Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541990
2 0 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M B efore his Cessna 680A busi- ness jet touched down at the State College Regional Airport on Dec. 7, Matt Campbell had never been to Penn State. Campbell never met Joe Paterno. Never had any ties to the Nittany Lion legend's successors, Bill O'Brien and James Frank- lin. Never coached at Beaver Stadium during his time in the Mid-American Conference or the Big 12. Never had to give Penn State much thought, at least from a competitive standpoint, because his Iowa State Cyclones were one of only five teams in the Power Four conferences that had never played PSU in their entire football history. And yet, when Penn State ended a 54- day search for Franklin's successor by hir- ing the 46-year-old Massillon, Ohio, na- tive after an impressive 10-season tenure in Ames, the collective response of the college football commentariat was, es- sentially, what took you so long? For someone who's not a Penn State guy by any conventional measure, Camp- bell really seems like a Penn State guy. Unassuming but relentlessly competitive. Successful but not boastful. Self-confi- dent but not self-aggrandizing. Campbell used some form of the word "humble" six times at his introductory news conference on Dec. 8 at Beaver Stadium, but he also acknowledged that the program's goals are anything but modest. "I know what I'm inheriting and what my responsibility is," he said. "To link arms with every one of our lettermen, former players, and to unify this football program into the greatest football power in the country, I can't wait for that op- portunity." Campbell teared up at several points when talking about his journey from Di- vision III defensive lineman to the leader of a program that aspires to compete for championships at the sport's highest level. His recruitment by Penn State had been, by his own admission, "a whirl- wind," proceeding rapidly in early De- cember after athletics director Patrick Kraft found his search careening unex- pectedly in a new direction. Campbell had turned down other opportunities to leave Iowa State, but this one was different. While he didn't have to contend with the Nittany Lions as competitive rivals, he did have some PSU connections, having befriended fel- low Ohioan Todd Blackledge and former PSU defensive lineman Matt Millen, who worked a few of Campbell's games at To- ledo as a TV analyst. Campbell also knew another former Iowa State coach — guy by the name of Cael Sanderson — who had left Ames and found some measure of success in State College, albeit not in football. So, it wasn't as though Campbell was unaware of what he was getting himself into. "I know the history of this place," he said. At Iowa State, Campbell was celebrated for doing more with less. He inherited a program that had significant recruiting impediments and fewer resources than many of its Big 12 rivals, and yet he turned it into a contender. The Cyclones went