How good is new Penn State coach Matt Campbell? Here’s how we graded the hire
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New era of Penn State football
Penn State football has its next coach. Read more about Matt Campbell and what he’ll bring to the Nittany Lions.
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Penn State has hired Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as its next head coach, bringing an end to a search that lasted 54 days. So, overall, was the hire a success?
Campbell comes to State College as the most successful head coach in Cyclones history, boasting half of their 8-plus win seasons over the last 100 years. But questions remain about how he will do when expectations are higher and when winning eight games is viewed as a failure.
So how do we grade the hire? Let’s take a look.
Jon Sauber: A-
I know we’re grading the hire, but I can’t give this an A because the process was ... uh ... a little messy. The Nittany Lions and AD Pat Kraft very publicly missed on Kalani Sitake after being connected to Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko before he ultimately chose to stay with the Aggies. Kraft and his staff recovered to make a good hire, but there was some good will lost on their end from the fan base.
The process is important in these situations and could need evaluation moving forward, but there’s no denying the result. Had anyone said on Oct. 12, when James Franklin was fired, that Campbell would be the hire, the vast majority of people would have been high on the move. Campbell is a very good coach who has not had the resources he’s going to have with the Nittany Lions. He should be able to consistently make the College Football Playoff and have the program contending near the top of the Big Ten. It helps, too, that he can bring a whole slew of players with him from Iowa State to get things rolling.
Josh Moyer: A
Ever take a math class in school where you failed to use the correct formula, added wrong — and somehow still ended up with the right answer? That’s the Penn State coaching search. The process is deserving of an F, but the hire itself is an A.
Campbell took a Cyclones team that had eight top-10 wins in its previous 108 tries and got them four more top-10 wins in their next 10 attempts. Maybe no one in college football has done more with less. He’s turned down interviews with NFL teams like the New York Jets, and he’s refused interviews with multiple schools such as Washington. He’s an incredible coach, a loyal coach, and Penn State fans should be over the moon with the hire.
In the end, the coach that no one could get wound up on the team that no one wanted.
Bret Pallotto: C
This feels like a lateral move for Penn State and, if I were in Pat Kraft’s shoes, I’m not sure I’d stake my career on canning James Franklin in favor of Matt Campbell.
To be clear, I think Campbell is a good coach and will do well in Happy Valley. I’m not ignoring his largely unprecedented success at Iowa State and am not blind to the argument that he’ll have better resources and recruiting opportunities at Penn State.
But it’s clear he wasn’t the university’s top choice and that’s not just happenstance. Plus, the move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten is not insignificant. It’s a good hire with room for upside, but I’m not yet sold on it being a grand slam.
This story was originally published December 6, 2025 at 12:49 PM.
