Iowa State Cyclones football head coach Matt Campbell leads his team onto the field in the season-opening football game against North Dakota at Jack Trice Stadium on Aug. 31, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. © Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
AMES — Could have been a telemarketer calling. Or an old friend. Maybe even a fan.
So Dan McCarney stared briefly at the unknown number illuminated on his phone, and, as usual, Iowa State’s all-time winningest head football coach answered.
The voice on the other line that day in 2016? Freshly hired Cyclone head coach Matt Campbell.
“I didn’t know who was calling,” said McCarney, who could see Campbell tie his record of 56 wins at ISU after Saturday’s 1 p.m. game between the No. 20 Cyclones (2-0) and Arkansas State (2-1) at Jack Trice Stadium. “I had no idea. I get a lot of those. Sometimes it might be a drunk friend from the past, (or) a drunk fan from the past. You get late calls sometimes and I’ve never been shy about answering the phone and always continue the conversation depending on who it is, but that was completely out of the blue. It was just so welcoming and made you feel really good.”
Campbell shared a clear message with McCarney: He wanted him around the program. He wanted his former staff and players around the team. He yearned to pay homage to what McCarney had done to turn around a forlorn ISU program before — and he’s humbled to be approaching McCarney’s 18-year-old record in just his ninth season at the helm.
“What he was able to build here laid the foundation for everybody following him to really have a chance to have true success,” Campbell said this week. “I think you’re just grateful that’s you’re able to be at one place for as long as we’ve been able to be here, and I would say any success we’ve had is because we’ve had great coaches and, obviously, great players along the way.”
That list includes players such as Seneca Wallace, Reggie Hayward and Ellis Hobbs in the McCarney era. And players such as David Montgomery, Brock Purdy and Breece Hall in the Campbell era. Now the Cyclones seek to reach new heights this season behind star quarterback Rocco Becht and other standouts — and worrying about records is the farthest thing from their minds this week.
“We circle every single team on our schedule and we also circle the bye weeks,” said Becht, whose team is coming off its first of two bye weeks this season. “We know that there’s a good percentage of teams that come out of their bye week and lose that net game, so that was the big conversation for us this past week — having that sense of urgency. Having that confidence and urgency to come out and play on Saturday is gonna be big.”
Whether or not that leads to Campbell matching McCarney’s milestone for wins on Saturday is uncertain, but it does elucidate the Cyclones’ greater goals. ISU seeks a return to the Big 12 title game for the first time since 2020 and at this point in the season, several teams appear capable of doing that.
So why not the Cyclones, who could emerge from nonconference play unscathed for just the second time in Campbell’s eight-plus season tenure?
“We’re gonna fight and we’re gonna keep fighting,” linebacker Kooper Ebel said.
That mentality permeated the McCarney era and he’s pleased to see it become a hallmark of Campbell’s teams.
“How do you not cheer for a guy like that?” McCarney said. “And there (are) a lot of similarities, I think, to what we’ve tried to do at Iowa State and there are some differences, but just the way he’s done it — for all of us who love that place, when you have a head coach tha you know, for anyone that touches that program, they respect him, they care about him deeply? It’s just a great feeling as a head coach to know that people care about you that much and I know Matt knows that because he’s built that reputation.”
So when Campbell ties his record, McCarney will call him. And when he breaks it? He’ll also offer his congratulations. Their bond transcends winning and losing — even as the former entwines them in the record book.
“I have not missed (coming to) a game since Matt was the head coach,” said McCarney, who will attend next month’s home game against Baylor. “I’ve been back every fall. I never miss and I think I’ve only watched one loss, so I may not be a good luck charm, but good things happen when I come back to Ames.”
