Inside Matt Campbell's Move to Penn State, as Told by His Former Iowa State Cyclones

STATE COLLEGE | The Iowa State players heard rumors for years about Matt Campbell, their head coach, leaving for other jobs. Campbell was a sought-after target during his tenure in Ames, becoming a serious candidate for head-coaching positions with the Detroit Lions and USC.

So on Dec. 5, as reports flew that Campbell and Penn State were closing in on a deal, then-Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht thought it was all a big “publicity stunt.”

“I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen,” said Becht, who followed Campbell to Penn State. “... He's been offered by Texas, USC, the Lions, in the past 10 years that he's been at Iowa State, and he's turned them all down. That just goes to the fact [of] how great of a guy he is, how much he cares about a program that he's at. So, when he took the shot, yeah, everybody was shocked. But we all knew the reasons why he took it, and so we weren't mad at him at all.”

“Every year at Iowa State, there were rumors that Campbell was leaving,” added new Penn State wide receiver Brett Eskildsen. “So it was kind of like, ‘It’s whatever,’ [to] the rumors. And then, it started becoming more and more and more like we had ever seen. So, we were like, ‘All right, is this real?’”

'The whole day was crazy'

Penn State opened Beaver Stadium today for interviews with more than 30 players, including transfers and returnees.

QB Rocco Becht discussed the “change in the locker room” over the past 2 months. pic.twitter.com/AVzYCNJsXU
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) February 25, 2026

The rumors, speculation and ultimate move by Campbell made for a hectic 24 hours at Iowa State, including for the 24 former Cyclones now stationed in State College with him. It was a rollercoaster day filled with emotions, and a period that made players do things they don’t typically do. During a recent media event at Penn State's Beaver Stadium, several of those former Cyclones recalled the process.

Offensive lineman Trevor Buhr, who said that he doesn’t go on social media, was on X “constantly” scrolling through posts looking for anything about the situation.

Safety Marcus Neal Jr. said he was playing video games with teammates, talking about what might happen, asking, “Hey, y’all see this?” The team group chat was going “crazy."

“The whole day was crazy,” Neal said. “So first, it started the night before. We’re just seeing things on Twitter and stuff, but nothing was official. And then we saw [people] posting stuff earlier that day about that he's leaving, but nothing was confirmed yet. So, then we get a text, it's like five o'clock, that he wanted to see us, talk to us at seven. It was somewhere around that time.

“So everybody's there, and we're going into it, like, ‘It's either he's staying or he's leaving.’ It's kind of crazy. Because the players, we kind of joked about it. Like, ‘Hey, what do you think he's gonna do?’ Joking, like, we don't really know. We don’t think he's gonna leave.”

Then they went to the meeting.

A 'paralyzingly hard' decision

Penn State Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell is announced at a press conference at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Neal said that once Campbell announced his decision to become the next head coach at Penn State in his 7 p.m. team meeting, the entire mood changed completely. Tight end Gabe Burkle said it became “super sad,” while Eskildsen said it was “emotional.”

“Yeah, in the same meeting, we found out that we were getting a new coach too, so it was pretty tough on us,” Eskildsen said. “... I don’t know if [Campbell] slept that night. … I think the dude was probably there until 6 or 7 a.m.”

Penn State introduced Campbell at a press conference three days later in State College, after which the coach talked about that last night with his team.

"I don’t even know if I could put on a scale how hard it was," Campbell said. "It was really hard, at times paralyzingly hard, to make the decision. You’ll find out that there’s nothing more important than my word and relationships. I felt like there was a part of me maybe not following through with my word with the young men who came to play for us and stayed to play for us.

"When I told them Friday night, … I didn’t leave until 2 in the morning, and every young man came into my office and thanked me. That’s when I knew it was the right decision: 'Coach, you had to take it. You had to do this.' That gave me the courage to say, I made the right decision."

The players' turn to to decide

Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell celebrates with quarterback Rocco Becht after defeating West Virginia. — Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell celebrates with quarterback Rocco Becht after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

Many players described that Friday as a whirlwind, which might be understating it. Players went from not believing Campbell was leaving Iowa State at 6:59 p.m. to having a 1-on-1 conversation with him in his office just hours later about their futures. Some players who began the day as Cyclones ended it expecting to be Nittany Lions.

Neal was one of them. He said he went to Campbell’s office quickly after the team meeting, and Campbell asked whether he was open to transferring.

“He just kind of told me why he had to do it,” Neal said. “And he kind of [asked] me, like, ‘Am I coming with him?’ I was asking questions already about who's going to be the DC [defensive coordinator] and stuff like that.”

Beyond Neal, Eskildsen said he didn’t need convincing to transfer to Penn State, saying that “those are the dreams I had as a kid,” of playing for the Nittany Lions.

Defensive back Jeremiah Cooper, who’s coming off a knee injury, also said he intended to join Campbell at Penn State. “It was always coach Campbell and his staff,” he said.

“I always believed in what he was doing, whatever program he was in,” Cooper said. “That’s something I always wanted to be a part of — so that’s why I came here.”

Burkle, on the other hand, needed a few days to think. The tight end, whose 2025 season also ended because of a knee injury, said Campbell let him know that he would have a spot at Penn State.

As for how Campbell and the staff pulled off the mass transfer of 24 former Iowa State players, Becht certainly played a part. Tight end Benjamin Brahmer became the first Cyclone to commit to Penn State on Jan. 3. Becht followed a day later and said he wanted a lot of his teammates to transfer to Penn State.

“I think I was a big part of just communicating with the guys, ‘Hey, this is kind of the best decision for me, this is why it could be the best decision for you,’” Becht said. “It's not like I was forcing them to come. I was just kind of giving them the layout of the land. And ultimately, they decided to make their own decision and commit here as well.

“And so I'm just excited to have those guys that I've been able to play with in the past with me again as well to help create those new relationships that we've been able to build with the new Penn State players.”

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