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    • Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell breaks the Cyclones winning record
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    Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell breaks the Cyclones winning record

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    (This story has been updated to add a new photo)

    HOUSTON – Matt Campbell has never hidden his thoughts about his job.

    The Iowa State football coach had no qualms about “climbing the rough side of the mountain” in Ames. He famously talks about winning on the edge rather than overwhelming opponents.

    It’s hard to win football games at Iowa State, and Campbell has embraced that hard work.

    So it was perhaps fitting that Saturday marked his 57thTh The Cyclone victory, the most by a coach in program history, was neither easy nor pretty.

    But it was definitely a victory.

    More: Iowa State football earns its first Big 12 win of 2024 with a victory over Houston

    As the clock reached zero in No. 19 Iowa State’s 20-0 win over Houston, Campbell passed Dan McCarney and remained alone as the winningest coach in program history.

    The win was never really in jeopardy, but there were a few moments of doubt about exactly what the Cyclones (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) were doing against the Cougars (1-4, 0-2).

    Iowa State only led 3-0 at halftime after its offense failed to find any purchase. Late in the third quarter, the Cyclones finally reached the end zone and took a two-point lead that the losing Houston team barely managed to overcome. And when Abu Sama burst through the line for a 77-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, it was truly over.

    Time will tell if this performance was a warning sign for Iowa State’s offense or if it’s an “easy win, baby” game that every top team must survive at some point in the season.

    Certainly the circumstances – apart from Campbell’s milestone and the chance to take a 4-0 lead for the first time since 2000 – were not conducive to a thrilling performance. An early evening start with temporary workers in their 90s. A crowd that’s about a third of the size the Cyclones are used to playing.

    For good teams, these variables shouldn’t matter, and ultimately they didn’t matter for the Cyclones. So the performance may have been disappointing, but the result keeps everything on the table for Iowa State while also showing the Cyclones how precarious every single game in the Big 12 is.

    More: WATCH: Iowa State football RB and Southeast Polk graduate Abu Sama scores on a 77-yard TD run

    The Cyclones can win a lot more games this season. However, a favorable schedule offers no guarantees. You have to show up and put points on the board.

    And for the 57th time in nine seasons, the Cyclones did it.

    Campbell had already integrated himself into the fabric of Iowa State football with the turnaround he engineered when he took over the program from Paul Rhoads. The Cyclones had become a laughingstock again after early success under Rhoads, and Campbell quickly made the program competitive again.

    Then the climb began in earnest, going up the rough side of the mountain, yes, but the path to the summit progressed year after year.

    Embracing adversity took on new meaning as Iowa State reached its peak as a program. The Cyclones clinched their first-ever Big 12 title game appearance and a Fiesta Bowl championship in the 2020 season as COVID-19 ran rampant around the world.

    More: Iowa State football: Jayden Higgins’ six straight games with touchdown catches sets Cyclones record

    Campbell is now in something of a third era of his tenure (pre-Brock Purdy, Brock Purdy, and post-Brock Purdy), and the program appears to be in great shape.

    There can certainly be a debate about who is the “best” or “most influential” or whatever other metric you want to use to discuss Iowa State football coaches, but Campbell, after 57 wins, has won one win after another is building a resume that could one day turn this conversation into a consensus.

    If he hasn’t already.

    Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at [email protected] or (515) 284-8000. FFollow him on X at @TravisHines21.

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    Madoc Meredith
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