Matt Campbell, Mario Cristobal preview the Pop-Tarts Bowl

Q: Coach Campbell, special teams played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the game. How important do you see special teams in the season’s strategy, and what specific impact do you anticipate for tomorrow’s game?

MATT CAMPBELL: You know, I think for us, it’s always been critical. We have to play great team football to be successful, and offensively, defensively and special teams, it’s got to be a huge piece of architecture football program. You’re playing a team that has great special teams and obviously great specialists. Our ability to be able to counter that within the football game and to be able to hold our own, it will be critical for us to have success.

Q: Fans and critics alike, being the way they are, that line of thinking, consider the season for both your teams a disappointment or a failure in regards to the CFP. But how difficult or discouraging is that for you guys when you consider you won ten games, bone teams won ten games?

MARIO CRISTOBAL: I don’t think anything outside of the walls of the program and the people that put in the daily work is — you mentioned the word “disappointment.” For us, if you don’t win every single football game, win every single rep, there’s disappointment in the right kind of way where you build positive anger and you want a better result through process. But in terms of players’ efforts and accomplishments in process, there is no disappointment. For us, as hard as we’ve worked, and mind you, no one wants to win more than the players and the coaches in our respective programs, and no one puts in the amount of time away from family and obligations outside of football. No one puts in more time than what we do. So I think a question like that, it’s almost a little foreign, like almost undigestible. Because those trains of thought don’t creep into our processes, our way of thinking. All we think about is finding ways to get better, doing right by our people, helping those grown men grow and develop and win football games, and continue to make progress in our organization.

MATT CAMPBELL: I would say I chuckle at that comment to be quite honest with you. I mean, think about what I just said, 133 years in our school, and we have never won ten games. We’ve been in two Big 12 Championship games, and you know, the last four years. Nobody even thought that was possible at Iowa State. To say something like that is ridiculous to be quite honest with you. I think for our end of it, we have always talked about in our program is, man, can we get to the end of the season, and really have tried to become the best possible team that we can become, and we’ll define that once the season comes to an end. I think what this team has overcome, and I think Coach would echo this, the adversities you go through for us in a 12-, 13-game season, man, the opportunity to go through it and become your very best, it’s such a great reward. That’s our world that we live in, and it’s awesome to live in it because you’ve got 18- to 22-year-olds that you see just continue to grow as great men. And you know, we’ll leave on Saturday. We’ll have 20 seniors that are going to leave and they are going to go be great fathers, husbands. But the one thing they are going absolutely be able to do is they are going to be great leaders of people because of their experience and what they have been accomplished in the season. And man, the pride that they will be able walk out of that locker room with no matter what the result is on Saturday about what they have been able to do and accomplish at Ames, Iowa, I’m really proud of them.