Penn State's Matt Campbell Can't Disregard Expectations That Got an Otherwise Successful Coach Fired

While you, the Penn State football fan, might still be getting over last Saturday’s loss to Wisconsin and the possible realization that this team does not appear to be on the verge of anything particularly special, it does serve as an interesting early test for Matt Campbell. How does he handle things when times aren’t great?

Because let’s face it. Matt Campbell might end up being the best coach in America and might help Penn State win a national title, but until that happens there are going to be trying moments. And how Campbell handles those moments will play no small part in how long he gets to try to overcome them.

So let’s start with breaking down his answer to a question this week that was effectively, “What’s your message to the team?”

'It's not always about the result'

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Matt Campbell looks on from the sideline against the Wisconsin Badgers at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“I think it's a great question, and at the end of the day, it comes back to this theme: Everything rises and falls with leadership. To me it takes accountability. We understand that it's a 12-game season guaranteed to us, and the reality is you have to — whether you win or you lose, you have to continue to be able to grow forward.”

Okay, fair. Teams have to be able to forge ahead. James Franklin did a good job of winning games but not always a great job of picking up the pieces after losses. Campbell recognizes that the season is long and you have to be able to move forward with what lies in front of you.

When push comes to shove, the world is going to keep moving, and you’ve got to find a way to get up off the mat and keep fighting. If you don’t, it can make a bad thing even worse.

“I think that there's plenty of great experiences over the last five years of teams that lost early, had the ability to use that loss, and have the opportunity to grow itself forward. That's the reality of the world we live in.”

Okay, fair again. It is true that losing isn’t objectively the end of the world. Penn State started the 2016 season 2-2, won the Big Ten and barely missed the four-team playoff.

In 2024 Ohio State lost to Michigan and Oregon and still won the national title. Losing early in the year is not ideal, but Campbell isn’t wrong to say the story isn’t over. There are a lot of games left, and Penn State could win the rest of them. If nothing else, the Nittany Lions won’t win if they think they can’t.

"We left it to chance," Penn State coach Matt Campbell said Tuesday when asked about potential pass interference on Wisconsin's game-winning touchdown.

🎥Penn State Athletics pic.twitter.com/ozfMe7QQvL
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) September 29, 2026

“So win, loss, it's not always about the result. It's about who we are becoming through this journey so we can learn from our mistakes and not make the same mistakes twice.”

Woof.

If you squint, you can make out the point Campbell wants to drive home here. It’s some version of, “being the best team we can be by the end of the year.”

It’s true that not everyone is just going to pull a national title out of a hat. Some teams are not that good, and no amount of wishing that wasn’t the case is going to change this fact. So at the end of the day, the best thing you can hope for is that your favorite team plays as well as it reasonably could. Whatever happens after that is what it is.

But it’s just such a hard sell to say it’s not always about the result. Because it is. For better or worse, Penn State is a results-based business. In fact, it is quite literally a business that derives its primary source of income from the ability to win games.

It’s a business that has to put butts in seats, sell TV contracts, land apparel deals and generate national relevance both athletically and academically. Football is the front porch to all of that.

'We've got to own it'

Penn State coach Matt Campbell was asked by @PSUPoorman how me might address fans about the loss to Wisconsin.

"Everybody in this facility has absolute belief in who we are and where we’ve got the ability to go."

🎥Penn State Athletics pic.twitter.com/lWsPjdZ93t
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) September 30, 2026

Penn State fans might have an inflated sense of exceptionalism, but there’s too much money, too many stakeholders and too many successful seasons to set the bar at trying real hard. I don’t think the most reasonable of Penn State fans expect Penn State to go undefeated and beat Ohio State,

Michigan and Oregon every year and never have a down season. But they do expect the head coach to talk like the bar is set high. For whatever flaws you might ascribe to James Franklin, that was a point he always understood.

“There is a culture of winning here,” Franklin said in 2014. “It’s been here for a long time, and embrace that. That’s one of the reasons why we want to be here and why we were so excited about coming to Penn State.”

“We are one of the few programs in the country who can win 10-11 games, and people aren’t happy,” Franklin said again in 2024. “So we embrace that.”

Back to Campbell.

“That's really my belief system and really kind of been our messaging in our locker room and certainly in our meetings. We have to take it. We've got to own it. Starting from the head football coach down, we've got to make the great corrections so we can play a better version of Penn State football next week.”

People have questioned whether or not Campbell understands the job. I don’t think that’s the case. You don’t take the Penn State job thinking that Iowa State’s standards are going to fit the bill. You don’t get paid millions of dollars to just kind of give it a go.

That said, if Campbell is going to try to be the Xs and Os coach where Franklin wasn’t, he’ll still need to hone the messaging side of things. Because the irony in all of this is that Campbell isn’t exactly wrong.

If Penn State plays as well as it can and still can’t win, then it is what it is. But if Campbell’s first message after his first loss at Penn State is going to gloss over the expectations that got an otherwise successful coach fired, it could be a long fall for everyone.

And it’s awfully early for the preacher to lose the choir.

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