If Urban Meyer leaves Ohio State after this season, one name will sit atop every pundit's candidate list: Iowa State's Matt Campbell. Might Campbell sit atop some NFL lists, too?
Ten years ago, Campbell was a little-known 28-year-old offensive line coach at Bowling Green. The Massillon, Ohio, native took the same job at Toledo in 2009, was elevated to offensive coordinator a year later and replaced Tim Beckman (following Beckman's departure to Illinois ) as head coach after the 2011 season. Four years, 32 wins and two MAC West titles later, he left Toledo for an Iowa State program that had one eight-win season since the 1970s.
While the hire was widely applauded, no one expected Campbell to win eight games in his second season and be flirting with the program's second-ever stretch of back-to-back eight-win seasons. With that success comes rumors and, presumably, interview requests and job offers. If you can win at Iowa State, you win anywhere, right?
What about the NFL?
"Lincoln Riley is the hottest name, right, but Matty [Campbell] is the next one you hear about a lot," a former NFL general manager, who now works with NFL times on hires, told Bleacher Report's Matt Miller. "Everyone you talk to raves about his character, his energy and how his players respond to him."
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Entering Week 10, only the Cleveland Browns — whom pundits have speculated could be interested in a college coach, specifically Riley and/or Campbell — have made a coaching job, though several more jobs will open in the coming weeks.
On Friday, Nov. 9, the same day as Miller's story, USA Today's Dan Wolken published a story on the college football coaching carousel. In it, he mentions Campbell as "another college name that has bounced around the rumor mill for Cleveland," also noting that Matt Rhule, David Shaw, Jim Harbaugh and Brian Kelly could be courted by NFL teams.
For what it's worth, last October, Campbell told fans there's nothing "to worry about" regarding rumors he may leave for bigger jobs. And in August, when mentioned as a potential candidate for Ohio State should Meyer leave, he wouldn't talk about "other football programs."
Is the Matt Campbell NFL buzz real? Will it translate to anything? We'll find out soon.
You can read Wolken's story here and Miller's story here.
