Campbell sees Cyclones buying into changes
Eight months ago Matt Campbell was the head coach at the University of Toledo. He spent his entire life there, played high school football for his dad and attended the University of Mount Union where he played for Larry Kehres, whose .929 winning percentage is tops in the nation.
But in November, Iowa State University called Campbell’s number, and he answered. He said he has accomplished a lot already during the last several months, and he credits the coaching staff for the progress.
“I think one of the greatest parts of our transition process for us here at Iowa State has been the ability to have so much continuity with coaches that have been with me, and we’ve been together for a period of time,” he said.
He also credits people at Iowa State who have been active in making sure the staff has what it needs, he said.
Campbell, who has an overall coaching record of 35-15 in four years at Toledo, said right or wrong, change is difficult. Still, the players are buying into what coaches are teaching, he said.
“That starting point for us was spring practice,” he said. “Practice 1-15 I saw great growth among our football team and our football program. Our concentration didn’t have much to do with scheme, I’ll be honest with you.”
Most of it, he said, had to do with Campbell’s core values that include attitude and effort, understanding the craft and showing up every day with the aim of getting better.
“I felt our kids made great strides in what we wanted to do,” he said. “And equal I thought our kids did what I asked them to do.”
Campbell wanted the players to give the same amount of effort and care in their off-the-field activities as they did to the gridiron. He told them not to compromise those off-the-field activities because the coach believes that will hinder their ability to reach their full potential on the field.
He used the players’ combined grade point average as an example of their buy-in. As a team it was 2.8, the highest in 12 years. And 47 athletes had a 3.0 or better.
On his to do list was figuring out why the Cyclones had so many injuries. So improving the strength and conditioning was a priority, he said. The first step was naming Rudy Wade the strength-and-conditioning coach in December. Wade had worked for Campbell at Toledo for the last five years.
“I feel like we got one of the best strength coaches in the country,” Campbell said. “I thought that was our pillar for us, that our starting point was how can we be proactive rather than reactive in that process. Obviously that’s not a guarantee, and we will see the results of that here come fall camp and obviously this football season. But that was our starting point for us.”
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