Penn State head coach Matt Campbell landed right in the middle of the Big Ten Coach Rankings - is that fair or foul?
In an effort not to get swept up in all of the excitement that has surrounded the Penn State program since Matt Campbell took over, On3 ranked the Big Ten coaches from top to bottom heading into the 2026 year.
The list is obviously super top-heavy with some of the elite coaches of the game. The middle to bottom is a fight between a bunch of guys who are very similar to each other. The final tier of guys do feel like they are on the hot seat entering the 2026 season.
All of that is beside the point because Penn State head coach Matt Campbell fell directly in the middle of the list as he was ranked as the No. 9 head coach in the Big Ten.
This does seem like a true "wait and see" ranking because while I do believe that Campbell has proved that he is definitely a solid coach, his time at Iowa State is truly a mixed bag.
His good years there were fine, his bad years were bad, and all of the ones in the middle were very average.
In his 10 years at Iowa State, he had one season with double-digit victories. That was in 2024 when the Cyclones went 11-4 and had just barely missed out on the playoffs with a 10-3 regular season record.
His overall record at Iowa State was a modest 72-55. As the saying in football goes, you are what your record says you are, and for Campbell, he has been an above-average coach for the last ten seasons.
When put in that context, a ranking of nine in the Big Ten is actually solid.
The top of the conference is obvious: Cignetti, Day, and Lanning are the very clear tier one. Tier two is book-ended by Kyle Wittingham at No. 4, and Campbell at No. 9. In between those two are Kirk Ferentz, Lincoln Riley, Bret Bielema, and Jed Fisch. Tier three is Matt Rhule through Bob Chesney at UCLA, and then spots 14 through 18 are is the hot seat tier.
For Campbell, this isn't, in my opinion, a sign of disrespect. If he wins a bunch at Penn State, he will catapult to the top of that list. If he doesn't, he will fall like a rock to the bottom of it.
Nine is good for now. Now, he has to go and prove it.
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