Matt Campbell: "A lot of respect and admiration" for old teammate Alex Grinch
One of the most impressive college football dynasties of the 21st century resides in Alliance, Ohio, a town of just over 20,000 people.
As Alabama has established the standard for FBS dominance, and as North Dakota State has done likewise in the FCS, so has the University of Mount Union done in Division III.
Since the new millennium, Mount Union has claimed nine national championships, most recently taking the crown in 2017. The Purple Raiders have failed to win their conference championship just once since 1995. They've produced NFL talent in players such as Pierre Garcon and Cecil Shorts.
But perhaps most impressively, the program can also claim to have bred two of the brightest young coaches at the FBS level today. And come Saturday, those two coaches will do battle at AT&T Stadium for supremacy in the Big 12.
Matt Campbell, Iowa State's wunderkind fifth-year head coach and a Mount Union defensive lineman from 1999-2002, will go up against Alex Grinch, Oklahoma's respected defensive coordinator and a safety for the Purple Raiders from 1998-2001. Both men played on three national championship teams at Mount Union, and their careers overlapped for two of those titles (2000 and 2001).
Though both played defense in college, Campbell made his hay in the coaching ranks as an offensive assistant, and became the youngest head coach at the FBS level when he took over as Toledo head coach in 2011. Meanwhile, Grinch's whirlwind coaching journey kept him on the defensive side, as he spent time on staff with New Hampshire, Wyoming, Missouri, Washington State and Ohio State before joining the Sooners in 2019.
On Monday, as he addressed media in advance of the Big 12 championship, Campbell hearkened back to the halcyon days in which he shared a locker room with Grinch on the Purple Raiders' powerhouse teams of the early 2000's.
“My sincere appreciation for Alex is just his authenticity," said Campbell. "You know, Alex was a great football player. Kinda was the glue in terms of the defense that we played on at Mount Union, and a guy that was always the same guy every day."
Now, the former teammates' journeys have come full-circle, as they'll once again step into a championship environment together this weekend. However, this time, they'll be on opposite sidelines.
Both men have led two remarkable turnarounds at their respective programs; Campbell is on the precipice of leading Iowa State to its first conference title since 1912, while it's taken Grinch just two seasons to breathe new life into an Oklahoma defense that ranked among the most abysmal units in college football.
Now, one man's glory will have to come at the expense of the other's. And though Campbell is on a mission to outflank his old comrade and take the Cyclones to new heights, he's approaching the biggest game of his coaching career with a great degree of esteem for what Grinch brings to the table, both as a football mind and as an individual.
"I think there’s just such a respect factor for not just who he was as a player and who he is as a coach, but really who he is as a human being," Campbell remarked.
"You know, he’s got a great family. He stands for everything that’s right, and so just a lot of respect and admiration for Alex more than anything.”
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