Q: Coach Kelly, what is the challenges does your defense face when taking on a team like Iowa State with Brock Purdy, quarterback?
KELLY: “Well, certainly a prolific passing offense is No. 1. Matchup problems at the tight end position create opportunities for them. You know, Brock’s ability to keep plays alive, that’s part of what they do offensively. Very comprehensive passing game and a very good offensive structure in terms of what they do and how they want to do it. They’ll find ways to run the football effectively when they need to. And, you know, again, when you really look at them offensively, I think the ability to feature the tight ends within their offense, the running game, and a quarterback that just has a special ‘it’ to him. And I think that anytime you have a quarterback that obviously can see the field really well, has escapability, arm talent, they’re difficult to defend.”
Q: Coach [Campbell], you’ve defeated highly ranked Oklahoma, West Virginia, TCU, what would it mean to you, your program, and your players to add Notre Dame to that list?
CAMPBELL: “Yeah, I think what we’ve tried to do is just look at every team as its own entity. This has been a phenomenal process for us in building this Iowa State football program. It’s kind of been a process from the ground up and we’ve really taken every opportunity one day at a time and really one game at a time.
“And I think the biggest thing for this year’s football team in 2019 is this has been a really interesting mix of football players. It’s got a veteran-ness of 20 seniors who have been through a lot in our program. They went through a coaching staff change and kind of stayed the course with us. And yet it’s also got a mix of some really young players and some guys that have just continued to grow as this season’s gone.
“And I think more than anything is the opportunity to finish the football season playing our best football. And that’s always been our goal, just to be able to play our best football for four quarters. And, you know, we haven’t done that yet this year, but I think to get another opportunity to do that and obviously to play an incredible program and obviously an incredible football team like Notre Dame, I think that’s big for us.”
Q. Do you look as an opportunity look at games like this as an opportunity to gain respect? Do you want your team looking at these types of matchups in that way?
CAMPBELL: “I think anytime we step on the field, we want, especially at Iowa State, as we’ve continued to build this program, to be able to continue to earn the right to play great football. And people look at our football team and say, ‘Boy, that’s a football team and a football program,’ that our kids play hard and they do it the right way. And so really, outside of our walls, we really try to understand the value of doing things the right way inside of our walls and really worry about that more than anything else.”
Q: What has this senior class meant for each of these teams going into this year? Matt, you just kind of hit on it briefly there, but just dive into it a little bit more and being the final game in school colors?
CAMPBELL: “For this senior class for us, like I said, it’s a really unique group and a big chunk of this group is a group that stayed the course with us through a coaching change, a small group of young man that kind of joined us three years ago with, you know, Ray Lima, Matt Leo, and those guys, and then you’ve also got a couple grad transfers in there.
“But, you know, I think one of the neat things about this group is, they’ve given us this unbelievable and uncanny ability to have this great unselfishness about themselves and to leave this program in a better place. And when they walk out of that locker room tomorrow I think they can look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Boy, we’ve made an impact here and we’ve left this place better than we found it,’ and I think they’ve given us some great lessons to grow off of and so for that I’m deeply indebted to them.”
KELLY: “I would say consistency in our process. Three years of 10-plus wins, [it’s] very difficult to continue that process year in and year out as you kind of go through the program. So anytime that you have a group of seniors that have stuck together, that have, you know, listened to the message and have come back the next year and have doubled down again on your process and have stuck with it, and then have brought others with them, that’s really the key ingredient here. They have brought others with them to the point now where your program is in a position where they have touched all the others in the program of how to do things the right way on a consistent basis.”
Finally – Summarizing the week in Orlando and final thoughts before kickoff: