The Penn State Nittany Lions have landed a rather striking assessment for their decision to hire Matt Campbell as their new head coach.
The Penn State Nittany Lions were probably the most disappointing team in the country this season, going 6-6 in spite of entering the campaign with national championship aspirations.
Penn State lost starting quarterback Drew Allar midway through the year due to a season-ending ankle injury and also fired head coach James Franklin after 12-plus years with the program, deciding to enter into a new era in Happy Valley.
The Nittany Lions ultimately hired former Iowa State Cyclones coach Matt Campbell to replace Franklin, a move that has widely been viewed as a slam dunk by the team.
ESPN's Bill Connelly certainly agrees with that sentiment and has given Penn State an "A" grade for its decision to bring in Campbell.
“When Campbell took over at Iowa State in 2016, the Cyclones had just two ranked finishes ever, none higher than 19th,” Connelly wrote. “He engineered a No. 9 finish in 2020 and a No. 15 showing in 2024, succeeding enough that going 8–4 in 2025 almost seemed disappointing."
Campbell definitely brought Iowa State out of the doldrums and put it on the map as a very respectable football program.
Penn State Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell. Credit: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images."He posted eight winning seasons in nine years after ISU had just seven between 1981 and 2016," Connelly added. "The problem for almost anyone Penn State hired was going to be that he wouldn’t have a résumé that stacked up to the guy it just fired (Franklin). Campbell comes about as close as one can get.”
Campbell went 72-55 overall at Iowa State, with his most successful campaign coming in 2024 when he led the Cyclones to an 11-3 mark and a win over Miami in the Pop Tarts Bowl.
Prior to coaching Iowa State, Campbell spent five seasons at Toledo, where he went 35-15 and captured a pair of bowl victories.
While Franklin definitely put together a strong 104-45 record at Penn State, his inability to win big games and his struggles against top Big Ten opponents were routinely held against him, and deservedly so.
Can Campbell be the man to reverse that trend for the Nittany Lions? It remains to be seen, but he already seems to be making a strong impression at Happy Valley.