Iowa State’s football program has been on the rise ever since Matt Campbell took over in 2016. With success comes expectations though, and Campbell is doing his best to manage them this year.
The Cyclones have a lot of returning talent for this upcoming season, such as Breece Hall, Charlie Kolar and Brock Purdy. As a result, they’re ranked No. 7 in the preseason Associate Press Top 25 poll.
During a recent interview with Fox Sports’ college football crew, Campbell was asked about Iowa State’s ranking and how he manages such high expectations.
Campbell stressed the importance of staying in the moment and not looking ahead, especially since the Cyclones are only guaranteed 12 games.
“I think one of the things we learned along the way as we build our football program is to stay present and understand that we are outcome aware,” Campbell said. “We know what we want to do and what our goals are, and our goals are obviously to be our best in our 12 guaranteed opportunities that we’re given every year. But I think we so hunker down on the process to get to be our best. Even this time of year, you’re really earning the right this time of year to have confidence and pride to play those 12 guaranteed opportunities. I think we spend so much time and our focus on getting to that point more than what a ranking would look like or feel like. And certainly we know those are things we’d love to be at the end of the season.”
This is the right approach to have if the Cyclones want to make the College Football Playoff next season. They can’t afford to overlook any opponent in the Big 12.
It’ll be tough for Iowa State to top what it did last season, but it sounds like Campbell will have his players ready for battle this fall.
Iowa State’s season will officially begin on Sept. 4 against Northern Iowa. Kickoff is at 4:30 p.m. ET from Jack Trice Stadium.
The post Matt Campbell Shares Key To Iowa State Dealing With Hype appeared first on The Spun.
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