Holy Toledo! 36-Year-Old Matt Campbell Will Be Paid $2 Million In His First Season As Iowa State's New Football Coach. I Just Hope He's a Better Fit With the Cyclones Than Frank Lauterbur Was When He Came To Iowa In the 1970s After Winning 23 Straight Games At Toledo. Lauterbur's 3-Year Record With the Hawkeyes Was 4-28-1 and the Lousy Defenses Designed for Him By Assistant Coach Ducky Lewis Set Major-College Football Back By At Least a Half-Century

By RON MALY

Whenever anything happens in or about Toledo, Ohio, a few people usually want to shout or simply say, "Holy Toledo!"

All right then.

On with business.

Holy Toledo! Matt Campbell is Iowa State's new football coach. 

And Holy Toledo! He's going to be paid $2 million in his first year on the job.

Matt Campbell

“I couldn’t be more excited to receive the opportunity to coach at Iowa State,” said Campbell, who is leaving a successful stint at the University of Toledo to coach the Cyclones.

“Two years ago after we played the Cyclones in Ames, I called my wife [Erica] and said you simply would not believe this place. Their fans, the game-day environment and facilities are all incredible.  

"I could see us living in Ames and me coaching the Cyclones some day. My family and I are truly humbled.”

Campbell is 36 years of age--meaning he is one of the youngest collegiate head football coaches in America.

I'm sure he is an eager young man.

I'm sure he welcomes challenges.

It's good to be 36 and eager.

He'll have plenty of challenges as Iowa State's coach.

He will be paid well to meet those challenges head-on.

Iowa State said Campbell agreed to a six-year contract with a first-year salary of $2 million.

His 36th birthday is today.  Nice birthday gift, that $2 million first-year salary. 

“Matt’s coaching and playing achievements are extraordinary, but we were even more impressed by his character, leadership and commitment to his family,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said. 

“I could not be more excited to welcome Matt, Erica and their children to the Cyclone family.  We are truly blessed to have one of the industry’s rising stars leading our football program.”

I refrain from predicting success in the Big 12 Conference for a coach--Campbell or any other coach--from the Mid-American Conference.

But I wish the new man in Ames the best.

He is in a league in which it is very difficult for a football program like Iowa State to succeed-- whether the coach is a young man or a man not-so-young.

In my working years, I closely observed Iowa State coaches such as Clay Stapleton, Johnny Majors, Earle Bruce, Donnie Duncan, Jim Criner, Jim Walden and Dan McCarney.

None had it easy.

Some left the Cyclone job on their own terms.

Some didn't.

Campbell, whose team handed Iowa State one of its nine losses in the just-concluded 2015 season.


Toledo officials were well aware that Campbell would be in high demand by athletic directors elsewhere, and the Mid-American Conference university tried hard to keep him.


But Toledo's efforts failed, the Toledo Blade reported. The newspaper was among the first to report that Campbell agreed to become the successor to the fired Paul Rhoads at Iowa State.


Reports surfaced that Toledo had offered Campbell a contract that would've made him the highest-paid coach in the Mid-American Conference. He earned $495,000 this year.

"We think very highly of Matt Campbell and have made him a very generous ffer to keep him as our head football coach," news sources quoted Toledo athletic director Mike O'Brien.

On Sept. 19, Campbell's Toledo team defeated Iowa State, 30-23, in double overtime at Toledo, Ohio.

Reports say Iowa State will pay a $200,000 buyout to bring Campbell on board. Campbell had a 35-15 record in four seasons at Toledo after taking over for Tim Beckman in 2011.

Campbell perhaps agreed to terms with Iowa State even before the fired Paul Rhoads finished a 3-9 season at Iowa State with a 30-6 loss Saturday at West Virginia. Rhoads was paid $2.2 million this year at Iowa State.


I hope Campbell fares better at Iowa State than another former Toledo coach--Frank

Frank Lauterbur

Lauterbur--did at Iowa in the 1970s.

Lauterbur, who won his final 23 games and had a 48-32-2 record from 1963-1970 at Toledo, was hired as Iowa's 22nd head coach prior to the 1971 season. 

I got to know Lauterbur well, and regarded him as a good friend.

Unfortunately, his success at Toledo didn't follow him to Iowa.

Lauterbur lasted just three seasons in Iowa City.  

His first Hawkeye team had a 1-10 record, his second was 3-7-1, his third was 0-11.


That 1973 season was nightmarish for lots of folks, including me. I was writing plenty about the Hawkeyes in those years [when Iowa went through 19 consecutive seasons of non-winning football].

