Following his opening statement addressing the situation at Ohio State, Cyclone head football coach Matt Campbell spoke to the media about the first day of fall camp, position competitions and more. 

Here are some of the notes that may have slipped under the radar from Friday’s presser.

‘No distractions’

The Iowa State football team is staying together in a hotel during fall camp this season, and Matt Campbell said Friday that it’s the one time during the year that the players have zero distractions. 

“Even in the summer, you’ve got summer school and you’ve got a lot of other things going on,” Campbell said. 

Campbell said that one of his favorite parts of the fall camp is choosing which players room together during their two-and-a-half week stay. One of the main parts of the next three weeks will be helping the team bond and grow in their understanding of each other, he said.

“To me, I think it’s just guys getting to know different guys,” Campbell said of the camp.

Campbell also added that he feels lucky to have had the level of leadership on the team that he has now from the start of his tenure at Iowa State. 

Special teams battles

Campbell called the battle for starting kicker “a big battle.”

Chris Francis, the kickoff specialist for the Cyclones last season, is in a competition with freshman incoming kicker Brayden Narveson for the starting kicker job, a position of need after the graduation of Garrett Owens. 

Campbell said that Francis has a very strong leg, but that the team is looking for him to show some more consistency. He said the team was impressed with Francis in the spring, but that he has “heavy competition” in Narveson.

Narveson is the hotshot, a true freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz., who arrived at Iowa State a semester early and impressed in spring ball as well. 

Campbell said that they really like both guys, but that neither player has really pulled ahead of the other. 

This is likely a camp battle that could go into the regular season.

As far as punting is concerned, Campbell said redshirt sophomore punter Corey Dunn is the No. 1 guy as of Friday. 

Campbell honest with players and recruits when asking about his job status

Campbell is doing his best to calm the noise around the program over the Ohio State situation, and he said Friday that it’s not any different than it’s been since he took the job at Toledo in 2010. 

When asked if he has addressed situations like this with his players, Campbell said that he has an “open-door policy” with his players for anything and everything, saying it would be “naive” not to discuss outside noise with his football team and quell worries about his job status. 

Campbell added that it’s one of the most common questions he gets asked by recruits and their parents as well. 

“That’s the number one question every parent asked,” Campbell said. “It is what it is, it’s one of those situations that are uncontrollable.”

Campbell didn’t say whether he thought it was a compliment or a nuisance, only saying, “It’s life, you deal with it.”