OU-Iowa State is an historical and recruiting mismatch, but Matt Campbell's Cyclones don't back down

In building a lasting culture in Ames, Campbell has accomplished feats no other Cyclones coach has

The history of Iowa State doesn’t reveal a whole lot of football highlights.

• The Cyclones have two conference championships — albeit, none in the past 108 years. In 1911 they went 2-0-1 in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and shared the conference title with Nebraska. In 1912, they were undefeated and again shared the crown with Nebraska with a 2-0 record.

Put another way, Bud Wilkinson wasn’t born yet the last time Iowa State won a conference title.

• The Cyclones have finished a season in the Associated Press college football poll twice. It first happened in 1976 (40 years after the AP Poll debuted), when the Cyclones went 8-3 and ended the year ranked No. 19. It happened again in 2000, when they went 9-3 and ended up No. 25.

Put another way, about half of the players in this week’s Big 12 Championship Game weren’t born yet the last time Iowa State finished a season in the Top 25.

When the No. 9-ranked Cyclones (8-2) play No. 11 Oklahoma (7-2) on Saturday morning in Arlington, TX, it’ll be as great an historical mismatch as there’s ever been in a major college football championship game (the Big Ten title game in 2018 between Ohio State and Northwestern is on the same level). 

That’s not a knock on this year’s Iowa State squad. How could it be? They’ve already beaten OU once this year, 37-30 in a madcap rally in Ames back on Oct. 3.

It is a simple matter of fact. Since conference title games became a thing in 1992, there’s never been a matchup with more historical disparity between the haves and the have-nots — between a blue blood program and a program at the bottom of history’s standings.

Lincoln Riley, who coached at Texas Tech and East Carolina as an assistant, thinks he has a little bit of an appreciation for where his counterpart, Matt Campbell, has come from.

“I’ve been at a few schools that are similar in that way, that they don’t have a tradition like we do here (at OU),” Riley said. “No, I do. It’s a fun thing when it comes together at a place that hasn’t experienced as much success like that in the past.”

The bottom line is this: Campbell is finishing up his fifth season in Ames, and although he’s just seven games over .500, his career winning percentage of .557 is the sixth-best in school history — and the best at Iowa State since 1919.

He’s the first coach in Iowa State history to win six conference games in a season — and he’s done it twice. And he’s the only coach in school history to beat every other team in his conference. He has three of ISU’s four wins against opponents ranked in the top 6 of the AP Poll.

For a hundred years, no Cyclones coach has done it better than Campbell.

“It’s very significant,” Texas coach Tom Herman said in November on the weekly Big 12 coaches teleconference. “(Campbell) has done a great job. He has some really, really, really good players on both sides of the ball.”

Herman knows all too well. He was an Iowa State assistant from 2009-2011, and once infamously told a crowd of Houston fans after taking over the Cougars in 2016 that he “did a three-year sentence in Ames, Iowa. Anybody been to Ames, Iowa? Yeah, it’s awful. Siberia.”

And yet, Campbell has elevated the Cyclones to their first Big 12 championship game (they can actually claim the regular-season crown with a record of 8-1; OU is second at 6-2). With a repeat won over the Sooners on Saturday, they can hang a banner they haven’t been able to hang in 108 years.

“It takes a lot of things, it takes a lot of people — leadership,” Riley said. “It takes buy-in. I think having some of those years where it kind of all comes together and you’ve got a lot of players back, we had a couple like that at East Carolina, we had a couple like that at Texas Tech, those years where it kind of times up. You’re really good the other years, too, but occasionally you just have those years where it times up and kind of all falls into place.”

That may actually sell short what Campbell has accomplished — or, is accomplishing.

Campbell’s DNA includes his days as a two-time All-American at Mount Union, where he helped with five national championships as a player and coach. He then went 35-15 in five seasons at Toledo before taking over in Ames. After going 3-9 in his first year, Campbell’s teams are 8-5, 8-5, 7-6 and, so far this year, 8-2.

Those aren’t supersonic win totals, by any means. But when the Cyclones go to a bowl game this year, it’ll be four years in a row — and that’s never happened before in Ames. And with 31 wins (so far) since 2017, Campbell has the best four-year win total in school history (ISU won 30 games as an independent from 1903-1906).

