Rising star Campbell content at Iowa State
DES MOINES, Iowa – About 200 adoring fans patiently lined up along a downtown city block here to meet Matt Campbell on a hot August evening. When their turn came, they snapped selfies with Iowa State’s wunderkind football coach. Campbell signed everything from paper scraps to ball caps before high-fiving many of his fans.
This hoopla went on for about an hour.
“When you talk to Matt, he makes everyone feel like you’re his best friend,” Iowa State booster Jon Fleming said. “You talk to him, and after a while, he has a way of making you feel like you’re right there in the coaching offices with him and the players.
“That’s the kind of charm he has.”
Whether it’s mingling in Iowa’s capital city or holding court with influential Iowa State alumni groups, it appears Campbell is a wanted man wherever he goes. You can include NFL teams and big-brand collegiate programs that are interested in getting to know him better, too.
The 39-year-old knows
“You have success, and everybody wants to move you along and work you through.”
Matt Campbell
Iowa State football coach
how to work recruits and fans. He’s turned Iowa State football from a historic Big 12 afterthought into one of the fastest-rising programs, with the Cyclones going 17-10 since the start of the 2017 season, his second in Ames. But how long can this lovefest last? Football experts outside of Ames are surprised he’s here for a fourth season. In Iowa, the most-known case was when ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit went on Twitter two autumns ago.
“Enjoy this team and this coach, in particular, while you can. He’s gone,” was among one of his less popular tweets on Oct. 21, 2017.
History certainly backed Herbstreit there: Iowa State has been a place where even respectable coaches sometimes get fired (hello, Dan McCarney) or head off when more established programs come calling (hey there, Johnny Majors, Earle Bruce and Gene Chizik).
But if you listen to Campbell and pay attention to his actions, he appears cut from a different cloth than the typical climb-as-fast-you-can coach.
“You have success, and everybody wants to move you along and work you through,” Campbell told USA TODAY Sports recently.
“That’s never even remotely why I got into this. My goal was never to become a Division I football coach; I didn’t aspire to be that.
“At one point, I was like, ‘Man, I want to be the head coach at a place like my alma mater – Mount Union.’ ”
This Saturday, Iowa State hosts instate rival No. 18 Iowa in one of the more higher-leverage games in program history. There will be a lot of big college football stars in Ames for this, too.
You’ll have ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew there, including Herbstreit, broadcasting live from Jack Trice Stadium.
But the biggest star of this game might be Campbell.
‘I never even thought’ about NFL coaching opportunities
Campbell makes $3.5 million on a contract that expires in December 2023. It’s worth $22.5 million though the duration and includes a $6 million buyout. That price is steep, but not deal-breaking steep, for the level of job that he might – emphasis on might – someday entertain.
NFL front offices are already encircling Campbell.
He would neither confirm nor deny that six pro teams reportedly gauged interest after last season. It was reported he declined an interview request from the Jets, another topic he wouldn’t directly address.
“I never even thought about it or talked about it, or even sat down and had a conversation with my wife about it,” Campbell said. “For me, I do love the college game. That’s not to say somewhere down the line, would you ever be intrigued by the pro game? I can’t answer that right now.”
Campbell actually declined an NFL opportunity while toiling as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green in 2004. Scott Pioli was then the vice president of player personnel for the Patriots when he offered the 24-year-old a scouting department job.
“It was right around when we started having success with the Patriots,” Pioli told USA TODAY Sports. “He was young. He was smart. I saw something about him that I thought would fit in our program, mostly that he was a hard worker and a good person.
“I meet a lot of people. Some people want to help. Some try too hard. Some are uncertain about what they want to do. Matt was a perfect combination of all the right things.”
They talked. Campbell stayed at Bowling Green until moving to Toledo in 2009.
“To me, I do know where my passion is – and my passion is this ability to take an 18-year-old young man, and by the time he becomes 22 or 23, to have succeeded in getting that young man to become the best version of himself that he can become,” Campbell said.
Still, this guy’s name will be tossed around when those perceived “better jobs” come open. Since that Herbstreit tweet, Campbell has been linked by reports to Mississippi State, Arkansas, Ohio State, the Jets, the Browns and others.
A Saturday – and potentially a season – unlike any other in Ames
The Cyclones opened this season with unprecedented hype. His team was picked to finish behind just Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 – a lofty stature. They were also ranked in the Amway Coaches Poll in the preseason for the first time ever, at No. 24.
Campbell has yet to beat Iowa in the annual Cy-Hawk game that captivates the entire state of Iowa every September.
“This is a game of great importance, just because of the history,” Campbell said this week. “I certainly won’t downplay a rival game that’s something unique to being a part of this state and a part of this institution.”
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard recruited Campbell, a hot midmajor coaching candidate after his run at Toledo, with a pitch centered on Iowa State’s loyal fan base and the department’s family atmosphere.
Pollard trusts Campbell to concentrate on the job at hand.
“As long as we have success, his name’s going to be out there,” he said. “That’s actually a good thing. It adds stress to probably some people, but I’m past that part of it. I’m not naive enough to think that we can dictate where somebody wants to work..”
And for Iowa State supporters still worried about Campbell leaving, note Herbstreit has changed his tune.
“I thought he would be a guy who would probably be gone,” Herbstreit said on Andrew Doughty’s High Motor podcast Monday.
“They were able to extend him out, and from what I understand, he has a buyout that’s so steep that he’ll probably be in Ames, Iowa, for the foreseeable future. I don’t think anybody will come in and pay what they’d have to pay to get him out of there . ...
“He’s either going to continue to do it at Iowa State, or somebody’s going to pull him away, but I think he’s a future superstar in the business.”