Iowa State AD talks Matt Campbell as speculation intensifies following Notre Dame football opening

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Just as it seemed the threat of Iowa State losing football coach Matt Campbell to a blue blood program had subsided, a potentially serious suitor has entered the market.

Longtime Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is reportedly leaving the Fighting Irish for LSU, leaving open a premier Midwest job of the type observers have long considered attractive to Campbell.

Kelly’s impending departure was late-breaking Monday, leaving the college football world stunned during a coaching carousel season that has already been one of the more dramatic in recent memory. National pundits immediately linked Campbell and Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell to the job as the likely leading candidates.

Campbell has rebuffed numerous overtures from other high-profile college programs as well as NFL franchises, but over the weekend was at the center of some of the most intense rumors about his potential departure than ever before.

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Just after the Kelly news broke, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard made an appearance on the school’s weekly radio program.

“Coach and I have a great relationship, and let’s face it if he’s not on people’s list then someone’s not doing their job,” Pollard said while not referencing any specific opening. “I just don’t know, I guess it’ll never change, but your actions speak louder than your words.”

Pollard acknowledged the options Campbell, the most successful coach in Iowa State history, would have open to him should he choose to weigh them.

“Who am I or anybody else to decide what’s right for Matt Campbell and his family? That's his call and his call only,” Pollard said. “He is who he is, but the rest of the world is trying to tell him that he shouldn’t be who he is. That does not mean he’ll never leave here.

“Something could come open that is the right fit for the right reason. If that’s what he wants to do, we should be ecstatic because he’s delivered and then some for Iowa State.”

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Pollard also seemed to indirectly confirm USC's reported interest in Campbell, saying the two discussed California tax rates over the weekend.

Campbell’s 2021 salary was $4 million while Kelly’s compensation is believed to be in the $7 million range, according to reports. As a private university, Notre Dame does not have to release its salary figures.

“People just want to always just assume you’re going to chase money,” Pollard said. “There’s something at Iowa State that I talk about all the time, you’re in control. I tell that to Coach Campbell. OK, we went 7-5 this year. You know what’s different about being 7-5 at Iowa State versus being 7-5 somewhere else is you don’t have the board of regents, you don’t have a president, you don’t have an AD and you don’t have any donors telling you you have to switch coaches on your staff or you're fired.

“We let him wear black (uniforms). Try wearing black at USC.”

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With Kelly’s decision so fresh, there’s little other than conjecture and conventional wisdom to tie Campbell to Notre Dame, but in a year where coaches from Notre Dame and Oklahoma (Lincoln Riley) leave willingly for other jobs, it’s a coaching carousel where even the most unthinkable outcomes somehow seem within the realm of possibility.

Campbell did not immediately return a text seeking comment.

“It’s one of those things where it’s not even remotely a conversation because on our end we’re constantly working on the present,” Campbell said about job speculation on Friday following a regular-season finale win over TCU. “Jamie and I will sit down, I’m sure, and talk about what’s the future hold, how do we continue to move this thing forward.

“Then you continue to make the best decision of how you do those things the right way. I think it’s always been about we’ve built this thing to last for the long haul.”

Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him at @TravisHines21.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Matt Campbell to Notre Dame? Pollard offers Iowa State coaching update