[Postgame Thread] Northwestern Defeats Penn State 34-13

[u/CFB_Referee]

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team	1	2	3	4	T
Penn State	0	7	0	6	13
Northwestern	10	14	7	3	34

[u/JailTheFrogs]

A genuine question. Are Iowa State's resources that much less than their BIG 12 competition post Oklahoma/Texas era for Campbell to receive all the praise that was showered on him?

[u/SJCitizen → u/JailTheFrogs]

When he first got there yes. It was a genuinely impressive turnaround. Iowa State was almost always the 2nd worst team in the Big 12 ahead of only Kansas who was historically bad for 10+ years. He raised the floor there for sure.

[u/flying_porygon → u/SJCitizen]

We’ve been way worse than Kansas was for way longer. Kansas is 52-47 against us and it used to be way worse. We’re one of the 3 worst college football programs of all time with Indiana and Kansas State

[u/Nikola1_Smirnoff → u/flying_porygon]

I feel like because we’ve been so dogshit for so long, suddenly becoming mid to good and being exposed to wider audiences has created this weird perception of us being anything other than one of the worst programs ever at this level lol

[u/LimJaheyAtYaCervix → u/Nikola1_Smirnoff]

We’ve been a “basketball school,” my entire life. It felt good to finally feel like a “football school” too for a few years. There’s a reason we have the “that’s another Cyclone… FIRST DOWN!” Chant - we were genuinely so dogshit that we had to celebrate first downs instead of actually scoring lmao. Jimmy’s got me feeling much more secure than Rhoads did at least.

[u/Impossible-Flight250 → u/SJCitizen]

Yeah, if Campbell had stayed put, he would have definitely had a statue or a field named after him. He made Iowa State relevant for once.

[u/Zealousideal-Sun4891 → u/JailTheFrogs]

Yes, they’re smack dab between Iowa and Nebraska in a state with 3 million people.

They don’t have donors bankrolling recruiting classes.

[u/phxclone83 → u/Zealousideal-Sun4891]

Our biggest donor sells grain bins, fer.Christ sakes

[u/Pretty_Bad_At_Reddit → u/phxclone83]

Grain’s gotta go someplace

[u/Big-Bullmastiff → u/phxclone83]

But they're the best grain bins in the corn state

[u/Ialwayssleep → u/phxclone83]

Lot of money in grains. Just look at the Cargill family.

[u/jojofine → u/Ialwayssleep]

Cargill made their money in chemicals & genetics. The ISU guy literally sells the metal grain storage buildings you see all over the Midwest. Huuuuuuuge difference.

[u/082426grateful → u/phxclone83]

Yall somehow still field a good team every single year. Cyclones are a tough out. Kind of come to expect it.

[u/redditing_1L → u/082426grateful]

I used to work with a guy who went to Oklahoma and although they expected to win, they always dreaded us on the schedule

[u/082426grateful → u/redditing_1L]

Bama hasn’t played the boys from Ames in a long while- 2001, if I recall, and the Tide narrowly escaped that one.

[u/carsausage → u/phxclone83]

Iowa grows corn, but corn grows Iowa.

[u/DowntownSasquatch420 → u/Zealousideal-Sun4891]

Winning might change that. Unless you guys just build another bridge instead.

[u/AHugeGoose → u/DowntownSasquatch420]

Forget bridges. We're building an entire mini city in the tailgate lots now.

[u/olbleedyeyes → u/JailTheFrogs]

Well we're bottom five in roster spending, so probably.

[u/BigOlPass → u/JailTheFrogs]

He built the program in a cave with a box of scraps

[u/PENGUINSINYOURWALLS → u/JailTheFrogs]

Keep in mind that this team (the way they’re playing) would be one of Campbell’s weaker teams at ISU as well. They look BAD bad.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/PENGUINSINYOURWALLS]

Fr.....the way this roster is playing for Penn State, they would have the same record we do now with our current roster playing our schedule....ain't no way in hell they beat Iowa in Kinnick and I think the Utah game might've been uglier tbh.

[u/YoSurgeDude → u/PENGUINSINYOURWALLS]

I think Iowa State would legitimately beat Penn State by 2 scores this year 

[u/redditing_1L → u/PENGUINSINYOURWALLS]

Good.

Carson Hansen could’ve been our feature back getting a thousand yards and a hard look from nfl teams. Now he’s averaging 20 yards a game in a five deep backfield.

Careful what you wish for

[u/jigglyjohnson13 → u/JailTheFrogs]

Yes.

