Matt Campbell tells MSU that he is "not interested"
Matt Campbell, the coach of Iowa State reportedly quickly rebuffed the idea that he may be interested in leaving Ames for MSU. In my opinion, this would have been a home run hire as Campbell is considered one of the better up and coming Power 5 coaches. From his perspective, probably the right call. Most likely a lateral move and to a more difficult division.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:41 PM ^
Iowa St is still behind MSU in the recruiting rankings right now. After MSUs had 4 years of downward trending, and no coach. So what exactly is ISU's recruiting advantage? Ames, Iowa is an 11.5 hour drive from Texas, are they really in the fertile Big XII recruiting ground like you say?
MSU recruiting classes: 43, 32, 31, 36, 17, 23, 26...
ISU recruiting classes: 46 (2020), 46, 55, 52, 55 (2016-Campbells first year), 64, 59, 63, 67, 59
Edit: Also, like it or not, MSU made the CFP. So it can be done from Michigan State. Could ISU make it? Could anyone in the B12 not named Oklahoma or Texas make it?
February 5th, 2020 at 2:43 PM ^
appreciate your measured response.
what are your thoughts about dantonio and his departure, how/why/when he did it?
February 5th, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
I do think it's a panic move. From the sounds of the press conference, I think he thought in December he could stick it out and turn this around. But I think post-dec signing day, post-deposition, looking at 2021 recruits, I don't think he thinks he could do it anymore.
I don't think that $4.3m payment had anything to do with it, because he could easily have negotiated to get that in Dec and retired then and not left the program like he did yesterday.
Happy he did it yesterday rather than after signing day. I know most our class had already signed, but at least he did it yesterday instead of tomorrow. (Also, not like our recent commits had other D1 offers HEYO!)
February 5th, 2020 at 2:59 PM ^
do you think any sanctions are coming to MSU or is it more like basketball where even when they have a wiretap and head coaches doing deals, no discipline, nothing to see here, move on.
February 5th, 2020 at 3:10 PM ^
I don't think we see any sanctions for what we've heard so far. The two violations that I saw yesterday were: Jobs for players families, off campus recruiting for Blackwell. Neither of those are actually bad, right? Maybe some minor sanctions for that or something. And does the NCAA want to dig into things like that? I think we've seen they prefer to claim ignorance.
I don't think anything else really comes either. Blackwell has been trying to get other coaching jobs, does he really think he'll get a job anywhere if he tattles on any "big stuff" at MSU? Not likely. Also, how much are we paying guys to come to MSU instead of SVSU, or Miami (OH), or freaking Liberty!?
February 5th, 2020 at 3:36 PM ^
agreed.
are you sure you're a state fan?
February 5th, 2020 at 3:42 PM ^
HARBS CANT WIN THE BIG ONE, HAVE FUN FINISHING IN 4TH PLACE AGAIN LOOSERS!
February 5th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
'LOOSERS' i assume an intentional typo and humor given your level-headed responses.
and hey, didn't we tie for first with ohio in 2018? so we got that going for us.
February 5th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^
username checks out WITH AUTHORITA -- the misspelling is glorious
February 5th, 2020 at 4:12 PM ^
Dantonio’s bigger problem is that he has now been accused of perjury by Blackwell in connection with the recruit visit issue. Blackwell says the recruit’s parents will back his story. Its the coverup, not the crime, that gets people all the time.
February 5th, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^
With regards to your first point:
1. I think you may overstate things by saying that it is a top ten budget. This article (https://www.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2017/08/which_schools_spend_the…) puts the budget for football at 13. More importantly, the difference between being in the top 10 is almost 2.7 million dollars. At 24, Mississippi’s budget is about $2.5 million less than MSU, so MSU is bunched in a pretty big group. It is true that MSU’s budget is noticeably bigger than Iowa State’s, but not as big as you state.
2. Size of budget is only one criteria that someone might use. If they care about likelihood of success, I think you could argue that it would be easier todo well at Iowa State because top to bottom, I don’t think it is hard to argue the big ten is better. You also might care about unreasonable expectations- I suspect the expectations are higher in East Lansing. You might also look at so e of the repetitional issues
i think you might be looking at this with somewhat green tinted glasses (but I will say the rest of your analysis seems much more realistic).
February 5th, 2020 at 3:29 PM ^
I think my top 10 number was coming from 2018 athletic department revenue? I was going off the top of my head from some research I did in December on it. But I never broke it down by football spending. That's a good thing to look at
And you're probably right that I'm more optimistic than a neutral observer, but I think I'm closer to right than the Michigan fan base, where in this other thread I see an argument that CMU might be a better job right now...
February 6th, 2020 at 8:44 AM ^
Hell yeah that CMU talk is absurd. What would you think about Jim McElwain?
I think the MSU job in a vacuum is a better job than it is at the moment. Following MD with the fan base still expecting 10 wins a year, beating Michigan and competing with OSU/PSU the expectations might be a little high. It might be worth letting the younger Tressell keep the interim job, and get a better coach next offseason. There's going to be a lot of excellent coordinators and coaches around next year.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
Does sparty have a flight tracker yet? Do they have a plane? Maybe a bus
February 5th, 2020 at 3:04 PM ^
It's a Winnebago... definitely a Winnebago.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:35 PM ^
Fickell is supposed to be on ESPNU radio at 2:30. Hopefully this is a good sign. Doubt he would be going on national radio if he was hammering out contract details for a new job.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:41 PM ^
Could be announcing the new job... at least we don’t need to wait.
February 5th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^
I cannot believe you guys are afraid of Fickell. Once Michigan and Penn State stabilized, MSU went right back to being mediocre at best. They now celebrate making a bowl and being defeated with "dignity." That's what their program is and likely will remain, barring another catastrophic hire from Michigan.
February 5th, 2020 at 6:44 PM ^
100% on this.
It’s not just the coach, job selection is important. State is at best sitting 4th in their half of the division. The 3 teams in front of them have more resources. On top of that, all hatred aside, you are replacing a good football coach who pretty much maxed that program out. Bad choice...even more so when guys are like: “ I’m happy at Iowa State.”
February 5th, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
MSU is a dumpster fire...is there possible NCAA sanctions for the FB program looming? With the negative press and all their issues, plus being in the B1G East, they're going to have to open up their checkbook to get anyone decent.
Can't see this as being a desired destination for any talented coach.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:53 PM ^
However, Matt Campbell does have eyes on the Michigan job.
Source: Jordan Strack (who is a friend of Campbell)
February 5th, 2020 at 3:12 PM ^
Matt Campbell will talk to about three schools in regard to moving. MSU isn't even close to one of them. Until one of those three call, you are likely to be denied unless something drastic changes.
As for above recruiting concerns, the difference between 25th and 60th is in your evaluations. If you aren't good at evaluating, your 25th ranked class will have enough misses that the good evaluators beat you with those 45-60 classes.
February 5th, 2020 at 3:51 PM ^
My opinion of Matt Campbell has risen even more. Smart man.
February 6th, 2020 at 10:29 AM ^
I like Matt. If Jim leaves for the NFL, he would be at the top of my list.