Wikipedia described Lauterbur's final season at Iowa this way:


"The 1973 season was a disaster. Iowa finished with the worst record in school history. The Hawkeyes lost all 11 games to finish the year 0–11. The only other winless season in Iowa history occurred in 1889, [the university's] inaugural campaign, when the Hawkeyes lost the only game they scheduled that year.
 

Ducky Lewis

"Despite the 0–11 record, Lauterbur had two years left on a five-year contract, and then-athletic director Bump Elliott considered retaining him. Iowa fans were unhappy with Lauterbur, obviously, but they were more unhappy with defensive coordinator Don "Ducky" Lewis. 


"Lewis' defensive units, so spectacular at Toledo, were horrible at Iowa. In 1973, Iowa yielded 401 points on the season, the most in school history. In addition, Lewis was notoriously profane in public, which embarrassed and appalled several fans. That might be tolerated if Iowa was winning, but not at 0–11.
 
"Elliott approached Lauterbur about firing Lewis as defensive coordinator. Lauterbur refused, stating that he had to have full control of his staff and that it was his right, not Elliott's, to hire and fire assistant coaches. 

"Elliott agreed, but then reminded Lauterbur that it was his right, as athletic director, to hire and fire head football coaches by relieving him of his duties as Iowa head coach. 


"Lauterbur's loyalty to his assistant backfired, as now Lauterbur and Lewis were both out of a job. Ron Maly, a reporter for the Des Moines Register, wrote, "On the day he was fired, Lauterbur held an umbrella over my head so he could protect the notepad I was using from the rain that was falling near the stadium. He was a good guy, but Iowa clearly was not the right place for him."

ABOUT MATT CAMPBELL

Record as Head Coach

2011 Toledo 1-0 Military Bowl Champions
2012 Toledo 9-4 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
2013 Toledo 7-5
2014 Toledo 9-4 GoDaddy Bowl Champions
2015 Toledo 9-2 TBA

Coaching Experience

Bowling Green, Graduate Assistant, 2003-04
Mount Union, Offensive Coordinator, 2005-06
Bowling Green, Assistant Coach, 2007-08
Toledo, Run Game Coordinator, 2009 & Offensive Coordinator, 2010-11
Toledo, Head Coach, 2012-15

Bowl Games As Coach

Bowling Green, 2003 Motor City Bowl
Bowling Green, 2004 GMAC Bowl
Bowling Green, 2007 GMAC Bowl
Toledo, 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Toledo, 2011 Military Bowl
Toledo, 2012 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Toledo, 2015 GoDaddy Bowl (’14 season)

National Championships (Division III)

Mount Union (player), 2000-2001-2002
Mount Union (offensive coordinator), 2005-2006

[Source Iowa State University]

Just as I expected, Michigan State became the team that will tee it up against Iowa next Saturday night at Indianapolis in the Big Ten Conference's championship football game. The Spartans rolled past Penn State, 55-16, today at East Lansing, Mich. Connor Cook, showing no effects from a shoulder injury, fired three touchdown passes while connecting on 19 completions in 26 attempts for 248 yards. It was such a breeze for Michigan State that starting center Jack Allen lined up in the backfield in the last quarter and ran for a 9-yard touchdown.

Michigan State celebrates. Photo courtesy of the Lansing State Journal

Congratulations, Hawkeyes. You were clearly the better team in the day-after-Thanksgiving football game you played at Nebraska. I'm glad your coach is Kirk Ferentz and not Mike Riley. I'm glad your quarterback is C. J. Beathard and not Tommy Armstrong. I'm glad Jordan Canzeri is your running back instead of What's His Name? from the Cornhuskers.. And I'm glad you'll be taking a historic 12-0 record into the Big Ten championship game at Indianapolis. That's what today's 28-20 victory accomplished. Some people might say it wasn't a classsic, but who cares what other people think? When you're on the brink of getting into the College Football Playoff, you can say stuff like that.

This Is How It's Supposed To Be. Almost

By RON MALY

This is what it's all about. 

Almost. 

This is what the TV people had in mind when they decided to match up the football teams from Iowa and Nebraska on the Friday after Thanksgiving. 

Sort of. 

Today's game in Lincoln is big.

Somewhat. 

The only thing keeping today's 2:30 p.m. game at Memorial Stadium from being a huge national event is Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers didn't fulfill their side of the bargain. 

They're supposed to have an 11-0 or 10-1 record and be playing for something decent, too. 

Instead, Nebraska has a disappointing 5-6 record, considerably unlike the records many other Husker teams had heading into this type of late-November game. 

Where have you gone, Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne?

And when's the last time Barry Switzer of Oklahoma was heard from?

By the way, I don't use the term Black Friday for anything. 

I don't like it. 

I think it's dumb. 

So you won't read it again in these columns. 

This is the 26th straight time Nebraska has

played in a football game on the day after Thanksgiving. 

