he has been such a good fit at Iowa State. He finds players who will fit.
“Coach Campbell is big on trust,” Hall said. “If he can’t trust you, then you’re shit out of luck at that point. He expects you to be the same guy each and every day. He demands excellence. If you’re one of the top players, he demands you to be an ‘A’ player. If you’re an ‘A’ player, then you must getting ‘A’s on the field, in the classroom and in life. … He’s not going to yell at you, or beg you to do what you were supposed to do, because we’re grown-up at the end of the day. It’s up to us to be consistent.”
Hall came to Iowa State to do something, and ended up being someone, too. He rushed for 69 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries last week. Not the numbers of a Heisman winner, but Hall did stretch his streak of games with a rushing touchdown to 13.
Iowa will account for him on every snap. That’s the new reality in Ames. The Cyclones aren’t sneaking up on anyone these days.