TRANSCRIPT: Matt Campbell formal Big 12 Media Days press conference
Iowa State‘s head coach stepped up to the podium on Tuesday morning to speak in front of the entire throng of press inside the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, during day one of Big 12 Media Days. Here’s everything he shared during his time.
Opening comments:
“Thank you. First and foremost, just an honor to be here today. I can’t believe we’re going into our 10th football season here at Iowa State. It’s a truly an honor to represent Iowa State University, our athletic department and certainly our football program. From my standpoint, [it’s] been really rewarding to watch our football program align itself back together in January and really watch the strain of our young men really go to work on continuing to elevate our football program forward.
We brought five tremendous young men here today with us. I’d like to talk a little bit about each one of them really quick. On the defensive side of the football, we brought our senior safety, Jeremiah Cooper, a young man that started for four years and our football program has had a tremendous career. Really coming off another great year as a junior and certainly expecting his best going into senior year.
Senior defensive tackle, nose guard, defense alignment, Domonique Orange. You know, we feel like Domonique’s got a chance to be one of the best players in the defensive line in the country. Really proud of what he’s done and continues to do in our football program. He has made unbelievable growth on and off the football field and certainly proud of who he is.
And then, junior defensive back Jontez Williams coming off a five interception season from a year ago. Young man, one of the hardest workers in our football program, great young leader in our football program.
And then on the offensive side of the football, two young men came with us today.
Senior six-year offensive lineman, a young man that’s had a tremendous career, fouryear starter the last four years and Tyler Miller has had a tremendous career. You talk about a leader of men, one of the great leaders in our football program.
Last but certainly not least, junior quarterback Rocco Becht. Rocco is evolved into one of the best quarterbacks in college football. A guy that has been just a great leader in our locker room, stands for what’s right and certainly really proud of all he stands for and what he does for our football program. So for me, it’s been great to align with our coaches. Like I said, are these great young men.
We’ve got 18 great seniors and a real great opportunity for Iowa State football to continue to grow itself forward. So with that said, will certainly answer any questions you have for us.”
REPORTER: Matt, you’re talking about Rocco. This is a pretty heavy quarterback league this year, a lot of veterans. Does that just keep you sort of even par? Does that keep you behind the 8 ball? What is what is having a veteran quarterback this particular year do for you?”
“I probably don’t know enough about everybody else in this Conference from that perspective, but I do know about Rocco. And I know what he’s proven, not just last year, but the last two years. I’d say in a lot of ways, he’s the reason why our football program has clawed back to where we are right now. And you know, I thought he had an incredible redshirt freshman year, came onto the scene and really had a great year, you know, in 2023. For him to have the maturity and honestly the leadership to do what he did last year was really special. I mean the moments that he was able to play, especially when you look at you know late in the game, what he was able to do in some critical moments, the ability to extend plays, and make the winning plays really special. From our end of it, every time we’ve had a guy like that, it’s given us a chance to reach our full potential as a football team in a program. And you know, I think Rocco’s leadership is as special as what I’ve seen or been around from a quarterback. We’re really proud of him and obviously we’ve been really fortunate to have some great quarterbacks at Iowa State.”
REPORTER: The Big 12 has changed a lot. You’ve seen teams leave the conference, you’ve seen new teams come in, but how does that impact the way that you recruit players either from the transfer portal or high school players in terms of illustrating that level of competition that players can expect?”
“Yeah, that’s a unique question for sure, especially in our landscape today. Probably, the great thing about Iowa State football is we really haven’t changed and you know, from our end of it, you know we’ve certainly put a priority on recruiting high school student athletes into our football program and developing those young men and keeping those young men in our in our football program. Over the last 10 years, it’s probably been the pillar of our success now also certainly identifying using other resources to get player acquisition. Whether it’s been the transfer portal, at one time it was graduate transfers, we’ve always tried to use every resource to build the best team year in and year out to help our team be the best. But, I think what we’ve always tried to do is never flinch from the standards that it takes to play in our program and it’s probably the one nice thing about being at one place now for 10 years is we know who fits. We know what works in our football program. We say all the time our kind of guys OKG who fits Iowa State football and it’s really helped us be able to navigate the player acquisition process and certainly find the right young men for our program.”
REPORTER: You’ve got an unusual season opener with Kansas State in Ireland. It’s early. It’s in a different country. What kind of preparations are you asking your kids to do to get ready for that?”
