Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1543434
2 4 M A R C H 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 M att Campbell arrived in State College on a cold December Sunday, just hours after of- ficially accepting the Penn State head coaching job. Since that moment, the new staff has been operating at full speed. Campbell had to quickly assemble his staff, get to know his players, and determine how best to navigate the transfer portal while building the 2026 roster. Now, he and his staff are barreling headlong into 2027 recruiting. In the two months since Campbell was hired, fans have gotten only brief glimpses of his personality and character through select media appearances. They are eager to learn more about Campbell and his position coaches and coordina- tors, but they understand that assistants are often temporary — as evidenced by the sudden loss of receivers coach Noah Pauley, who left for the Green Bay Pack- ers only a few weeks after being hired. The most impactful members of a coaching staff are the ones who stay tied to the head coach for the long haul. Chief among them is the head strength coach, a position typically linked directly to the program's identity and culture. That makes Campbell's choice for the role, Reid Kagy, particularly important. Kagy's origin story begins in a familiar place for many of Campbell's assistants: Mount Union. He played wide receiver at the highly successful Division III pro- gram in 2007 and '08 before transferring to Ohio State. Shortly after graduating in 2012, Kagy interned at Toledo during Campbell's second season as head coach. After several seasons apart, Kagy re- joined Campbell in 2016 when the fu- ture Penn State head coach made his first move to the Power Five level at Iowa State. Kagy joined the Cyclones as an as- sistant strength coach, helping establish Campbell's culture in Ames. From there, Kagy branched out to build his résumé. He spent two seasons at Oregon as an assistant strength coach before heading to Boise State, where he led the strength department and even- tually became the director of sports performance. From there, he rejoined Campbell once again as Iowa State's head strength coach and now arrives at Penn State in a similar role. Along the way, Kagy spoke publicly on several occasions, offering insight into his beliefs, philosophies and approach to training football players. Relationship-Based Doing physically uncomfortable things does not come naturally to hu- man beings. Our bodies and instincts are designed for safety and comfort. If there's an easier way to accomplish a task, we tend to find it. If there's a way to make a process less physically taxing, we often do. Weightlifting and football conditioning run counter to those in- stincts. The discomfort is real. Breathing be- comes labored. Muscles burn. Warn- ing signals fire in the brain. For most people, those signals act as regulators designed to preserve homeostasis, the body's internal equilibrium. The goal of athletic conditioning is to push past those warnings and un- BALANCE OF POWER Reid Kagy brings a nuanced approach to the Lions' strength program T H O M A S F R A N K CA R R | T F R A N K . C A R R @ O N 3 . C O M For the past three years, Kagy served as director of strength and conditioning for the Iowa State football team. He had been an assistant strength coach with the Cyclones from 2016-18, followed by stints at Oregon and Boise State. COURTESY IOWA STATE ATHLETICS