From the archives: The Matt Campbell story is one of faith, family and football
Editor's note — The Register sat down with Matt Campbell shortly after he was hired as Iowa State's football coach for this profile, which was originally published on Dec. 26, 2015.
AMES, Ia. — His first year out of college, Matt Campbell would have to be at work by 6 a.m. every day to work at a cement company in Massillon, Ohio.
For around three months, the job was the same. Campbell would spend his days knocking metal and plastic molds out of giant culverts that would eventually be put in ditches and other spots.
It's certainly not what he envisioned doing for the rest of his life.
"Not the most fancy job in the world," Campbell said.
Campbell, a former star football player at Mount Union, was hoping to stay in football as a coach. He sent out resumes to every Division I football program in the nation but kept getting similar responses: nothing available but they’d keep his information on file. So, Campbell kept working, kept waiting, and kept hoping that an opportunity would come along.
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As time passed, Campbell contemplated going another route. Campbell began thinking about becoming a teacher, and maybe even a high school coach.
“When you get rejected by just about everybody, you kind of think, 'Well, shoot, what the heck am I going to do?' ” Campbell said.
Then, one day, a Bowling Green booster he had met while student-teaching called about a job tip at the school.
His life as a cement man was about to end.
Football for life
Football has been a constant part of Campbell's life.
His father, Rick, was a high school football coach at Jackson High School in Campbell’s hometown of Massillon, an old steel town of 32,000 in northeastern Ohio. As a child, he would etch out plays on his book cover.
For Christmas, Campbell and his brother, Scott, would get football uniforms. They’d spend part of the day playing football — Matt vs. Scott with Rick playing all-time quarterback — in the backyard.
That yard would also become a sports playground for kids in the neighborhood. The house, located on Crown Point Street, was perfect for sports with both neighbors having open backyards, making it big enough for football, basketball or baseball games
Their backyard had a basketball court that became a magnet for neighborhood kids. The games turned into intense competitions that neither Campbell kid backed down from.
“We learned to fight,” Scott said. “We learned how to be competitive, and we learned how to take a punch.”
Matt was one of the most competitive. He did anything to grab an extra edge. Matt would pick his father's brain about sports. He was a willing student.
Matt spent summers working with his dad in high school to become a better defensive end and tight end for his Perry High School football team. He was intent on seeing the hard work pay off.
Keith Wakefield, Campbell’s football coach at Perry, remembered a big game during his sophomore season. Sophomores typically didn’t play, but Campbell’s effort had stood out to Wakefield. Campbell stood on the sidelines following Wakefield’s every move throughout the game hoping for a chance to play.
“He was right in my ear the whole game,” Wakefield said. “Right beside me. I could feel his eyes burning into my cheek because he wanted on the field.”
Wakefield put him in the game. Campbell would go on to become one of the best defensive ends to ever play for Wakefield.
It was the same way in college. Campbell, who spent one year as a tight end at Pittsburgh, transferred to Division III power Mount Union, where he played under Larry Kehres. Kehres remembered an opposing team who was good at running screen passes — a play that had become a weakness for Mount Union.
“When they tried it on us, Campbell intercepted it because he had it down: What it would look like, what his offensive tackle or guard that he could see would do and what the backs would do,” Kehres said.
Campbell would go on to win Ohio Athletic Conference Defensive Lineman of the Year honors twice. The Purple Raiders won NCAA Division III national titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and won 54 of the 55 games in Campbell's career.
Even then, Campbell would spend his summers working manual labor on a bridge crew, getting up a 6 a.m. The crew would jackhammer, pour cement, and build and destroy bridges.
“Those were the days,” Campbell said. “They were long days. I enjoyed it. I met some really great people.”
Finding his way
Campbell enjoyed the manual labor, but it’s not what he always wanted to do. It’s what he got stuck doing when he graduated from college and went looking for work in football. It wasn’t easy to find.
Campbell, who said he studied secondary education and history and political science, had even thought about teaching. He didn’t know exactly what the future held for him.
But he knew it involved football.
“It’s never been about the level,” Campbell said. “That had zero to do with why I coach or why I’ve wanted to go or any of those things."
Campbell’s best shot came when he got the tip about the Bowling Green job from big booster Bob Sebo, a guy Campbell met while student-teaching in Salem, Ohio. Sebo offered to put in a good word for Campbell. Campbell interviewed on a Friday and got offered the job later that day. By Monday, he was working.
Campbell worked as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green from 2003-2004. He returned to Mount Union, where he worked for Kehres from 2005-2006 as the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach. When the two reunited, Campbell brought with him some of the principals of the spread offense he had learned at Bowling Green under Gregg Brandon, an Urban Meyer disciple.
