Grading Matt Campbell to Penn State: Long Search Lands Coach Capable of Top 10 Wins

After 54 days, the Nittany Lions settled on the Iowa State boss who maximizes talent at each stop.

Matt Campbell has maximized the talent on his rosters at each stop he has coached at. / Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Finding a college football coach is more art than science.

Few seem to know this better than Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft, who has seemingly been flicking paint at the canvas in the 54 days since firing James Franklin—but may have found a true Jackson Pollock in the form of Matt Campbell. 

The mainstay at Iowa State was one of, if not the, most successful coaches in school history and led the Cyclones to the Big 12 title game last season. He has been able to find and develop quarterbacks from well off the radar, plays complementary football and is keenly familiar with the part of the country that Penn State has to recruit hard. If you asked opposing Big Ten coaches who they wouldn’t want to see take over in Happy Valley, Campbell likely would be near the top of the list.

Get SI's College Football Newsletter. dark. FREE. SI College Football Newsletter

It may take him and the program awhile to find the right footing after the roster has taken such a big hit, but you can bet Campbell will have Penn State playing its best football late in the season. The Nittany Lions are also capable of losing a few more games that they shouldn’t given their new coach’s history—but they’re also much more apt to pull off some of those big Top 10 wins. That may be a trade-off worth taking in a different age for the sport with massive conferences and an ever-expanding playoff.

It’s not often you stumble into the perfect fit, but Penn State eventually got there to nab Campbell.

What it means for Penn State

Those in State College, Pa., have to take solace in knowing that sometimes the best-laid plans don’t always go as expected, but often schools still wind up with the right guy. Pete Carroll was famously well down the list before USC settled on the NFL coach. Even Florida fans have come around this week on Jon Sumrall after investing way too much time and energy on Lane Kiffin. 

So it should come to be the case with Campbell, who waited until late in the process to interview but looks like the perfect fit as someone who has maximized talent wherever he’s gone and understands how to build a sustainably successful program. If one can win in Ames, Iowa, one can certainly win at a place like Penn State given the resource disparity.

What also can’t be overlooked is that Campbell should also do well with his style being easily translatable. He’s going to be aggressive on defense and run the ball. He’ll also open up the passing attack and won’t mind leaning on quarterbacks who can do a little freelancing with the ball in their hands. 

After spending so much of the past few years seeing the same kind of team and the same kind of storyline play out at Beaver Stadium, that should be a welcome change even if it took a bit longer to lock into.

What it means for Matt Campbell

There were only a handful of college jobs that were going to pry Campbell from Iowa State and that grew increasingly obvious in recent years as he turned down a number of overtures from other programs and flirted instead with a number of NFL franchises. Penn State, with its Midwest-adjacent location, impressive history and incredible resources may have been one of just three places in the sport that the veteran coach would have even considered. 

Now he’s got a clear mandate: win some big ones and get Penn State over the hump. If there’s anyone who has a chance at clearing that bar, it’s going to be someone who took the Cyclones to new heights in school history and regularly pulled a surprise against a higher-ranked team.

There will be some things Campbell will have to deal with in a new role that he’s not accustomed to, which might be the only pause if you’re a blue-and-white supporter. Naturally, that starts with swimming in a higher end of talent and putting many of those terrific evaluation skills to use with an increasing number of four- and five-star players who Penn State would typically get involved with. It also means leaning into creating a roster that maximizes revenue sharing on top of maximizing NIL for players—a must in a world where their peers are regularly fielding expensive teams.

On top of that, there’s the element of simply being in a bigger fishbowl. Campbell is really good in intimate media settings but also hasn’t faced scrutiny in a Big Ten environment. Most handle the increased attention fine, but it’s one of the few unknowns that doesn’t really hit you until you’re dealing with a shocking loss and fans are coming after you.

Still, Penn State checks off every box Campbell would have wanted in moving to a big-time job. It’s in the right location, in a league that’s a step up and it comes with everything he could ask for from the administration. Hard to beat that. 

Final Grade: A

It may have been a meandering search in retrospect to land a guy Penn State should have targeted in the first place. But the Nittany Lions wind up with a great coach who can not only make the program a CFP regular, but one who can pull a few more of those Top 10 upsets that his predecessor could not.

---

More College Football from Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.

feed