Penn State HC Matt Campbell Has Request for Players Before Season

In less than three weeks, new Penn State head coach Matt Campbell will coach his first game for the Nittany Lions when the program hosts Marshall on Sept. 5. 

Campbell is coming to PSU after spending nearly a decade at Iowa State, helping turn the Cyclones from a team that used to be at the bottom of the Big 12 into a program that went to the conference championship and beat top 25 teams.

Campbell had winning records at Toledo (35-15) and ISU (72-55). But the job at Penn State will be much harder and more public than anything he dealt with in the MAC or Big 12. 

The new head coach doesn't plan to shoulder all of the responsibility. When speaking to reporters over the weekend, Campbell had a request for his players before the season. He wants to find leaders who can keep the team on track for goals.

“Every great team, whether I was playing or coaching, has been a part of, man, it's been player-led,” Campbell said, via USA Today. “They demanded the standard and the expectation. My job as the coach is really to foster that leadership.” 

"My job is to help guide the leadership of our veteran players and guide the leadership in our program, help teach them how to do these things. I think some of my great failures as a head football coach at times have been when I failed to say we should be better at this; I didn't do a great job teaching it.”

Penn State will have a few weeks for those leaders to gain confidence before the schedule gets tricky. PSU will play Temple and Buffalo after the Marshall contest. The Nittany Lions will host Wisconsin on Sept. 26 to start Big Ten play before traveling to Northwestern on Oct. 2. 

Campbell will need his players to believe in the program when PSU hosts No. 14 USC on Oct. 10. That contest will be telling about where the Nittany Lions are this season. If some leaders step up and get the roster to believe, it could be a special season for Penn State.