AMES, Iowa — Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell still has a lot he wants to accomplish with the Cyclones.

That's why Campbell, the 39-year-old rising star who has turned a historically woebegone Iowa State program into one of the nation's fast-rising programs, is coming back for his fourth season with the Cyclones instead of heading to the NFL.

According to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, six NFL teams reached out to Campbell during this most recent NFL hiring cycle. Campbell declined to comment on which teams may have been interested in an interview in Tuesday's interview, but the New York Jets were one team that reportedly had interest. Campbell did not pursue that opening.

The Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals were also among the teams that hired new coaches recently.

Campbell was also reportedly considered to be one of Urban Meyer's top replacement candidates if Ohio State did not hire Ryan Day. Day was eventually hired.

"I am really good at not listening to the outside noise," Campbell said in the Tuesday interview about the interest in him. "I think any people that want to talk about jobs or any of those things, it's a reflection of what the entire staff and program have done. That part's positive but I also know who I am and I know where I want to be and where our staff wants to be."

Campbell's attractiveness to outside employers will not fade anytime soon. His performance in leading Iowa State to winning seasons and back-to-back bowl games is considered one of the more impressive efforts in college football. Iowa State is coming off an 8-5 campaign that saw the Cyclones in the hunt for a spot in the Big 12 Conference title game late in the season.

"Last year was so critical for us to prove that we could sustain success and in a lot of ways continue to grow and get better and I think you saw that happen last year," Campbell said. "And I thought that was critical, especially after having success in Year 2. Could we really not think we were something we weren't and take a step back? And I thought this program did a great of that a year ago. Now it allows us to really dive deep into where do we want to take this? We can this program go? What can it become?"