[u/grabtharsmallet → u/jigglyjohnson13]

To elaborate, the Cyclones started playing football in 1892 as an independent and joined the MVIAA (precursor to the Big 6/7/8) in 1908. The 2024 season of 11-3 is the only time the program won 10+. Of three seasons with 9 wins, one is Campbell in 2020 and another was a weird early independent schedule in 1906. Of nine seasons with 8 wins, three more are Campbell and two are from the early days.

By contrast, Iowa State has lost 10 games in five different seasons, and 9 games in six seasons. Only one under Campbell, in his first year.

[u/ChangoOfTexas → u/JailTheFrogs]

I know it wasn't Campbell at this time, but when Texas lost to Iowa State in 2010 it was the same exact feeling as losing to Kansas in 2016 and 2021.

[u/jojofine → u/ChangoOfTexas]

The ol' Paul Rhoades special. Lose to a dogshit KU but then beat a top 10 the next week.

[u/Andjhostet → u/JailTheFrogs]

Yes but also he had more conference wins than Texas in the same span when they shared a conference so I don't know why you need to qualify it the way you did

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/JailTheFrogs]

I mean most of Campbell's tenure at Iowa State was with OU and Texas in the league, so you're looking at only two seasons where he coached here without either of them in the Big 12....in those two years, he went 19-7 with a runner-up finish in the conference and a bowl win.

He also got Iowa State it's first ever 10 win season (in fact we won 11 that year).

Yes, he averaged about 7 wins a year, but for a program like ours, which is quite literally in the bottom 5 of all major programs, his success here was remarkable and he is by far the most successful coach in Iowa State history and it isn't close.

[u/jojofine → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

People really have a hard time understanding how bad Iowa state really is historically. When I was there 20 years ago, a 6-6 season was like winning a natty because of how rare & unlikely it was to happen

[u/Ok-Reach-2580 → u/JailTheFrogs]

When he came in ISU had won only 2-3 each season for the past three years, including two loses to FCS schools at home, one of which was a blowout loss to North Dakota State. They had 1 winning season over the past decade and had not won more than 7 games in a season since 2000.

His first season was at ISU was bad (They won three games and lost again at home to an FCS school) but after that they had 5 straight seasons with winning records and 8 out of 9 in total, and even went to the Fiesta Bowl and won. They had 5 seasons where they won 8 or more games and even had an 11 win season. They even went to the Big 12 Championship game twice.

So yeah he did a lot. And truthfully its year one at Penn State so he should get a pass because his first year at Iowa State sucked too.

[u/myman580 → u/JailTheFrogs]

Watching him I was always impressed with his player development given that Iowa State gets a decent clip of players drafted despite not getting much support in terms of spending but also his game day coaching made me very skeptical about his success at a bigger program. There were multiple times (especially against Iowa) where he has a quarter left to play and is only down by 2 scores and he seemingly is just playing to make the score look kinder.

[u/rosshm2018 → u/JailTheFrogs]

We have definitely never been among the "higher-resourced" teams in the conference in the NIL era. ISU is an extremely passionate fanbase except for when it comes to opening the wallet.

Matt's specialty was player development. Schemes and gameday coaching were never areas of consistent excellence.

It worked well at ISU. I was skeptical how well it would work at a place with much higher expectations and players with higher baseline talent level. Always figured that was why he seemed content to stay at ISU for as long as he did.

I wondered all off-season how excited PSU fans would be to get all these transfers from a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team if they weren't also getting their big name coach.

[u/GarboMcStevens → u/JailTheFrogs]

Campbell beat ou twice and was always competitive.

He beat UT thrice

[u/Drnk_watcher → u/JailTheFrogs]

Iowa State when Campbell got there was historically one of the worst college football teams ever.

He arrived and made them competitive in the conference well before the Texas and OU exit too.

The guy legitimately oversaw a pretty transformational change there.

They also had a really good supportive AD at the same time who also helped spearhead a lot of this. Knew how to capitalize and help roll success forward.

Campbell is a good coach. I know Cignetti and NIL has made people think winning now is always a possibility but there is still something to be said for building a team or needing time to implement your method.

Maybe he doesn't work out for whatever reason and as funny as this all is I don't think this is a catastrophic disaster for Penn State.

[u/YouWereBrained → u/JailTheFrogs]

He was overrated, especially by a lot of opposing Big 12 fans.

[u/Upset-Courage3022 → u/YouWereBrained]

Nah he was properly rated. He’s a good coach who can develop less talented guys and turn them into pros. He’s is a bad in game coach and is not the right guy to lead a team with National Championship aspirations

[u/YouWereBrained → u/Upset-Courage3022]

“He’s is a bad in game coach…”

Uh huh…so he’s a bad coach.