He literally just released a book that heavily featured Campbell. Could not have been much worse timing for him personally. If you think “objective” coverage is why he has ever been successful, not sure what to tell you. CW has handled the emotions of this change a hell of a lot better than most of the site. Far better to care about the people leaving vs saying **** them, they are dead to me or something similar. Everyone handles grief differently, but how we react when things don’t go our way is telling.
Rocco joining the Transfer Portal
- Thread starter hall4cy
- Start date
Feeling grief about a coach or player leaving your favorite CFB team is a tiny bit weird, ngl.
I feel for the guy and what he is going through on a personal level, but ultimately I have never met him and likely never will. I wish the best for CW as well, but ultimately the reason I come to this site and listen to the CF content is because I want to hear about ISU athletics and college sports through an ISU lens. If CW wants to produce Matt Campbell content, that's fine and more power to him but I will not listen to it. I, and most of us, are interested in ISU.
I think it's true that he's never been an objective, neutral party. And he's made it clear over the years that he does get close to these coaches, players, and even folks in the AD. But always before, he's handled this conflict of interest much better. He's been very clear that he's got a personal relationship with TJ, but has handled that fairly professionally IMO. To me, the purpose of a post like this is just to say that I (and many others) do not enjoy listening to him talking up departed players and coaches. And my hope is that if people can say that in a calm, rational way without personal attacks it will get through to him and he will tone down the pro Campbell/Becht/Hoiberg talk on his podcasts.
The healthy way for the fanbase to process this is frustration, sadness, and then moving on and focusing on ISU. No hate, but also no love to those who have moved on. CW and a handful of others knew these people personally and it makes sense for them to grieve and try to maintain a connection. But for most of us, our only connection to these people was as fans of their sports teams. It would be an unhealthy parasocial relationship for us to take an interest in their lives outside of sports. Hearing folks like CW advocating for us to do that feels wrong and we'd like for him to stop asking us to do it.
Yep. No statue. If he ever does have a statue, we should make sure that it has a traffic cone on his head daily like the Duke of Wellington Statue in Glasgow!
Let's Go State!
But I became the best version of myself!!!
But did you become the best version of yourself in the margins?
Confirmed as of tonight's podcast. Totally transferable skills obviously from fundraising and leading We Will, but I can't lie, seems like a big whiff for ISU not to find a spot for guy who knows the university inside and out.
Is there a list of football guys transferring out? I would like to see a running list if there is one
This is well said and captures much of how I feel. Literally do not care about anyone not at ISU anymore. I don’t need the updates. And even if I did, listening to an Iowa/ISU podcast is not where I’m going for that content.
Appreciate all that CW has done to build CF and IE. But I simply will not listen to podcasts that are constantly giving updates on players/coaches who aren’t here anymore.
Iowa State Cyclones 2026 College Football Transfer Portal Latest Activity
Iowa State Cyclones 2026 College football Transfer Portal Latest Activity
247sports.com
I’m sorry but this is a hard wait and see for me. We have had little retention news to this point, which was apparently the whole point in hiring this guy in 24 hours. It’s tough to hear any loyalty conversation from a guy that left a job after one year and after signing day. At the end of the day we will see what he builds through recruiting in 27 & 28. Lots of people in here believe we will better on defense and win at least 6 games next year.
Headed to Indy for 49ers at Colts.
15 year old Daughter first NFL game and will complete her crush on Brock Purdy.
Conversation tonight as she was making a poster for Brock and the game.
Her “I don’t know if it is bad or good that Rocco is leaving.”
Me “why do you say that?”
Her “because he was kind of sucking this year. So maybe it’s a good thing? I mean, I’ve seen enough Iowa State games to know he wasn’t as good this year.”
Other older daughter “Papa said Rocco was the reason Iowa State lost some of their games this year.”
Me “well, he was hurt , so Matt Campbell either played him when he shouldn’t have, or maybe the guys behind him weren’t good enough?”
Her “you mean #7 wasn’t good enough? I thought #7 was good enough. It’s probably ok though but I think Rocco should’ve felt out the new coach before leaving.”
Me “he may get more money by leaving and playing somewhere else.”
Her “ meh, I wouldn’t pay him more. But whatever”
Go Cyclones!
15 year old Daughter first NFL game and will complete her crush on Brock Purdy.
Conversation tonight as she was making a poster for Brock and the game.
Her “I don’t know if it is bad or good that Rocco is leaving.”
Me “why do you say that?”
Her “because he was kind of sucking this year. So maybe it’s a good thing? I mean, I’ve seen enough Iowa State games to know he wasn’t as good this year.”
Other older daughter “Papa said Rocco was the reason Iowa State lost some of their games this year.”
Me “well, he was hurt , so Matt Campbell either played him when he shouldn’t have, or maybe the guys behind him weren’t good enough?”
Her “you mean #7 wasn’t good enough? I thought #7 was good enough. It’s probably ok though but I think Rocco should’ve felt out the new coach before leaving.”
Me “he may get more money by leaving and playing somewhere else.”
Her “ meh, I wouldn’t pay him more. But whatever”
Go Cyclones!
For sure - on the plus side I felt like today(last night)'s Williams & Blum captured it well. Focus on who is at ISU now and excited to see how things go next year. If nothing else, we'll get to see something new!
Too soon to revive the "has the rot set in?" thread? 
The range of emotions in this thread is all over the place. I'm typically a positive person in general so I moved on pretty quickly when Campbell left and I was going to be behind anyone that took the job next as they WANT to be here if they took it. Same goes with players that will come and go, it's all transactional at this point. I don't need some "heart felt" post on social media to make me feel better about their decision to leave. If they don't want to be here or play for the new coach then why should I care where they go. If I got a new boss at work that I don't want to work for then I'd probably start looking for a new job so it's the same thing. As fans we sometimes get too emotionally attached to coaches and players and thing they will be here for the long haul, but the college athletics landscape has changed dramatically in recent years with the portal and NIL and the days of players staying 4 years at the same school is becoming more rare and same goes with coaches staying for long tenures. We got 10 years out of CMC when there were times in the middle of that we thought he may take another job too. Chances are if Rogers has similar success at ISU that Campbell had we'll be worried about losing him some day too.
The range of emotions in this thread is all over the place. I'm typically a positive person in general so I moved on pretty quickly when Campbell left and I was going to be behind anyone that took the job next as they WANT to be here if they took it. Same goes with players that will come and go, it's all transactional at this point. I don't need some "heart felt" post on social media to make me feel better about their decision to leave. If they don't want to be here or play for the new coach then why should I care where they go. If I got a new boss at work that I don't want to work for then I'd probably start looking for a new job so it's the same thing. As fans we sometimes get too emotionally attached to coaches and players and thing they will be here for the long haul, but the college athletics landscape has changed dramatically in recent years with the portal and NIL and the days of players staying 4 years at the same school is becoming more rare and same goes with coaches staying for long tenures. We got 10 years out of CMC when there were times in the middle of that we thought he may take another job too. Chances are if Rogers has similar success at ISU that Campbell had we'll be worried about losing him some day too.
