CHEEZ-IT BOWL: CLEMSON VS IOWA STATE

December 29, 2021

Matt Campbell

Greg Eisworth

Camping World Stadium

Iowa State Cyclones

Press Conference

Clemson 20, Iowa State 13

MATT CAMPBELL: First and foremost, a lot of credit to Coach Swinney and their football team. It was a great win for them and certainly for Coach, in his career, getting his 150th win. So, [I'm] really happy for him.

I will say this about our team, though: Who we are and what we are about, what we stand for, I couldn't be prouder. You know, I know we didn't make a couple plays to finish what we wanted to do off, but how our kids played -- we were without some key football players, and the guts of our kids to fight, even down 20-3, and to have a chance to go win in the last drive, I think it says everything about our team and what this program is about.

We came up short a couple times this year, and I think we'll continue to take the lessons we've learned and obviously grow from it. But who we are, where we are, and what we are about right now, I'm really proud of.

Q. What can you say for your defense? Their highest scoring player is their kicker overall. Talk about the defense, what you feel like they did well this evening.

MATT CAMPBELL: I think certainly situationally we were able to do a great job obviously from our end of it. We knew we wanted to play a style of game to allow our defense to kind of give us the best opportunity to win the football game, and I think collectively -- offensively, defensively and special teams -- we played to our strength tonight.

Our defense really gave us every opportunity to be where we wanted to be and when we wanted to be there in the football game, and hats off to our kids on that side of the ball. Really hats off to all of all of our kids because we played the style of football game we needed to play to be able win the game.

Q. I wanted to ask about Brock and what you said to him maybe after the game immediately, and how do you encapsulate his career and what he's meant to the program?

MATT CAMPBELL: Yeah, for me, a result does not dictate what Brock Purdy has done for Iowa State Football. I think Brock -- again, there's a lot of plays he did make out there today that were huge for our team to get back in the football game. I think from Brock's standpoint, there's no greater competitor that I've been around that wanted a result to be different than it was.

But for Brock as I said two days ago, it's thank you; thank you for all you've done; thank you for how you've led, and thank you for giving belief to this football program that has not been there for a long time.

Q. Their defense has done tonight what they did all year long. Seeing it up close, what made life so difficult offensively against that defense?

MATT CAMPBELL: Yeah, to be honest with you, and give a lot of credit to them on defense, I didn't feel like, you know, we were so out of rhythm at times. I felt like we were able to do some things that we wanted to do against them defensively. I think when you look at it, some of the precision and detail on that side of the ball was maybe a hair off when we needed it.

I'll be honest with you, I thought our young offensive lineman was great, Tyler Miller, his first start of his career, I thought played well. Trevor Downing I thought played exceptional at center. To be honest with you -- Jaylin Noel, best game of his career. Great to see Sean Shaw play.

So a lot of guys, young guys that we're going to need to see step up and have great careers moving forward, I thought against an elite defense, it was really fun to watch those guys go compete.

Q. (Indiscernible) the situation tonight?

MATT CAMPBELL: I think Mike is just trying to get back to full health, and he wasn't there yet. The situation for Michael was the best interest for him to kind of get himself back to full strength as he's got some opportunities coming down the road.

Q. Greg, Iowa State was a few plays from beating the most blue blood Iowa State program it's ever faced. What has enabled Iowa State to come this far from the day you got here, for example?

GREG EISWORTH II: Yeah, you know, I think it speaks volumes on this program and the trajectory we're going. You know, we earned our way here. That's what I told those guys in there, and I'm proud of y'all and be proud to wear the Iowa State logo, because for a while, some people weren't that proud to wear the logo.

And we've put ourselves in these situations, and we're going to be here for a long time. And I'm forever thankful for those guys and the season and the life lessons I've learned through this journey, wins and losses.

This game will live in my head the rest of my life, and that will be something that I'm forever grateful for, because there's lessons from that. There's lessons to be learned in all of this, and that's the great thing about college football. And that's the great thing about being surrounded by coaches and players that love and care about each other. You know they always have your back.

Q. All season you've talked about the senior class taking every moment to enjoy this last year together. When you get a chance to reflect on it, what will stand out most about this group and as you transition into January?

MATT CAMPBELL: Yeah, I think what this group will forever be remembered for in my mind is -- really, I know I talked a lot about it after the last game against TCU, but simply put, every time that we and everybody expected us to fall, our seniors stood and they led. Every time that it would have been easy for them to build a wall and kind of isolate themselves and say, 'You know what, it's about me,' they built a bridge and they said, 'Man, how do I reach back and help guide the future of this program?'

