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Iowa State football notes: Matt Campbell expects Cyclones to be resilient
By Ben Visser, correspondent
Nov. 6, 2017 6:05 pm
AMES – Iowa State is coming off of a loss for the first time in over a month. Iowa State had a perfect month of October, but its first game in November against West Virginia resulted in a 20-16 loss.
Coach Matt Campbell expects his team to bounce back just fine and pointed to the West Virginia game itself to prove his team wasn't going to get down on itself.
'It was irrelevant, the scoreboard said what it said but if you keep playing and you keep fighting and you understand what's not going well, how do you fix it and then fix it, that's college football,” Campbell said.
It's the same thing for the rest of the season. To Campbell's team, it doesn't really matter if it's 6-3 and 4-2 in the Big 12, he just wants his team to work and the results will come.
'The teams that can do that and can sustain and keep getting better, they're the ones at the end of it, you can say, ‘Did you reach your full potential?'” Campbell said. 'That's our mission. At the end of all of this, did we reach our full potential? These kids keep grinding away and I really appreciate that. I expected nothing less, they were really good yesterday.”
Injury update
Iowa State's offensive line has been banged up in recent weeks. Against TCU, Bryce Meeker suffered a knee injury and against West Virginia Josh Knipfel suffered an ankle injury.
Meeker didn't tear his ACL and Campbell hopes to have him back for the end of the season, he just doesn't know when that will be.
Knipfel went back into the game against West Virginia after a defensive lineman rolled up his leg. Campbell said he should be fine going forward.
'Josh was able to move around pretty good yesterday,” Campbell said. 'Josh is a really tough young man. I think you'd almost have to cut his ankle off for him not to play. He's one of those guys. I'll know better by Tuesday or Wednesday but he was at least moving around decently yesterday.”
Ready to step up
True freshman offensive lineman Jacob Bolton found his name on Iowa State's two-deep Monday because of the recent injuries on the line.
Campbell would like to keep him redshirted but knows he might not have that option.
'Jacob's really talented,” Campbell said. 'He's one of the guys that we've thought, coming into it, was a high-end talent. I think his maturity over the last 6-8 weeks of getting better and really taking the redshirt freshman year and growing.”
Campbell credits the growth to Bolton's mindset. In Bolton's mind, he's not just a scout team lineman, he's using his redshirt year to improve and get ready for this year – or be ready for the end of this year, now.
'I give credit to Jacob for being mature enough to come in every day and improve,” Campbell said. 'He's earned the right to be the No. 2 right tackle.”
It's exciting for Campbell to see Bolton and other young linemen like Sean Foster to develop.
'I'm happy for him and really happy with how Sean Foster played on Saturday,” Campbell said. 'I thought he was at his best, which was great to see. I'm excited about his future and it's nice to have some options – we certainly didn't have many of those a year ago. We continue to refill and build that depth of the offensive line – it's not only critical now, but certainly going into the future.”
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Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell fist bumps offensive lineman Robby Garcia (63) before the game at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)