Our long, national nightmare is over. Penn State football has found its head coach.
The Nittany Lions are finalizing an agreement with Iowa State’s Matt Campbell to replace James Franklin, the school announced.
Campbell, 46, has coached the Cyclones for 10 seasons and became the winningest coach in school history with a 72-55 record, including 8-4 in 2025.
Here’s how we grade the hire:
Grade: B+
Penn State took a circuitous route to making a solid hire, if not a home run.
Even after whiffing on Brigham Young’s Kalani Sitake, athletic director Pat Kraft managed to land a proven coach, one who was named the Big 12 coach of the year three times.
Campbell’s name has appeared on candidate lists for prime jobs for many years, but he repeatedly remained loyal to Iowa State. Now, finally, he saw an opportunity good enough to make a move. An Ohio native, the 46-year-old Campbell has spent his entire career in the Midwest. He’ll fit Penn State’s brand.
Campbell departs Iowa State as the best coach in program history, producing a winning record eight times in 10 seasons there. He’s headed to a program with superior resources — and more demanding expectations than Campbell has ever encountered in his career.
Campbell’s resume is not superior to that of the coach Penn State fired, but it always seemed unlikely the Nittany Lions would hire a more accomplished coach than James Franklin.
Campbell’s known more for being a player developer than an ace recruiter. He’ll need to prove he can win blue-chip recruiting battles to get Penn State onto Ohio State’s level, or even to keep it at the level Franklin had Penn State operating at in most seasons before this one.
At Iowa State, Campbell could be counted on to assemble one of the Big 12’s stingiest defenses, year after year. That’ll translate well at Penn State. Can Campbell develop quarterbacks that’ll allow Penn State to stand toe-to-toe with the best Big Ten programs?
As good as Campbell’s Cyclones defenses usually were, his offenses were more middle of the pack or even toward the bottom of the Big 12. Maybe, that’ll elevate with higher-caliber athletes at Penn State. Campbell only ever had one Iowa State quarterback selected in the NFL Draft. That was Brock Purdy, a four-year starter selected in the seventh round in 2022.
An 8-4 season at Iowa State would go down in the good-season column. At Penn State, that won’t cut it anymore. Welcome to the big leagues.
Campbell is a steady hand who now must show he’s ready to perform to the level Penn State demands.