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NotKoon

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I’ve never gotten the medias love affair with Campbell. Feels like his entire reputation was built around the upset of Baker Mayfield’s OU in 2017. He’s won 10 games once, never won the conference, fell way short of expectations on multiple occasions, including this season.

He’s always struck me as a massive douchebag though, so honestly a perfect fit
 
CanadalovesND

CanadalovesND

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Matt Campbell certainly has the qualities of a great coach, and will likely do well at Penn State.

That being said, will he accomplish more than Franklin did at PSU? They wanted to move the needle and find the next Kirby Smart, Marcus Freeman or even Cignetti... and they did not accomplish that.
 
Dale

Dale

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NotKoon said:
I’ve never gotten the medias love affair with Campbell. Feels like his entire reputation was built around the upset of Baker Mayfield’s OU in 2017. He’s won 10 games once, never won the conference, fell way short of expectations on multiple occasions, including this season.

He’s always struck me as a massive douchebag though, so honestly a perfect fit
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Saying he fell way short of expectations this year when Iowa State won 8 games is the answer to your question.
 
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sfk324

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I think there's a lot of post hoc "they should have kept Franklin" going on that ignores how bad things had gotten for him.and the team in a short span of time. They lost 3 in a row, two to teams that would have needed to improve substantially in order to be considered bad, and the other in yet another display of him not being able to beat a team in the Top 10. He'd been there 11 years, and every time they had a chance for a big win -- home, away, or neutral site -- they blew it. They were getting booed off the field at halftime and after the game against NU, and had 2 more home games at that point. They got the same result under Smith against IU that they would have had under Franklin (almost had 'em!) minus fans booing and making fun of the face of the program for being Small Game James again. Then you're looking at Senior Day as the next home game, and you're almost 100% guaranteed to have fans booing the team during and after the game. How is that a tenable position? How can you go to boosters with a straight face and say "yep, 11 years in and we've been treading water since year 3, but don't worry, next year will be the one!"?

"Who can we get who is better?" is the same thing we heard when people would say ND wasn't going to get over the hump with White James Franklin as the coach. I don't discount that ND basically fell ass backwards into Marcus. But incompetent administration botching the search and hiring process doesn't mean parting ways was the wrong decision. He wasn't getting them where they believed they should be able to be (setting aside whether that belief is reasonable or not because that's a separate issue).
 
Irish#1

Irish#1

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sfk324 said:
I think there's a lot of post hoc "they should have kept Franklin" going on that ignores how bad things had gotten for him.and the team in a short span of time. They lost 3 in a row, two to teams that would have needed to improve substantially in order to be considered bad, and the other in yet another display of him not being able to beat a team in the Top 10. He'd been there 11 years, and every time they had a chance for a big win -- home, away, or neutral site -- they blew it. They were getting booed off the field at halftime and after the game against NU, and had 2 more home games at that point. They got the same result under Smith against IU that they would have had under Franklin (almost had 'em!) minus fans booing and making fun of the face of the program for being Small Game James again. Then you're looking at Senior Day as the next home game, and you're almost 100% guaranteed to have fans booing the team during and after the game. How is that a tenable position? How can you go to boosters with a straight face and say "yep, 11 years in and we've been treading water since year 3, but don't worry, next year will be the one!"?

"Who can we get who is better?" is the same thing we heard when people would say ND wasn't going to get over the hump with White James Franklin as the coach. I don't discount that ND basically fell ass backwards into Marcus. But incompetent administration botching the search and hiring process doesn't mean parting ways was the wrong decision. He wasn't getting them where they believed they should be able to be (setting aside whether that belief is reasonable or not because that's a separate issue).
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I would disagree with the bolded. Jack hired MF almost immediately after BK left to get some Gumbo. This tells me Jack had a very good idea who MF was before he sat down for a serious discussion about the HC position. Did he know MF would get to the NCG so fast? I doubt it, but I think he had a pretty good idea success was in his future. Jack was a planner and hit a lot more homeruns during his tenure than he struck out.
 
Some Irish Bloke

Some Irish Bloke

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I give him credit for building up a stagnant program in Ames. Maybe he felt like he's accomplished all he can there. But now he's got to face PSU's unrealistic expectations that they can become OSU in a conference they've always been second rate in, at least in my lifetime.

I think it's a strange hire. They fired Franklin, kicking off this entire crazy carousel, just to hire Matt Campbell. Let that sink in.
 
stlnd01

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I agree it was probably time for Franklin and Penn State to part ways. Kind of like BK and Notre Dame. It was shocking, but not surprising. They could do worse than Campbell - and a couple days ago it looked like they were about to - but he's the minimum viable coach for them. Not at all exciting, and not someone you start this process hoping to land.

Also, unless he goes all-in on the portal - which I don't think has been his style? - he's going to have just a brutal rebuilding job. Hope the fans are patient. Doubt they will be.
 
Huntr

Huntr

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Riddickulous said:
Yep. He's the first Iowa State coach with a winning career record since the 70s.
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I get the point you guys are making, but the CFB landscape has changed so drastically since ISU and KState and IU were perpetual door mats.

Is it as big of an accomplishment for ISU to win 8 games in 2025 as it would have been in 1975 or 85 or 95?
 
Huntr

Huntr

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Thinking that going 10-2 and not winning at the highest levels is unsatisfactory so you hire Campbell is certainly something.
 
Dale

Dale

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In the end Penn State hired a sitting P4 HC, something only LSU did. Virginia Tech and James Madison are the only others leaving with a P4 HC.

Not the market chaos and poaching it was made out to be like the Freeman cycle.
 
TorontoGold

TorontoGold

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thekid33 said:
For how badly PSU screwed up the search, the result could have been worse.

I don't expect him to be great, but the program won't be a total disaster. Which is very disappointing to me.
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Fully expecting them to become rich man's Fickell Wisconsin.
 
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