The Huskers are 19-6 in those games against Oklahoma, Colorado and Iowa. 

Nebraska can sew up an invitation to a bowl game by winning today, but that's a far cry from what Husker teams of old were shooting for at this time of year. 

National championships were on the minds of Nebraska coaches, players and fans in those days. 

However, the words national championship can certainly be properly on the minds of Iowa coaches, players and fans. 

A victory today would give the Hawkeyes a historic 12-0 regular season record and solidify their place among the four teams in the national playoff picture. 

So the ABC-TV sports scheduling people are finally happy about Iowa-Nebraska. 

No blah matchup this time.

The ratings will be huge. 

I hope the game is as good as the expectation. 

Whatever,  I'm expecting the Hawkeyes to win.

Rob Ash Treated Unfairly

Here's another email from the former Drake athlete who expressed strong dissatisfaction in one of my columns yesterday about lousy coverage of Bulldog athletics by the Des Moines Register:

Rob Ash

"Did you see the news this morning that Rob Ash was fired at Montana State? He had been there 9 years with a record of 70 wins and 38 losses. 

"Only 5-6 this year and he only beat Montana twice and lost 7.  I still think they will find it difficult to find a better coach than Rob.

"Thanks for putting the email in your blog. [Register sportswriter] Andrew Logue did call me last night, and basically said they don't cover everything the way they should. He is covering tonight's game with Creighton."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS--I agree with you on Rob Ash, who had been a very successful football coach at Drake before going to Montana State.  He became the winningest coach in Montana State history. Clearly, he was treated unfairly. Sometimes, though, it's not a case of how many games you won, but which teams you beat. Ash obviously didn't didn't defeat  Montana often enough to please his bosses. Ash's teams won three Big Sky Conference titles, but a 54-35 loss last week to Montana sealed his doom].

Forget That Stuff Ol' Ben Wrote

By RON MALY

Discard what you've heard in the past.

Totally forget it.
 
The stuff Benjamin Franklin wrote about death and taxes, I mean.

Benjamin Franklin

"In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes," Franklin wrote in 1789.

Not so fast, Ben old boy.

The real deal is that the only certainties are death, taxes and a high school state championship football trophy sitting in a West Des Moines school.

Dowling made sure of that third certainty last night by absolutely crushing Kennedy of Cedar Rapids, 41-10, at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls.

It was the Maroons' third straight class 4-A championship.

And it was the third team from Cedar Rapids that had to pay the price.

Two years ago, Dowling thrashed Xavier of Cedar Rapids,  44-13, for the 4-A title.

Lass year, Dowling ripped Washington of Cedar Rapids, 49-14, for the championship.

Last night's drubbing of Kennedy gave Dowling 134 points, Cedar Rapids teams 37 in the last three 4-A title games.

Clearly, the best football in the state is played in the Central Iowa Metro League.

Specifically in West Des Moines, where the sprawling Valley and Dowling campuses are just a few miles apart.

Gary Swenson has won five 4-A state championships at Valley, Tom Wilson has now won three in a row and four since 2010 at Dowling.

No wonder the Valley-Dowling game is always the most anticipated one in the state every season.

So congratulations to Dowling and its coaches again.

I'm glad one of the key plays in the Maroons' victory last night involved some trickery.

It was a fake field goal that resulted in a touchdown.

Wilson always has a huge bag of tricks in big games, and I've kidded about them in the past.

Fake field goals, fake punts, you name it.

A few years ago, his team was able to practice its fake punt play when Dowling was ahead of Valley by 30 or so points in a game at Valley Stadium.

Looking ahead to the 2016 season, I'm predicting more bigtime success at Valley and Dowling. 

I can't wait.

'Poor Excuse for a Newspaper'

An e-mail from a Drake graduate, who is a former athlete at the university and is a longtime fan of the Bulldogs:

"Did you read the game story of the Drake

women's victory over North Dakota in today's Des Moines Register?

"There wasn't one.

"You might have seen the box score on the next-to- last page of the sports section. 

"Really great coverage of a local women's team that is 3-0, with wins over ISU, Wisconsin and North Dakota. 

"Fun team to watch with all 10 players getting minutes. 

"Bench scoring against ISU--32 points, Wisconsin--36 points off the bench.

"I called the editor and Andrew Logue, but no response. 

''They had stories covered on high school football by some out-of-town sportswriter and coverage of Iowa-UNI was a writer from the  Waterloo Courier or some newspaper up there.

"Poor excuse for a newspaper. Come and watch the Bulldog women sometime. I believe you will enjoy them."

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS--The present  coverage of Drake athletics is the worst in the  long [more than 100 years] history of the newspaper. It's a total embarrassment. And don't expect the situation to get any better. If anything, it'll get worse].