Why Penn State's Matt Campbell Avoids Social Media: 'I'm Not Into Branding'

Yes, Penn State football coach Matt Campbell has an X account. It has more than 103,000 followers and an official graphic with the Nittany Lion logo and a rendering of Beaver Stadium.

But Campbell hasn't posted anything on the account since June 2024, before his best season as Iowa State's head coach, and that was a year after his previous post. For those waiting for
Campbell to refresh his account as a hub for Penn State promotion or branding, don't bother.

"Yeah, I'm not into branding," Campbell said in a spring interivew.

Campbell is an outlier in today's college football: the head coach who doesn't play the social-media game. Coaches certainly do so at degrees of scale (from Bill O'Brien to Lane Kiffin), but many at least use tools like X, Instagram to brand themselves and their programs. But Campbell is highly unlikely to rejoin them.

"I think that's not a place for me from a mental standpoint, from a collecting information standpoint, to actually caring what anybody actually says on any of that," Campbell said of social media in general. "None of it really matters from my end of it. I know that's how young people communicate today, and that's great. But that's certainly never been a way that I've used to communicate. And so everything else for me is at leisure, and that's not where I have time for leisure."

Many coaches on social media turn their accounts over to managers to operate them, which James Franklin occasionally said that he did at Penn State. But Campbell said he isn't interested in doing that, either.

"My brand is, how we do anything here is how we do everything," Campbell said. "How do you care about your players? How do you build a team that loves the sport of football and that can be its best when its best is needed? To me, those are things that are public perception. And the reality is, how do you build a process that allows our team and our players to reach our potential?"

'You have to be comfortable' with technology

Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Matt Campbell waves to the crowd during a Big Ten wrestling match against Nebraska. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Still, that doesn't mean Campbell is uncomfortable with technology. After 10 years as the head coach at Iowa State, Campbell is embracing more access to it at Penn State. One tool he and his team have used since arriving at Penn State is the VR tech in the quarterback lab.

By using the virtual reality training aids, Penn State's quarterbacks, led by starter Rocco Becht, were able to throw in a simulated Beaver Stadium environment before actually getting onto the field itself. Campbell wants to take advantage of having more access to these tools at Penn State.

That includes AI tools to help with identifying opponent trends and how Penn State handles the finances of "building a team in today's marketplace."

"You have to be comfortable with that," Campbell said. "You use all those tools as resources but not as finalities, in my opinion. As we go into gameday and try to make decisions or build a roster or break down an opponent, all those things are resources that you have to constantly be evolving and using.

"But I also don't ever think you can waver away from the human element of our sport. Your job is to be the balancing act to make final decisions with all those resources. But I think you would be foolish not to be using those resources or wanting to grow with those resources."

Campbell also has pushed himself to modernize in the game for several years. He and General Manager Derek Hoodjer created their own NIL collective and wrote their own contracts at Iowa State.

"I think the biggest modernization is player acquisition," Campbell said. "How do you build a team in today's world, and how do you value how a roster is built in today's world of college football? ... Teams and humans haven't changed, but how you put them together has changed. It’s just trying to understand that and trying to modernize ourselves with that but not let that ever change the course of how we build a team and how you build a culture internally. Because I still ultimately think that's what matters most."

'If that's old school...'

Before Big Ten Media Days, Penn State coach Matt Campbell took his team on an overnight retreat to a kids camp in western PA.

It’s something he did at Iowa State and served the twin purposes of team bonding and service. pic.twitter.com/8BjdxJ3qM1
— Mark Wogenrich (@MarkWogenrich) July 29, 2026

Campbell might be the first head coach in college football history to downsize his office. This past spring, Campbell had a wall constructed in his office at the Lasch Football Building to create extra meeting-room space, which he thought the facility could use for special teams meetings.

"There was so much space in there, I said, 'Holy smokes, what are we doing here?'" Campbell said. "It’s been great to give those specialists a meeting room, too. That will be great."

In Penn State's team meeting room, Campbell also brought a sign he has hung since coaching at Toledo. It's called the "Nittany Lion Code of Conduct," and it outlines how players should interact with people in the football building. The sign says things like:

I can always be heard saying PLEASE when asking for something.

To politely interrupt, I will say EXCUSE ME.

I can always be heard saying YES SIR, NO SIR, or YES MA'AM, NO MA'AM when talking to my parents, instructors, coaches, advisors, managers, trainers. etc.

The "Nittany Lion Code of Conduct" sign hangs in the team meeting room at Penn State's Lasch Football Building. | Mark Wogenrich | Penn State on SI

Campbell said he introduced the Code of Conduct at Toledo, where he was hired as a 31-year-old head coach. He asked himself, "What do you want this program to be about? What do you want it to stand for bigger than wins and losses?"

The sign has been with him "every step of the way" since. Asked whether that makes him "old school," Campbell smiled.

"Probably," he said. "I don't know what new school and old school are. I would say my greatest mentors are certainly old-school football coaches. And if accountability, detail in how we do anything and the reality of building a foundation on the process to be successful, not the result of being successful, if that's old school, then I would say yes, I'm old school."

Penn State Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell answers questions from the media following practice at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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