Matt Campbell earns high honor as one of college football’s best

Iowa State kicked off spring practice following the most successful season in program history recently. And to follow up on that, head coach Matt Campbell was recently recognized on a national-level.

Campbell came in ninth of all the college football coaches currently leading a program in a poll by the New York Times and The Athletic. Bruce Feldman, one of the top journalists covering the sport today, provided the rankings.

Kirby Smart of Georgia, Ryan Day from defending national champion Ohio State and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney occupied the Top 3 spots. Steve Sarkisian of Texas, Kalen DeBoer from Alabama, Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame, Dan Lanning at Oregon and James Franklin from Penn State followed.

The top three in my annual ranking of the best coaches in college football was easy. After that, things get way more complicated. https://t.co/EvhuJzsBLb
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) March 11, 2025

That is where Campbell came in, earning the No. 9 spot after not being ranked in the 2024 version of the list. Here is what was written about him:

“He has been a fantastic hire for the Cyclones. Last year, he led Iowa State to its first double-digit-win season, as it went 11-3 and defeated three ranked teams: Iowa on the road, Kansas State at home and Miami in the bowl game. It was his seventh winning season in the past eight years and fourth season of eight-plus wins at a program that had only one eight-win season from 1979-2016.

“In addition, Campbell led Iowa State to the only top-10 finish in program history in 2020. He’s still only 45.”

Other Big 12 Conference coaches ranked include Chris Klieman of Kansas State (11th), Kyle Whittingham from Utah (12th), Lance Leipold of Kansas (14th), Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia (17th) and Deion Sanders from Colorado (18th).