As the seasons inside college football and the NFL are winding down, plenty of rumors of head coaches making moves are circulating the internet. Yesterday, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg suggested that Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly could be on the move to the NFL if the right opportunity presented itself.
Today, Dennis Dodd, CBS’s national college football writer, joined Rick Neuheisel and Danny Kanell on ESPN U’s Sirius XM Radio show and gave out this interesting name as some one who’d be extremely interested in coming to South Bend, if the opportunity presented itself.
Dennis Dodds on ESPN CFB XM said his sources are saying Matt Campbell is not interested in Texas the two jobs he wants is Ohio State or Notre Dame. He also said Matt Campbell would not take the Michigan job.
— jbook™ (@jbook37) December 8, 2020
Interesting that current Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell doesn’t want to go to rebuilding programs like Texas or Michigan. Yeah, that’s right, both of those programs should be seen as rebuilds for a new coach, although the right one could quickly turn around either of the programs.
Campbell was linked to Ohio State after Urban Meyer retired, but they went in-house and hired Ryan Day, which has looked like a genius move so far for the Buckeyes.
The Irish are in great hands right now and with Kelly signing an extension for 4 more years, the Notre Dame job likely isn’t going to be available to Campbell. Same in Columbus, unless the NFL comes calling for Day, which is the same scenario with Kelly.
What Campbell has done at Iowa State has been nothing short of extremely impressive and he currently has a very similar track record as Kelly. Both were part of a non-Division I National Championship teams, Campbell as offensive coordinator at Mount Union (DIII), Kelly as the head coach at Grand Valley State (DII). Both has successful MAC runs, Campbell with Toledo and Kelly with Central Michigan. Each of them transitioned right into coaching after their collegiate playing careers ended.
Campbell has his team overachieving, according to recruiting rankings, but that’s the key to his program. It’s about their 5-Star culture as running back Breece Hall explained after last weeks win.
Breece Hall said it's a 5-star culture at ISU. @L_Weezy11 talking about how Matt Campbell has effected him in his time with ISU. You can certainly see how that culture has come about.
More on White and the seniors at 6/10 tonight on @weareiowa5news(video courtesy @CycloneATH) pic.twitter.com/wjXNzk3xHR
— Jonathan Schaeffer (@J_SchaefferWOI) December 3, 2020
The Cyclones haven’t won a conference title since 1912. That’s a 108-year drought, Chicago Cubs territory. Their closest sniff to a conference title was in 2004, a 4-4 record gave them the Big XII North title. They have already qualified for the conference title this year, with the best record meaning they’ll be the home team against Oklahoma. An 8-2 record and the No. 9 team according the the College Football Playoff rankings. It’s been a very good year for Campbell.
It’s a pipe dream at the moment, Brian Kelly isn’t going anywhere. The probability that Campbell waits around at ISU for either of those two jobs to open up is slim. He’s a highly though of coach and the next program that hires Campbell will be in good hands.