Matt Campbell Says His Goal Isn't Winning Football Games, Despite the Fact He's Paid $4 Million a Year to Do Just That

I lived through five seasons of Butch Jones rambling his way through every nonsensical platitude he could possibly conjure up, so it especially hurts my heart when I have to watch another fanbase go through something similar.

Iowa State entered this season ranked No. 5 in the preseason AP Top 25 and a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. Now at 6-4 and unlikely to be able to reach the Big 12 Championship Game, Matt Campbell says winning — particularly winning the Big 12 — was never actually his goal to begin with. He just wants all of his players to go out and try their best and then sing Kumbaya together in the locker room afterwards.

"Not me. (Winning the Big 12) was never my goal," Campbell said. "My goal has always been one thing and that's to become the best version of ourselves we can become. You've never heard me say that word once, you've only heard me talk about becoming the best version of yourself you can be."

It's one thing to be saying this kind of shit when Breece Hall is carrying you on his back to the best season in school history, but when you've gone from a Playoff contender to unranked in a matter of 11 weeks, maybe just throw your fans a bone and say this season hasn't exactly gone the way you wanted it to.

I feel for people who have to go through anything close to what I did in listening to a coach say he recruited "five-star hearts" and that his players won the most important championship of all, the "championship of life." I am sorry, Iowa State fans.