In Iowa State’s season-opener, Matt Campbell will face Tom Matukewicz, his former defensive coordinator
AMES — Matt Campbell approached the dais inside the Bergstrom Football Complex on Tuesday and told a story from more than a decade ago.
In 2012, he was the newly-minted head football coach at Toledo and was looking for a defensive coordinator. He had a checklist of qualifications:
“I was looking for a unifier and for someone to come in and motivate and inspire our kids,” Campbell says now.
He found that guy in Tom Matukewicz, a defensive-minded coach from the Jerry Kill coaching tree. Campbell lured Matukewicz away from Northern Illinois and hired him as the Rockets’ defensive coordinator. They spent two years together.
After the 2013 season, Matukewicz was hired as the head coach at Southeast Missouri State. After 2015, Campbell left for Iowa State. On Saturday afternoon, they’ll meet again when the Cyclones host the Redhawks at Jack Trice Stadium.
More: Peterson: Hunter Dekkers gets his first Iowa State start this week. He's more than ready.
“We’re excited about the opportunity,” Matukewicz said Tuesday. “We have so much respect for Matt Campbell and his staff at Iowa State. I know a lot of those guys on his staff and they’re as fine of football coaches as you’ll find in this country.”
The Cyclones are heavy favorites against Southeast Missouri State, an FCS program that's 1-25 all-time against FBS opponents. But Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between these two programs.
It will also be the first time Campbell and Matukewicz — pronounced mah-TOO’-kuh-wihts — will share the same field since they were on that Toledo staff.
Campbell was elevated from offensive coordinator to interim head coach in December 2011 after Tim Beckman left for Illinois. He shed the interim tag four days later, making him the youngest head coach in Division I football at the time, just 32 years old.
Later that month, Campbell led the Rockets to a thrilling 42-41 victory over Air Force in the Military Bowl, Toledo’s first bowl win since 2005.
In January 2012, Campbell scoured the country for a defensive coordinator. He started the process by rewatching each of Toledo’s games from the 2011 season and then sought input from each of his returning defensive players.
More: Ex-Iowa State star quarterback Brock Purdy makes the 49ers' final cut
“I asked them, ‘What are we looking for?’” Campbell, now 42, recalled on Tuesday. “We had to get better there if we wanted to get better as a program.
“I was only 32 years old. I didn’t really know what the heck was going on, but I was looking for someone to lead with.”
Enter Matukewicz — Campbell still calls him “coach Tuke” — who spent the previous decade, 2000-10, as an assistant for Kill, first at Emporia State, then at Southern Illinois, and finally at Northern Illinois. Kill went a combined 89-59 across all three stops. Matukewicz coached the defensive line and linebackers.
After Kill left for Minnesota ahead of the 2011 season, Campbell lured Matukewicz to Toledo. He valued Matukewicz’s experience, first off, and his Illinois recruiting ties were a plus. But Campbell was really sold on Matukewicz’s ability to teach and help build a strong culture, a pillar he continues to stand on today at Iowa State.
“Tuke was the right guy at the right time for the job,” Campbell continued. “He was a great addition … (he) really matched the heart and the culture that I believe our program should be about.
More: Iowa State football depth chart analysis: Is Jake Remsburg back soon? Which freshmen may play?
“He did a phenomenal job. We saw great growth during the years we were there.”
It was an eventful two seasons with Campbell at the helm and Matukewicz as his defensive coordinator. In 2012, the Rockets went 9-4, climbed as high as No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, but lost in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In 2013, they went 7-5, and the defense gave up 473.2 yards per game, which ranked 109th out of 120 FBS teams.
“It was a blast,” Matukewicz said. “The staff, we were all young and dumb. We did some really cool things our first couple of years there — and he’s still doing those things.”
After 2013, Matukewicz was hired at Southeast Missouri State, where he’s posted a 41-49 overall record. After four straight losing seasons from 2014-17, the Redhawks won nine games in both 2018 and 2019, made the FCS playoffs both years, and won the Ohio Valley Conference in 2019.
Two years after Matukewicz left for Southeast Missouri State, Campbell left Toledo for Iowa State. After going 3-9 in 2016, Campbell has led the Cyclones to five consecutive winning seasons, the longest such streak in program history. In 2020, they went 9-3, won the Big 12 regular season title and beat Oregon, 34-17 in the 2021 Fiesta Bowl.
More: Peterson: For Iowa State running back Jirehl Brock, the long-awaited opportunity is here
Matukewicz, who just turned 49, has watched from afar as Campbell, who is 42-34 as Iowa State’s coach and 77-49 overall as a head coach, has risen to become one of college football’s brightest young coaches. After working with him at Toledo, he is not surprised by Campbell’s success.
“You saw that coming,” Matukewicz said, “and I think he’ll tell you that a lot of it is his assistants. He has a really, really good staff. You’re not surprised at all by what they’ve been able to do. You’re just happy because they do it the right way.
“Some of the things he’s known for, I was on that ground floor learning from him when he was at Toledo. I know they draw on their experiences from when he coached there, and I draw on my experiences from when I coached there to help our team this year.”
This year’s Southeast Missouri State team has some nice pieces. Paxton DeLaurent, a transfer from Central Methodist who earned Heart of America All-Conference honors in 2021, is the starting quarterback. Senior running back Geno Hess, a 1,000-yard rusher last year, is the preseason Ohio Valley offensive player of the year.
It’ll be a good early-season test for an Iowa State team that was picked sixth in the 2022 Big 12 preseason poll. The Cyclones return 17 players with starting experience — including 8 on offense and 7 on defense — but quarterback Hunter Dekkers is one of many that are expected to make their first career start on Saturday.
Matukewicz is excited for the challenge — and to see an old friend again.
“I know Ames is happy to have that caliber of coach and the excitement they’re able to bring to gameday,” Matukewicz said. “To get to go play them and see them again, in Ames — they have a great gameday atmosphere — it’s exciting for us.
“Ultimately, what’ll make the experience even better is if we can somehow make it a close ballgame. That’ll be the goal. We’ll see if we can get into a fourth-quarter game with them.”
Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football coach to face former defensive coordinator
