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Big 12 coach predicts how much Matt Campbell's departure will hurt Iowa State

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh05/29/26griffin_mcveigh

Iowa State spent years hearing rumors regarding Matt Campbell potentially leaving the program. Well, it finally happened to them. A new era is coming in Ames as the Cyclones move on without Campbell. He now resides in State College, PA, as the head coach at Penn State.

An anonymous coach from the Big 12 gave his thoughts on the move, specifically from Iowa State’s perspective. He gave Athlton Sports a prediction on how this would affect the Cylones.

“They’ll feel the loss of [former head coach] Matt Campbell more than the loss of [QB] Rocco Becht this year because of how many players and recruits they took [to Penn State],” the anonymous coach said. “You’ve also gotta count how many kids they lost to high school recruiting with them getting out of their NILs. Man, it is really, really hard to replace that amount of guys that late.”

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More than just Campbell and Becht were lost, as the anonymous coach mentioned. An eye-popping 50 players decided to leave via the NCAA transfer portal. Of those, 23 of them followed Campbell to Penn State. To say the roster took a massive hit would be an understatement, even if Iowa State responded by bringing in 50 new players of their own.

The man charged with that task was Jimmy Rogers. He replaced Campbell after just one season at Washington State. Prior to Pullman, Rogers spent two years as the South Dakota State head coach. So, this is his first opportunity in a power conference.

Another anonymous Big 12 coach believes Rogers is going to do well at Iowa State. Time is just going to be needed.

“[New head coach ] Jimmy Rogers is a really good coach. I mean, he beat North Dakota State when he was at South Dakota State. Even when he was at Washington State last year, he didn’t have a really good draw. They didn’t have any money. He’s a good coach, but it’s just gonna take time, especially because of how late he got the job.”

In any case, if you want more comments from anonymous Big 12 coaches on various programs in the league, be sure to check out the Athlon Sports summer preview magazine. Athlon Sports publishes one of the most respected college football preview magazines in the industry. You can find content like ranking coaches inside the Big 12 and much, much more inside. You can find more about buying a copy here.