Peterson: Is this Matt Campbell’s best coaching job since taking over Iowa State football?

AMES – Someone on the Dallas to Des Moines non-stop flight following Iowa State's win over Baylor asked if this was the best coaching job Matt Campbell and his staff have done since making Iowa State’s football program relevant again.

Let’s see, there was the quick turnaround in 2017. Let us not forget 2020, when all COVID-related hell broke out seemingly everywhere except the locker room Campbell oversees.

Obviously, the question was asked, because the Cyclones have responded to a bad 2022 season in which they won just one Big 12 game, to having a share of the lead with four games remaining in 2023 – one of which is Saturday’s 6 p.m. Homecoming game against Kansas at Jack Trice Stadium.

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Good question, eh, considering Campbell puts one of the Big 12’s youngest teams on the field each Saturday. Most satisfying so far, undoubtedly. But his best?

If Iowa State should somehow advance to the conference championship game, without question, Campbell should (and will) be voted Big 12 Coach of the Year for the fourth time in what would be eight seasons.

That’s way out there right now, sure, but that’s the significance of what Campbell and his staff have done since wrapping up 2022 with a 62-14 loss at TCU.

But his best coaching job since turning the program into a winner again? Let’s examine what I’d consider the two seasons most worthy of being in this conversation.

Let’s start with 2017, when Campbell’s second Cyclones team went to places the program hadn’t been in a long time

We started hearing the 2017 comparison way back when the most recent, popular spring Tailgate Tour began its bus throughout the state.

Former Cyclones tight end Chase Allen heard it, too, while working out in Ames for another shot at the NFL.

“Just being around the coaches before this season, I heard a lot of similarities that this seems a lot like the 2017 team,” Allen, a freshman on the 2017 team, told me. “The difference is this is a pretty young team, 2017 was a pretty senior-heavy team.”

After going 3-9 overall and 2-7 in the Big 12 during Campbell’s inaugural 2016 season in Ames, 2017 included winning eight games for the first time since a 9-3 mark in 2000. All-everything Joel Lanning played extensively on both sides of the ball – quarterback, linebacker and special teams. Four quarterbacks shared in the Cyclones’ best regular season in over a decade.

The team was so good, that it played in a bowl game for the first time since the 2012 Liberty Bowl against Memphis, which also resulted in the school’s first bowl victory since beating Minnesota in the 2009 Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona.

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In just his second season after inheriting a team that lost four games by 20 points or more, Campbell’s Cyclones not only were in a bowl game but brought the trophy back home to prove it.

“The core group that stuck around for 2017 -- that was the reason for success," said Kyle Starcevich, the dependable snap holder on that team. “That core nucleus had been through trials and tribulations. Coach Campbell brought in a great staff.”

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That season included winning at third-ranked Oklahoma for the first time since 1990, then upsetting fourth-ranked TCU three games later.

Allen Lazard was the top receiver and David Montgomery the top rusher. Both now are in the NFL. Lanning was an All-American all-purpose player after not only playing quarterback and linebacker, but also standing out on special teams.

“You have to go through bad times to appreciate and learn from the good,” Starcevich said.

Or maybe Campbell’s best coaching season was 2020, when ISU players followed the program’s COVID protocol to the letter

It’s too bad fans didn’t get to experience in person this wonderful season that went on despite many stadiums either limiting fans or not even allowing them. Iowa State didn’t have a serious COVID-related problem while buzzing through an 8-1 Big 12 season against teams that sometimes didn’t know who was available until just before kickoff.

That’s a credit to everyone in the program, not only including the players strictly obeying protocol rules put in place long before the season, but also the medical staff that implemented them.

“You could have maybe cheated the process and been your best right away,” Campbell during that season, “and maybe that would have faltered your team and the health of your team down the stretch.”

That team opened the season with a 31-14 loss against Louisiana at Jack Trice Stadium. That team finished the season with a dominating 34-17 Fiesta Bowl win against Oregon.

“You can’t plan ahead for the variables – like COVID (in 2020) and like things that happened (in the) offseason,” Allen said. “You take the hand that gets dealt to you and make (the) best of it. You play to your strengths and put your players in the best position to be successful.”

I could even make a point for 2018 being one of Campbell's finest seasons. That’s when lightning forced the cancellation of the season-opening game against South Dakota, the Cyclones started 1-3, and then boom – a true freshman named Brock Purdy came onto the scene during a 48-42 victory at Oklahoma State. That season ended in the Alamo Bowl, Iowa State’s best postseason bowl to that point.

So, back to the question: Is this the best coaching job Campbell has done since arriving at Iowa State?

I thought about it during a 90-minute flight that included many Iowa State fans. My hunch is yes − if the season ended today- considering the youth of the team, a new offensive coordinator and four new assistant coaches. All those moving parts quickly came together and have been successful so far.

But as Allen told me: “The story is still being written.”

And another chapter opens Saturday night.

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, on X @RandyPete, and at DesMoinesRegister.com/CyclonesTexts

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Matt Campbell's 2023 coaching among his best with Iowa State football