Matt Campbell and the Iowa State Cyclones are getting set to face Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on Saturday and hope to cap a historic season off with win No. 11 – a would-be record for ISU football.
The 2024 season has already been the best in school history, at least in terms of wins, as it is the Cyclones’ first and only 10-win season to date.
Some fans and media, however, feel that the season ended in disappointing fashion after Iowa State jumped out to 7-0 and then lost back-to-back games and fell out of the College Football Playoff discussion.
On Friday, ISU head coach Matt Cambell was asked if he considered the 2024 season a disappointment, considering they started 7-0 but are 3-3 in their last six games.
Campbell, ever candid, didn’t take too kindly to the question, which he called “ridiculous.”
“I would say I chuckle at that comment to be quite honest with you,” Campbell said. “I mean, think about what I just said, 133 years in our school, and we have never won ten games. We’ve been in two Big 12 Championship games, and you know, the last four years. Nobody even thought that was possible at Iowa State. To say something like that is ridiculous to be quite honest with you.
“I think for our end of it, we have always talked about in our program is, man, can we get to the end of the season, and really have tried to become the best possible team that we can become, and we’ll define that once the season comes to an end. I think what this team has overcome, and I think Coach would echo this, the adversities you go through for us in a 12-, 13-game season, man, the opportunity to go through it and become your very best, it’s such a great reward. That’s our world that we live in, and it’s awesome to live in it because you’ve got 18- to 22-year-olds that you see just continue to grow as great men. And you know, we’ll leave on Saturday. We’ll have 20 seniors that are going to leave and they are going to go be great fathers, husbands. But the one thing they are going absolutely be able to do is they are going to be great leaders of people because of their experience and what they have been accomplished in the season. And man, the pride that they will be able walk out of that locker room with no matter what the result is on Saturday about what they have been able to do and accomplish at Ames, Iowa, I’m really proud of them.”
