Where Penn State's Matt Campbell Ranks Among College Football Coaches

Former Penn State star Matt Millen said in December that the Nittany Lions hit a "grand slam" when they hired Matt Campbell from Iowa State. Campbell continues to maintain a positive national profile, though the expectations will be higher at Penn State.

CBS Sports recently released its 11th annual rankings of the top 25 head coaches in college football. Campbell, who became a veteran of the list at Iowa State, slots solidly on the list in his first season at Penn State.

CBS ranked Campbell 16th among FBS college football coaches and fifth among the eight Big Ten coaches on the list. Campbell ranks ahead of USC's Lincoln Riley (17), Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (20) and Illinois' Bret Bielema (25) and behind Indiana's Curt Cignetti (1), Ohio State's Ryan Day (3), Oregon's Dan Lanning (5) and Michigan's Kyle Whittingham (10).

Interestingly, Campbell also ranks behind the coach he replaced (Virginia Tech's James Franklin at 13) and the coach who almost got the job ahead of him (BYU's Kalani Sitake at 12).

Campbell seems properly slotted at No. 16, though Ferentz might have an argument about being ranked behind him. Ferentz's career winning percentage (.625 over 27 seasons) is comparable to Campbell's over his 15 years as a head coach (.605) and better than Campbell's at Iowa State (.567). Different circumstances sure, but noteworthy.

Campbell actually fell six spots in CBS' annual preseason ranking. He ranked 10th last year following Iowa State's 11-win 2024 season, the best in program history.

"It'll be interesting to see how Campbell is viewed by our voters going forward," CBS' Tom Fornelli wrote. "For years, he received plenty of credit for his ability to punch up and play the underdog role at Iowa State. Now he's at the helm of a Penn State program that wants to compete for Big Ten and national titles. An 11-3 record at Iowa State was viewed as an incredible achievement. At Penn
State, it's just another season."

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Matt Campbell watches the action during the Blue-White Spring game at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Thus the difficult of transferring Campbell's ranking from Iowa State to Penn State. He's competing with what Athletic Director Pat Kraft called "elite" resources that dwarf what Campbell received at Iowa State.

Campbell acknowledged the financial differences before the season. Asked how much more money he'll have available at Penn State than Iowa State, Campbell said, "All of it."

"There was never an opportunity or never a chance during our time at Iowa State where we financially had the ability to compete with who we were going against," Campbell said. "So you had to win at all the other things. And I’m glad we did, because the reality is, that still wins all the other things. You just get lost in the sauce of the financial numbers of it, but all the other things still matter the most."

Circling back, that's why Millen believes Campbell will be successful at Penn State.

"I think he'll do really well," Millen said. "He'll get his kind of kids. Some of those kids are already up there. The kinds of kids he likes, to me from watching his games, are smart, tough kids. He's not the first coach who likes that type of kid, but he'll have more access to the type of kid he likes [at Penn State] than he has had. He's also going to have a budget that he's never had."

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