We'll learn more in the coming days about the nuts and bolts of Iowa State's rapid paced coaching search to find a successor to Paul Rhoads. What we know now is that the Cyclones landed on Toledo's Matt Campbell to become the new skipper of the Cyclones and we know a little bit about how the process went.
The Thanksgiving holiday provided a little bit of cover for ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard and president Steven Leath as the search got off the ground. Iowa State spent the early part of the past week getting further organized and coordinating its efforts with the Parker Executive Search firm.
On Friday night, CampusInsiders.com reporter Kristen Keith happened to share a flight from Chicago to Detroit with Pollard and associate A.D. David Harris. Pollard confirmed to Keith that he was on the road working on the Iowa State coaching search, but naturally did not divulge any names or any detailed info. That narrowed the attention of search enthusiasts in the media and otherwise to potential candidates from the Mid-American Conference, including Campbell and Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck.
SI.com reported Saturday afternoon that a morning interview session between Pollard and Campbell went so swimmingly well that Iowa State knew right away it had its man and cancelled all other interviews planned for the job. The interview obviously went well, but the validity of the cancelled interviews claim is questionable. The anonymous source for the SI story would appear to be from within the Campbell camp, but there is no way to say for sure.
As Saturday progressed, local Toledo media began to report on that school's efforts to retain Campbell in light of Iowa State's strong interest. Toledo Blade reporter Nick Piotrowicz and others were able to get attributed information from Mike O'Brien, the AD there, that Campbell was going to be offered a retention package that would boost his salary to the top rung among MAC coaches, somewhere above $800K.
Although we don't know what Campbell's ISU salary will be, it was not a case of Toledo thinking it could outbid the Cyclones dollar-for-dollar. But O'Brien was certainly obligated to make a public pitch for a coach that had won 70% of his games leading the Rockets. Best-case scenario for Toledo was to create enough reasonable doubt in Campbell's mind that he would compare the Iowa State opportunity to what might come his way in another year or two. So it wasn't Iowa State vs. Toledo as much as it was Iowa State vs. some unknown future offer that would conceivably be better than ISU.
But by Saturday evening, we knew Toledo's efforts were probably for naught. Multiple reports, including one from PowerMizzou.com's Gabe DeArmond, confirmed that Campbell was meeting with Missouri representatives on Saturday evening. The coaching site FootballScoop.com also obtained the same info and a source in the coaching fraternity with direct knowledge of the situation concurred with information provided to CycloneReport.com.
Campbell wanted to explore the Missouri opportunity before acting on the offer from Iowa State, reportedly needing an offer from Mizzou athletic director Mack Rhoades to keep him from committing to ISU. That offer apparently did not come from Rhoades, who also had strong interest in Temple head coach Matt Ruhle and Missouri offensive coordinator Barry Odom. Odom, incidentally, was identified earlier in the week as an active candidate on Iowa State's target list, according to a media source in Columbia, Missouri, with direct knowledge of the situation.
Just before midnight on Saturday, Piotrowicz of the Toledo Blade reported that Campbell intended to accept Iowa State's offer. As of Sunday morning, he tweeted that Toledo had not made any official announcement on Campbell's departure or its plans moving forward.
Did Iowa State interview anyone else for its head coaching job? CycloneFanatic.com's Chris Williams published a report that Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl had interviewed. Bohl was previously the national championship head coach at North Dakota State. It is not known at this time whether Fleck or Odom or anyone else reached the interview stage with Iowa State. Fleck will remain a hot prospect for a move up to a Power 5 level school while Odom is considered the strong frontrunner for the Memphis job if he is not hired at Missouri.
