The old leadership adage of surrounding yourself with people better than you
Matt Campbell future return to Ames
- Thread starter mustangcy
- Start date
This is absurd. Should he have just never taken a job again?
If you are making a list of pros and cons, recommending Steve Prohm for the job goes on the cons list. Like in 72 point type. Might be the only con list for Fred.
I think Campbell will always be at the bottom of the list - at least on the list of coaches worthy of coming back for some sort of reunion / celebration:
Mac - Iowan, played for hated rival, was able to raise the bar and fell in love with Iowa State and still does.
Floyd - Underrated for what he did. Made the transition from Johnny, had success, kept Freddy here. Left for a job at the highest level in the sport.
Larry - Had flaws no question, but his teams were the toughest to ever play at Iowa State in any sport. Fired by an incompetent idiot.
McDermott - not that he would get the invite, but it is underrated how big of a solid he did by leaving and giving us some Creighton money before we had to buy him out.
Fred - The wiz from Seinfeld. Leaves like Floyd, smiles and most of the fanbase converts to Bulls fans that weren't already there. Doesn't go well in Chicago, goes to Nebby and we make a few jokes. This year, most of us are pulling for Nebraska in the B1G.
TJ - He will be the top if he stays and it won't be close. Fixing a mess, marrying Allison, got passed over and still came back a few years later.
Maybe I should have said retired at the end of an NBA career, or in general coached anywhere but a hated ISU rival. I didn't mean specifically that he should never have worked in basketball again after being fired by the Bulls.
Hoiberg marketed himself as a favored son of ISU who bleeds cardinal and gold. He marketed himself as an ISU fan first and foremost. You can't be that and coach the Nebraska corn huskers. Fair or not, "The Mayor" has a higher burden of loyalty than Generic Coach A. He's not a cyclone anymore, and students today know him as the Nebraska coach. I'd say it's insane to give the head coach of Nebraska a standing ovation in Hilton. I think people who remember him as a player (or, like CW, knew him as a person) have higher opinions of him than the general fan base.
To me, Campbell can probably come back in 10-20 years and be cheered. Hoiberg can't.
Do you think Nebraska basketball is a rival? Couldn’t care less about that program. Neb football now we’re talking about something else.
I’d cheer my ass of for him if he walked into Hilton as the opposing coach of the skers tomorrow, let alone 20 years from now.
We had a coach at the time. Fred wasn't getting another NBA job, so he had to go somewhere. He can't just sit at home twiddling his fingers because of how people in Ames view his legacy...
Fred has a degree from Iowa State. He has his number in the rafters. He resurrected our MBB program after a decade of doldrums. He's a Top 10 Cyclone ever.
This fanbase has some jilted lovers. Matt Campbell stayed for 10 years despite job offers in probably 7-8 of those offseasons. He built a Cyclone football program that isn't an ever-living joke nationally. I hope our fanbase recovers from this, because right now they have no understanding of how the sport works. Campbell will probably go down as the biggest figure in Iowa State athletic history from a national prestige standpoint. (since nothing beyond FB and MBB matter)
Matt could come back in a few years and I’d still cheer just as loud as I did when he was here.
The jilted lover and perspective from that here is asinine.
Anyways, I’m ready for the Roger’s era to begin this fall.
The jilted lover and perspective from that here is asinine.
Anyways, I’m ready for the Roger’s era to begin this fall.
Its not that CMC taking another job was bad. It was that he turned all our players against Iowa St and took a bunch, which now Rogers was forced to do the same to WSU because of what CMC did, he soured the entire football team against one of the original Land Grant Universities, it was really shameful.
So should we not support Jimmy Rogers out of principle? He's doing the same exact thing.
I'm not going to change your mind, and that's fine. I want to be clear though: I didn't want Hoiberg back as coach after he was fired from the Bulls. He's got no obligation to come back here after he leaves. To me, thinking he should do that is even weirder than being a big fan of him today. He stays in the NBA, maybe he goes to coach some school on the East Coast, that's fine and he's still a cyclone. But you can't go to Iowa, Nebraska, or Kansas - that's turning in your cyclone card. I do agree that I hate Nebraska basketball less than their football, but it's still Nebraska.
To me, following the guy after all this is the insane thing. He himself has walked away from ISU - you didn't see him trying to claim fandom or belonging here anymore. But he has his dedicated fans. That's fine, but most of us have moved on.
Nebraska used to be a conference rival, sure. They aren't anymore.
Fred would not have gone to Nebraska if they were still in the Big 12. That's enough separation. "Cyclone card" is subjective anyway.
Yeah, I agree with you. Should we fault him for taking the nebraska job? No, for at least two reasons: He has ties to Neb (with his father and grandfather, iirc; and, Neb is no longer in the B12.
Still, he is coaching the kNeb cornhuskeers, not a great look.
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Who hasn’t moved on? I have watched zero Nebraska basketball games. I don’t care if he has success or not.
I have a 15 year old son. The last time we played Nebraska he was several months old. It’s not a rivalry for anybody who is like 25 or under.
And again, Nebraska is one of the worst BB programs in the history of the sport. It’s just not the same as the football program. I just disagree completely that he turned in his card. He did awesome things for our program as a player and as a coach.
Agreed. No one my age (25) or younger gives a **** about NEB let alone NEB bball. I’m happy Fred is doing well, also not the same situation as cmc
I don’t know how I’ll react. I’d like to say he left the place better than he found it, and he did leave a track record of winning, but he effectively picked up the program he built and took it with him to Penn St when he left, leaving a total blank canvas behind for Rogers… so did he really leave it in a better state?
If he bombs at Penn St, he’ll be a laughingstock.
If he has overwhelming success at Penn St, there will be a lot of hurt feelings, especially if ISU ranks as a result of him leaving.
And then there’s anything and everything between.
I’m not sure his return will ever have a totally warm welcome, not with how it all went down, and not how battle lines have been drawn in the fan base, whether taking his side or JP’s.
If he bombs at Penn St, he’ll be a laughingstock.
If he has overwhelming success at Penn St, there will be a lot of hurt feelings, especially if ISU ranks as a result of him leaving.
And then there’s anything and everything between.
I’m not sure his return will ever have a totally warm welcome, not with how it all went down, and not how battle lines have been drawn in the fan base, whether taking his side or JP’s.
This is what gets missed in all these conversations.
There is achieving success and then there is "building something". The former is winning a bunch of games while you're here. The latter is when you legitimately leave things in a better place and set them up for sustained success after you leave. The
I would argue that the things staying behind are the result of the university, the AD, our donors, our fans, the We Will collective, etc.
At the same time - and where this gets blurry - I will give credit where credit is due with Campbell. Our program is no longer a basement dweller, laughing stock of a program due in part to the success he achieved.
I don't know how - in today's day and age - you leave for another CFB job without at least temporarily burning things down. But they happen nonetheless.
I'm in the camp of give Campbell his flowers for what he did while he was here, but let's not attribute an unwarranted amount of any future success to what he "built".
