How Matt Campbell Will Face the Familiar 'Big Game' Narrative at Penn State

Penn State coach Matt Campbell earned another endorsement this week from college football analyst Josh Pate, who supported Campbell's candidacy long before it became official last December. Still, Pate acknowledged that Campbell must upgrade Penn State's performance in a critical but often ill-defined category: winning the "big game."

"Once he shows that he's the guy, there will be immense motivation to make sure we put more wind in the sails up there," Pate said on a recent episode of Josh Pate's Football Show. "But he's got to win big games. That's what Penn State didn't do. Everybody knows that's what they didn't do under James Franklin."

Campbell and Penn State are a long way from testing the theory, as the Nittany Lions are about halfway through their first spring practice together. Campbell has more pressing current needs, like assimilating his portal-heavy roster, installing coordinator D'Anton Lynn's new defense and figuring out his quarterback situation.

In discussing Penn State's progress through spring drills, Matt Campbell brought up Duke's loss to UConn and the coaching lessons from that game.

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Yet a time will come (likely Oct. 17, when the Nittany Lions visit Michigan) for Campbell to test his program in a big-game atmosphere. During his head-coaching tenures at Toledo and Iowa State, Campbell went 16-29 against ranked teams and 4-7 vs. top-10 opponents.

By comparision, Franklin famously was 4-21 against top-10 teams at Penn State. The comparisons are superficial, however, since Franklin faced at least one top-10 team annually in Ohio State (against which he was 1-10). Still, the narrative (one that Franklin would like to reset at Virginia Tech) will bleed into Campbell's tenure.

"So if he just goes in there and wins big games, like if they were to go to Michigan ... and win on the road this year, that'd be a big deal," Pate said on his show. "That would be a signature moment that maybe you haven't gotten all that much under James Franklin."

Pate lobbied for Penn State to interview Campbell last fall, even before calling the program's coaching search a "disaster" in December. Penn State was more than 50 days into the search and had just learned that top target Kilani Sitake was staying at BYU.

Pate was on hand in State College when Penn State introduced Campbell, did a long-form interview for his show and continues to be a strong advocate for Campbell's hiring.

"You know I believe that this is the guy they should have gone after immediately," Campbell said on the recent episode of his show. "Matt Campbell was a really good but underrated coach at Iowa State, because you couldn't achieve what you potentially could at Penn State. And I think this is going to sort of turbo-boost his reputatation, not because he's going to change at all. It's going to make him capable of achievling at a little bit higher level."

Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Matt Campbell drops the puck before a hockey game at Beaver Stadium. — Penn State Nittany Lions football head coach Matt Campbell (center) performs the ceremonial puck drop before the Penn State-Michigan State hockey game at Beaver Stadium. | James Lang-Imagn Images

Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft pulled no punches regarding what he expects from Campbell. At the December press conference announcing the hire, Kraft said that Campbell is "built for championships."

"Our fans are the absolute best in the country," Kraft said. "You deserve a team that plays with fire, passion, and purpose. Matt Campbell delivers that. Coach is here to unite this community, energize our locker room, and restore our championship mindset."

Campbell certainly hasn't made those promises personally. Instead, he noted that championships usually are won through failure.

"Our scars are our superpower," Campbell said. "If you're humble enough to grow through success and failure, then you continue to put yourself in position to be the best.

It's when we stop growing that failure starts to seep in. So to me, we've had championship expectations every step of the way. You're talking to the guy that lost one game in four years of college [at Mount Union] and as won five national championships. I don't care what level it is. It's a
fact."

Give him time, Pate said.

"I think the world of Matt Campbell," Pate said. "I think he's going to win there. I think they can compete for a national championship there. Not this year, just in general."

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