And to me, you know, I think one of the great lessons that we've learned from this group is that life is about the crossroads. And when the crossroads of life come your way, you can either run from it or you can run into it and never back down.

And to me, the lessons that they have left over the last four to five years are as powerful as anything I've ever been -- it's changed and helped guide my own life and what my purpose is, and quite honestly, it's inspired the future of our football program.

There's a lot of you guys in here that understood in the past what Iowa State stood for. Greg is right, there is a lot of people when I got there that were embarrassed to wear an Iowa State shirt and an Iowa State hat around, and now it's a sense of pride. Now we are coming.

We are not perfect and it's not going to be easy and it's going to keep getting harder, but this group's taught us to stay the course. This group's taught to us believe, and they showed us what it's going to take to get it done. And what it's going to take isn't easy, but you'd better be willing to stay the course to get it done. We are appreciative of each and every one of them.

Q. What do you think the story of the 2021 season is?

MATT CAMPBELL: Yeah, you know, I think you guys will probably write that story, I'm sure, however you want to write it. At the end of the day, you can write whatever you want.

In my mind it's all about what we believe in our locker room and what we saw. Now, if we are going to be honest about results, we fell short, and those are things that's my responsibility and our staff's responsibility to continue to dig deep and close some of those small margins that existed. What are you talking, maybe five losses that all ended on the last possession of a football game?

And so I think it's easy, you can go down any wormhole you maybe want to try to go down, or you look at the reality of where we are and what it's going to take, and I think what it's going to take is we have always lived in the margins here.

What this season taught us is exactly who we are. What we have to do is we have to win with detail. We have to win with precision. We are going to play a lot of really close football games. And I've always said in football, it's not about luck. You create your own luck in our sport. And creating that is in precision and detail. And we've got to be better there, and that starts with the head football coach.

Q. You had three offensive players play really key positions stepping in, Jaylin Noel, Jirehl Brock and then Miller at left tackle. How do you think they performed, and can those three in particular form a nucleus for you going forward?

MATT CAMPBELL: From my end, this last three to four weeks for us in our program, and maybe Randy had asked us two days ago about, 'What was the Bowl experience, what were you trying to get out of it?' And for us this has been a new stepping stone in my opinion.

Downing moved to center with his natural position. I think what we saw is we got some guys to where we wanted them to be. We got some guys with incredible experience. When you have X coming back and then Jaylin playing the way we played, Sean Shaw coming off of surgery midway through the season, getting him back, all of those things really positive from an offensive standpoint.

We think Tyler Miller has got a chance to be exceptional to go against -- play those two defensive ends and against that defensive front and really play a pretty good football game, I think those things are really exciting.

I think on the flipside you see O'Rien Vance; we have really good feeling the O'Rien is going to come back for another year, which is huge for us, and Will McDonald.

We are not going away. We are strengthening. And I think one of the ways we were able to strengthen ourselves was to really use the last three to four weeks, get ourselves aligned and get ourselves ready to continue to come back in January and really push ourselves forward. I think we were able to make some positive moves and really gain some great experience tonight in some positive ways as well.

Q. Did you or any of the other leaders on the defense say anything when it was 20-6 and say, 'Guys, we are still in this; we make some plays, get back in it?' What was that message?

GREG EISWORTH II: Yeah, it was keep fighting, and that's all we know how to do. We've been in that situation before, and that's kind of where we thrive. We knew a lot of it was some of our mistakes. We knew how to correct them. It was just keep playing, keep fighting and let the chips fall where they may.

Q. You talked a lot about the young guys offensively, but you started two freshmen tonight. Can you talk about that side of the ball and the youth there?

MATT CAMPBELL: On defense, yeah, I think Beau Freyler -- and Greg can talk a lot about those guys because Greg has really been the mentor to both of those young guys at the safety position, to be quite honest with you. Craig McDonald has had a great season, really over the last six weeks I think has really come on and played great football for us.

Beau Freyler is an All-Conference Big 12 football player, a true freshman. I think he's got a special upside as maybe a young guy that we've had in our program that's come in here, and what he's done for us has been nothing short of exceptional. You look at that defensive front, a lot of young guys getting really valuable experience, continue to play well.

J.R. Singleton, who really started the season off well for us, had knee surgery, we lost him for a little while, but for him to come back and play his best game of the season against a really good football team, I think we are really excited about what the future holds on the defensive side as well with these young freshmen.