A couple threads that have recently been at the top of the forum have been discussing past coaches and winning streaks. So, that got me thinking about how many times Iowa State has had a winning streak.
Data overload incoming.
First, let's define a "winning streak".
And, as it turns out, it has not happened before very much.
I went and looked for when Iowa State had a win against 3 "quality" opponents in 3 consecutively played games. Basically, wins against small conference or lower division foes don't count here.
Example to provide context -
In 2002 we won 6 games in a row against Kansas, Tennessee Tech, Iowa, Troy, Nebraska, and Texas Tech.
However, Tennessee Tech and Troy are not counting as "quality" opponents here.
So, this actually counts as 2 entries of winning streaks because we beat Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska in a row, and we also beat Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas Tech in a row.
Each 3 game window of games against quality opponents is what is being measured here.
Remember Lou's quote above "OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'."
The point here isn't to make some arbitrary measurement for success. The entire scoring system in football is arbitrary. I ask rhetorically, why is a touchdown worth 6 points and a safety 2?
And, even if we would say that any amount of games won in a row only gets counted once, that doesn't change the narrative that the data will present.
Second, let's quickly define our scope of history to include.
Going back to the creation of the Big 8 in 1960 seems reasonable.
Ok, here is the data.
The Iowa State Football Sports-Reference.com page was used to gather data
Simply put, we have had 25 winning streaks in our history, and Coach Campbell has 12 of them.
If we flip our arbitrary logic to just say any amount of wins is a winning streak, then we have 18 total and Campbell claiming 7 of them.
And, yes, we will all notice how often Kansas is involved in these events.
This leads to a natural, next question - How many losing streaks have we had?
Well, I started counting them using the same logic and I didn't get very far before coming up with the answer "way too many".
Instead, let's just look for any entire season where we avoided losing 3 games in a row to any opponent. The conference of the opponent does not matter in this measurement.
We see more entries from the earlier years. There were less games per season back then, so that would seem to correlate.
This data is less interesting, since we're looking for years where we were potentially "less bad", but it still shows Campbell doing a better job than everyone else that came before him.
Ok, final item to show Matt Campbell's product has been great compared to Iowa State's history.
How often have we had a winning record in conference games?
The past hurts, but the present is overwhelmingly good.
The 1960 team sneaks in to make the data cutoff like they did for the 3-game winning streak table.
So, of the 13 times we have had a winning record against conference foes, Campbell has 6 of them.
In my opinion, this is maybe the best indicator of his successes at Iowa State.
In closing, if we have a winning record in conference games and also have a winning streak this year then Campbell will have HALF of each of these measurements from 1960 through today. That spans 10 different head coaches.
What else comes to mind when thinking about Matt Campbell's success here?
Data overload incoming.
First, let's define a "winning streak".
And, as it turns out, it has not happened before very much.
I went and looked for when Iowa State had a win against 3 "quality" opponents in 3 consecutively played games. Basically, wins against small conference or lower division foes don't count here.
Example to provide context -
In 2002 we won 6 games in a row against Kansas, Tennessee Tech, Iowa, Troy, Nebraska, and Texas Tech.
However, Tennessee Tech and Troy are not counting as "quality" opponents here.
So, this actually counts as 2 entries of winning streaks because we beat Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska in a row, and we also beat Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas Tech in a row.
Each 3 game window of games against quality opponents is what is being measured here.
Remember Lou's quote above "OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'."
The point here isn't to make some arbitrary measurement for success. The entire scoring system in football is arbitrary. I ask rhetorically, why is a touchdown worth 6 points and a safety 2?
And, even if we would say that any amount of games won in a row only gets counted once, that doesn't change the narrative that the data will present.
Second, let's quickly define our scope of history to include.
Going back to the creation of the Big 8 in 1960 seems reasonable.
Ok, here is the data.
The Iowa State Football Sports-Reference.com page was used to gather data
Coach | Year | Teams Defeated |
Stapleton | 1960 | OK St, OK, KSU |
Bruce | 1976 | KSU, KU, Neb |
1978 | KU, KSU, OK St | |
KSU, OK St, Colo | ||
Walden | 1989 | KSU, Mizz, OK St |
McCarney | 2000 | Colo, KU, Pitt |
2002 | KU, Iowa, Neb | |
Iowa, Neb, TTU | ||
2004 | BU, KU, Neb | |
KU, Neb, KSU | ||
2005 | OK St, A&M, KSU | |
A&M, KSU, Colo | ||
Rhoads | 2011 | TTU, KU, OK St |
Campbell | 2017 | OK, KU, TTU |
2017 | KU, TTU, TCU | |
2018 | OK St, WVU, TTU | |
WVU, TTU, KU | ||
TTU, KU, BU | ||
2019 | TCU, WVU, TTU | |
2020 | TCU, OU, TTU | |
KU, BU, KSU | ||
BU, KSU, Texas | ||
KSU, Texas, WVU | ||
2021 | KU, KSU, OK St | |
2023 | TCU, Cin, BU |
Simply put, we have had 25 winning streaks in our history, and Coach Campbell has 12 of them.
If we flip our arbitrary logic to just say any amount of wins is a winning streak, then we have 18 total and Campbell claiming 7 of them.
And, yes, we will all notice how often Kansas is involved in these events.
This leads to a natural, next question - How many losing streaks have we had?
Well, I started counting them using the same logic and I didn't get very far before coming up with the answer "way too many".
Instead, let's just look for any entire season where we avoided losing 3 games in a row to any opponent. The conference of the opponent does not matter in this measurement.
Coach | Year |
Stapleton | 1961 |
1963 | |
1965 | |
Majors | 1971 |
Bruce | 1976 |
1977 | |
Criner | 1986 |
Walden | 1990 |
McCarney | 2000 |
Rhoads | 2009 |
2012 | |
Campbell | 2017 |
2018 | |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | |
2023 |
We see more entries from the earlier years. There were less games per season back then, so that would seem to correlate.
This data is less interesting, since we're looking for years where we were potentially "less bad", but it still shows Campbell doing a better job than everyone else that came before him.
Ok, final item to show Matt Campbell's product has been great compared to Iowa State's history.
How often have we had a winning record in conference games?
The past hurts, but the present is overwhelmingly good.
Coach | Year | Wins | Losses |
Stapleton | 1960 | 4 | 3 |
Majors | 1971 | 4 | 3 |
Bruce | 1976 | 4 | 3 |
1977 | 5 | 2 | |
1978 | 4 | 3 | |
Walden | 1989 | 4 | 3 |
McCarney | 2000 | 5 | 3 |
Campbell | 2017 | 5 | 4 |
2018 | 6 | 3 | |
2019 | 5 | 4 | |
2020 | 8 | 1 | |
2021 | 5 | 4 | |
2023 | 6 | 3 |
The 1960 team sneaks in to make the data cutoff like they did for the 3-game winning streak table.
So, of the 13 times we have had a winning record against conference foes, Campbell has 6 of them.
In my opinion, this is maybe the best indicator of his successes at Iowa State.
In closing, if we have a winning record in conference games and also have a winning streak this year then Campbell will have HALF of each of these measurements from 1960 through today. That spans 10 different head coaches.
What else comes to mind when thinking about Matt Campbell's success here?
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