A look back to when Josh Pate asked a very important question of Matt Campbell as he examines his opportunity at Penn State, and Campbell's perfect answer.
Matt Campbell was featured on the Josh Pate Show in early December, right as he accepted the Penn State job.
Now, as the season is finally upon us, it is a good time to look back and know exactly where he is coming from and how he has steadily built this Penn State Program brick by brick.
The question that was posed to Campbell was, in not specific terms, how do you manage to look at and operate a program like Penn State that has everything at your disposal after coming from Iowa State, where you needed to build up everything from scratch.
Campbell's response was incredible. He said, "The sport of football hasn't changed. The world maybe has changed around it, and I think one of the great gifts of having to come up the rough side of the mountain and do it the hard way is you figure out the right way of development, building a locker room and understanding that it is great to have great resources... the reality is it is still about the alignment of the people."
It's a great soundbite from a guy who continues to do it right at every single step of the way.
When he initially got to Penn State, he was able to bring 29 transfers from Iowa State along with him. When he started to reestablish himself on the recruiting trail, he was able to. When he needed to get Spring Ball going and get the team off to a great start, he was able to.
Matt Campbell is the prototypical culture-building head coach. He doesn't take shortcuts, he doesn't mince words, and he fearlessly leads. It's what he knows because it is the only way he has known how to do it.
Whether it is leaning back on his days at Toledo when he had to build that group from scratch or his time at Iowa State when he had to do the same, it has become the only way he knows how to lead a team.
For Penn State going forward into 2026, it is this mindset that is going to propel the Nittany Lions in the good times and will pull them out of any of the tough stretches of the season.
Matt Campbell had to cut his teeth to get where he is today. He learned how to do it all the right way, and he is going to use all of his knowledge on this version of the Nittany Lions.