Historically, yes, it’s a lousy program. But names like Pop Warner, Johnny Majors and Earle Bruce have roamed the sidelines in Ames. Campbell has surpassed all of their exploits with the Cyclones.

Meanwhile, OU is the only school in history with four coaches over 100 career wins. The Sooners have more 10 win-seasons (40) than any other college football program, as well as more conference championships (49). Seven national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners, 92 national award winners, an NCAA record 47 straight wins, 14 undefeated seasons, 167 first-team All-Americans, 915 victories (sixth all-time) and 13 of the Big 12’s 24 conference titles — the combatants in this week’s games clearly come from different neighborhoods.

While Riley works in the shadow of giants like Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and Bob Stoops — and won more games in his first three seasons than any college football coach in this century or the last — he seems to realize both how fortunate he is, and how accomplished Campbell has been.

“The excitement is different than it is at a place like this,” Riley said. “Not that it’s not appreciated. You almost get so used to it, you almost get ... I don’t want to use the word ‘spoiled,’ but I mean, it’s happened so often here, and it’s a great expectation. I wouldn’t change it for anything, but it’s certainly a different type of feel when it’s a program that hasn’t done that year after year after year.”

Give athletic director Jamie Pollard credit for being able to keep Campbell, who got a contract extension last year of $3.5 million a year (total compensation is $22.5 million and includes a $6 million buyout).

Campbell has paid Pollard and Cyclone Nation back by laying a foundation in Ames that simply wasn’t there before.

His teams play sound. Their defenses are fundamental — they cover well, and they tackle. Their offenses are traditional, replete with talented tight ends and physical offensive linemen.

Add an upper-level quarterback like Brock Purdy and an elite running back like Breece Hall and some really good coaching you have the recipe for a conference championship.

On the Big 12 coaches teleconference, Campbell recently described how he’s managed to change a culture that seemed largely indifferent about winning for generations.

“The big thing for us has always been — whether at we were at Toledo or we’ve been here at Iowa State — it’s been about finding, I think No. 1, schematically, do they fit what we’re looking for at each position?” Campbell said. “And then most importantly, do they fit in terms of, man, can this young man, in his 4-5 years, develop to be the best version of himself within our culture and our program? And I think no matter where we’ve been, development has been the key to our success and growing our football program.”

Campbell has 13 fifth-year seniors on his two-deep. By comparison, Oklahoma has three. Those players were Paul Rhoads’ recruits when Campbell was hired. Now five recruiting cycles in, Campbell has been able to remake the roster into what he wants.

“I think we’re a lot closer today,” he said. “You know, at the end of this football season will be really the first time that our roster’s been completely ours.

“The development piece is still critical for our younger guys, and I feel there is still a little gap between recruiting and development. … We’ve been able to continue to build and be a collective team across the board. And I think you’ve been able to see that each year as we’ve continued to build this program.”

The bottom line is that Campbell has done more with less. Per the 247 Sports composite rankings, his first five recruiting classes included zero 5-star prospects and four 4-star prospects — all in the last three classes.

While OU lives off 4-stars and routinely includes 5-stars, Iowa State’s roster is 97 percent 3-stars.

Iowa State’s national team rankings under Campbell: 55th, 52nd, 55th, 46th and 46th (next year’s class ranks 49th).

At Oklahoma, the national rankings of those same classes have ranked 19th, eighth, ninth, sixth and 12th, per 247 Sports.

“We do have talented football players,” Campbell said. “… They certainly weren’t 4- or 5-stars coming out of high school. But what they’ve had the ability to do as players is become the best version of themselves that they an be. That’s what our program will always be, the ability to develop and grow.

“Where we’re located, who we are, I think we’re always gonna be a little bit of — we’re going to be a developmental football program, and that’s OK. I think the one positive is when we first got here, we were selling a little bit of vision, and I think in some ways we’ve given some reality to that vision.

“That’s not just in terms of on the field. I think some of the things we’ve been able to accomplish off the field, some of the development we’ve had with some of the good players in our program, I think those things have to happen as you try to build creditability to build a football program.”

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