“Yeah, it’s certainly a unique challenge when you look at the start of the college football season. I think you look first and foremost and you’re very honored to play in this game. Obviously, the respect that myself and our kids have for Kansas State and being a rival game and have a respect for their program and their players. You know, it just makes it a really unique opportunity. I think sometimes when it is unique, it really zooms focus. And I almost feel like since January, we’ve had to talk about this. Not only, what does it mean to play a game like that that early in the season, but also the travel and what happens post that game, I think if you look at the history of this Week Zero game, I don’t know if anybody’s really handled it very well, whether they won or lost the game. I think they’ve had some tougher moments post that game. And so, I think when you look at this, you’ve got to look at it in its entirety and you got to be able to look at what the challenges are. How did you set up your spring calendar? How do you set up your summer calendar? How do you do a great job of making sure practice fits, fall camp fits, you know, the lead up to this unique opportunity in Week Zero? And then obviously, how are you preparing post this game to get ready to play some hugely impactful football games right as soon as you get back from Ireland. So, it’s really been a great challenge for the head football coach and for our staff to sit together and really kind of troubleshoot this from a multitude of different angles. We’ve really tried to look at it as that, but as big of a challenge it is, it’s certainly a great opportunity and we certainly feel honored to be able to be a part of it.”
REPORTER: Coach Campbell, you talked about this being your 10th year at Iowa State and you called the Kansas State game a rival opponent. I’m curious how you’ve maybe seen the Farmageddon rivalry evolve over your last decade in names.”
“Yeah, you know, the evolution of that. I just have so much respect for the consistency that Kansas State football has had over, you know, two great coaches now during my time here in this league to what that team has stood for. So, I think from our perspective, we have tried to really make it equated to a rivalry game and to be able to get our football program to have, you know, the similar characteristics that you know, the consistency of excellence that that program has stood for. So to me, I’ve always had great respect for Kansas State, from the time that I was at Toledo to obviously the time that I came into this league to where we are today, 10 years later.”
REPORTER: You lost your top two receivers last year. Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel both had almost 1,200 receiving yards each. What goes into the challenge of replacing two players that were so productive at the same position?”
“Both of those young men were tremendous players, and I don’t know if you’re just going to draw up to have Higgins and Noel right back there, but I think what you have to collectively have is, great people around your starting quarterback. We’re really blessed to have a building block in Rocco in that passing game and a guy that knows what it takes to be successful. I think both Jayden and Jaylin would say was a huge part of their success. And then, I think you look around the other rooms before you even talk about the wide receiver room. You know, we feel like we have one of the best tight end rooms in the country with Ben Brahmer. We didn’t have Ben last year, which we thought really hurt us to be able to get him back to have [Gabe] Burkle, who came on and was just incredible down the stretch run for us as elite pass catchers. Guys that can really challenge the defense. Then you look at the offensive backfield and what [Carson] Hansen and [Abu] Sama can do both as runners and catchers out of the backfield. Then, you talk about that wide receiver room, and we’re fortunate. You had a couple freshmen stand up and really play good football for us. Brett Eskildsen won us the Cincinnati game last year late in the season, had five catches for almost 100 yards in the game. Man had some big catches for us down the stretch run in the season.
“You had Dominic Overby as a freshman that really stepped in and had some really big moments for us. And then you talk about Daniel Jackson, a six-year senior that in ‘23, the reason we kind of got off the mat after that tough Ohio loss was Daniel Jackson led us to some huge games in ‘23 and he got injured in fall. We didn’t have him last year, and to get him back as a veteran is huge. And then you talk about the addition, we were fortunate. Chase Sowell, a young man from East Carolina that had a great start to his career there, is now in our program. We really had a great spring ball for us. Xavier Townsend from Central Florida, who is a tremendous skill football player. So, we’ve got some great pieces. Obviously, those pieces are going to have to prove it in our system. But to have some guys that have proven in our system around a great quarterback, we feel really confident about what that has the ability to look like.”
REPORTER: So often, you see teams rarely make it back to the Big 12 title game for a second year in a row. What is it about this Conference that makes it so challenging to do that? And do you just how do you feel your team is ready to try and make it back to that game with a different result?”
“I think from top to bottom, the consistency of this Conference, you’ve got great quarterbacks, you’ve got great coaches right now and you’ve got a lot of great programs. I think again, you got to try to stay healthy, you got to get on a great run. You got to be able to kind of what I would deem if we’re going to get back there this year, you got to be pretty tough. You know, we’ve changed a lot of things in football, but the one thing you haven’t changed is are you tough enough? And you know that toughness isn’t just physical, sometimes it’s mental too. We deal with 18 to 22-yearolds and are arguably tough enough to stay the course through the entirety of a football season. And I think that’s a real challenge. I think it is really unique for Iowa State football this year and we’re going to figure out if we’re tough enough to be able to do it again.”