Campbell would return to Bowling Green as an assistant from 2007-2008. There he worked on a staff with Tim Beckman, starting as the offensive line coach but then adding run-game coordinator to his duties. When Beckman became the head coach at Toledo he hired Campbell, who served as the offensive line coach/run-game coordinator in 2009 and then offensive coordinator/offensive line coach from 2010-2011 for the Rockets.
When Beckman took the head coaching job at Illinois, Campbell was promoted to interim head coach. The title didn’t stay long for Campbell, who got the job for good and guided Toledo a 42-41 win in the Military Bowl — just 16 days after his promotion.
“We were walking out of the stadium in Washington, D.C., and I remember saying, ‘Matt, this has to be a really good feeling to get that first one,’ ” Toledo athletic director Mike O’Brien said. “He gave me that kind of no like, ‘Mike, this is the first of many. We’re going to have a nice run.' He didn’t say a word but he had that really quiet confidence that we’re going to be just fine.’”
Campbell and Toledo were just fine. During his tenure there, Campbell compiled a 35-15 mark and with three bowl game appearances. The team just played in a fourth that Campbell helped guide them to before coming to Iowa State.
Things were going great. In fact, Campbell said he had no intentions of leaving Toledo.
“I thought I’d be at Toledo the rest of my life and I’ll be honest with you, totally happy with that,” Campbell said. “My whole thing was always about people and surrounding yourself with great people.”
Campbell was a popular name in college football coaching searches and he popped up on Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard’s radar. Campbell, who said he had other options, was impressed from a trip his team took to Iowa State to play the Cyclones in 2014.
The team got to Jack Trice Stadium early. Campbell walked out onto the field, walked up the visitor's side of the field, and went through the tailgate lots. He was so impressed that he called his wife, Erica, after the game and told her he could see them living there someday.
“I knew that if he felt that way, it was a feeling,” Erica said. “It was something that pulled him really strongly. When all this started happening, I don’t know, it kind of felt like fate.”
Campbell agreed to become the coach of the Cyclones on Nov. 28. A day later, on his 36th birthday, Iowa State announced the move and flew Campbell into Ames.
Faith. Family. Football.
A sign hangs in the football locker room hallway at Mount Union. It says:
Faith.
Family.
Football.
The sign has stuck with Campbell, who has tried to internalize that message. Not many things can pry Campbell away from football — but his family can.
Erica and Matt met in sixth grade and started dating in high school. He says she's been there every step of the way with him. The couple has three children: Two daughters, Kaetlyn and Isabella, and a son, Rudy. They’re expecting a fourth child in February.
His office in Ames is still a work in progress. There’s not much in there, but back in Toledo, his family was the focus of it, said Toledo sideline radio reporter Jim Heller.
“All he wants to do is show me pictures of his children,” Heller said. “Not the national championship rings from Mount Union or any awards or anything football. He’s very proud of his wife and kids.”
Passing on the importance of family to his players is something Campbell has tried to do over the years, inviting a different position group over to his house once a week for dinner.
“We’re going to demand a lot of our players,” Campbell said. “We’ll be hard. It’s going to be really hard. It’s not going to be easy. But, we’re going to love them and we’re going to care about them.”
Those close to him say he’s easy-going on the sidelines. Erica said he has a good sense of humor. He’s shown it at Toledo. Lou Ayeni, who worked with, and for, Campbell at Toledo and has reunited with him at Ames, recalled a few of those instances. Ayeni said one time Campbell pretended to stage a fight between players in practice and kicked them out. All of a sudden, they came busting back in with an ice cream truck.
Another time, Campbell set up a water fight in practice and came armed with what Ayeni called the most powerful water weapon there.
“It’s going to be fun for the staff,” Ayeni said. “It’s going to be fun for this community to watch. It’s going to be fun for me to watch this process all over again.”
The community aspect is no surprise to those who have been around him before. O’Brien said he tried cutting down on Campbell’s speaking engagements, but the coach wouldn’t let him. His players at Toledo also did lots of work in the community.
What might make Campbell such a hit is his personal side. It made former Iowa State men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg a fan-favorite again when he returned to Ames. Campbell has some of those same traits, with an easy-going attitude and big, broad smile.
Football and family are the most important things to him. Campbell said he doesn’t have any hobbies, besides watching his kids swim, and when he does go on vacation, he’s got his computer with film ready to be cut up.
“It’s all football,” he said.
It's that approach that Campbell believes can make Iowa State a winner. Faith. Family. Football.
"I believe in myself," Campbell said. "I believe in our process... And quite honestly, I believe in the players that we have here right now."
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State coach Matt Campbell's story one of faith, family, football
