Campbell out, Rogers in at ISU

AMES — As it became increasingly likely that Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell would be leaving to accept the Penn State job, the Cyclones’ athletics director, Jamie Pollard, had one simple, but important fast-paced plan to implement.

“When Matt and I talked about it, I just said, ‘Matt, I’ve gotta run a parallel process, because I’ve got a responsibility to the young men in that room and to our fan base, and to Iowa State University,” Pollard said Friday evening after a team meeting.

So while one door closed in the form of Campbell’s wildly successful 10-season ISU tenure, another door quickly opened as Pollard offered Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers the Cyclones’ head coaching job, which he swiftly accepted.

Call it serendipity, but it required hard work performed at lightning speed. Pollard had met Rogers at an event in Austin, Texas, in 2024, and what he told him made a lasting impression.

“The first time I met him, he was already the head coach at South Dakota State and had already won a (FCS) national championship,” Pollard recalled. “He said to me, ‘How do I become the head coach at Iowa State University?’ And I told him, if you want (that) you’re probably gonna need to go one more level before you can get here — and we stayed in contact.”

Rogers, who agreed to a six-year contract with Iowa State, guided the Cougars to a 6-6 record in his lone season in Pullman, Wash., following a successful 12-year run at perennial FCS powerhouse South Dakota State, where he led the Jackrabbits to the 2023 FCS championship and the 2024 FCS semifinals.

Campbell’s departure from Ames comes nearly two months after Penn State fired longtime coach James Franklin midway through his 12th season following an 0-3 start in Big Ten play.

The Nittany Lions began the year ranked No. 2 after advancing to last year’s CFP semifinals. They went 3-3 under interim coach Terry Smith and are currently awaiting a bowl assignment.

Campbell, Iowa State’s all-time winningest coach, went 72-55 for a Cyclone program that was 489-622-45 with just three bowl wins over its 133-year history before his arrival. Campbell’s 10-year tenure in Ames included eight winning seasons, three bowl wins and the program’s only 11-win campaign last year, when Iowa State reached the Big 12 Championship Game for the second time.

Campbell, who was previously the head coach at Toledo for five years before joining the Cyclones, is 107-70 overall as a head coach. He signed a contract extension at Iowa State in August worth $5 million per year until 2032, with a buyout of $2 million.

An Ohio native, Campbell would become Penn State’s 17th full-time coach. He will walk into a somewhat thorny situation where he did not appear to be among the top choices during an unexpectedly lengthy process. Many potential candidates appeared to sign lucrative extensions at their current schools instead.

The Associated Press and Iowa State sports information contributed to this report

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