Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545675
A U G U S T 2 0 2 6 2 7 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T H E B I G P I C T U R E / / / / / / / brief pause in May to assess what had been built. And then it was back to work. As of late June, players were grinding through summer workouts while coaches were tailoring their plans to fit a new-look roster in anticipation of preseason camp in August. Before practice starts up again, Campbell offered his perspective on the progress that's already been made — and the work still to come. The conver- sation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. BWI You mentioned in a recent inter- view that you felt the time was right to go from Iowa State to Penn State. The way college foot- ba l l h a s evo lve d , ca n a coa c h s tay in one place for an extended period of time? CAMPBELL I think it's getting harder. I don't know if I've ever thought about that. I really loved my time at Iowa State, and I always said that to move on, it had to be a place where you really felt you could go make a difference and you were aligned with what you thought a place stood for and was about. I went totally blind into Iowa State. I love what we did there, what we stood for, and what we were able to accom- plish. I do feel like we could have stayed there for the next 10 years. But I also felt like, if we're ever going to leave, it would have to be somewhere you were convinced you could go to and make a positive impact and a positive difference. I think it's getting harder in today's world. And with social media and with the world we live in today, it's harder to stay at one place. BWI Coaches don't have aspirations to win a national championship at To- ledo. That's not going to happen. But have you had that in your career? Did you have aspirations to win a national championship at Iowa State? And is that inherent to your mindset as a coach? CAMPBELL The thing you want to do is to be able to win at the highest level. And you want to have an ability to sus- tain it — to compete with great con- sistency at the highest level. The more our world continues to change, it takes the right opportunity, because there are some places where you're just not going to have the ability and the resources to be able to do that with consistency. But sometimes you get lost in our world today in college football, and it's win at all costs. I will say, I'm not a believer in winning at all costs. I'm a believer in building a program that sustains success, but also stands for something on and off the field, doing it the right way. That's what I've al- ways believed and what I'll continue to believe. Sustainable consistency, building something that can be sustained, is re- ally hard to do in college football right now, but it's something I really believe in. BWI Have you found that at Penn State? CAMPBELL I think it's too early to know that, other than you know you're at a place where I think you've seen — whether that was Coach [James] Frank- lin, Coach [Bill] O'Brien, Coach [Joe] Paterno, in our recent history — people have found ways to create that consis- tency, have found ways to create con- sistent success. And I certainly feel like you've seen the fruits of their labor within the foot- ball program in different ways. Whether it's our former players of the Coach Paterno era, whether it's the current players here at Penn State that Coach Franklin had, whether it's what Coach O'Brien did during his time, I think you just see the fruits of those labors within the walls of this football program. BWI Culturally, do you feel like that's strong, in terms of Penn State football standing for the same things that you've stood for through your career? CAMPBELL I really do. And it's prob- ably the reason why I took the job — growing up in this region and knowing what the integrity and the history of this place have stood for and the people that have formed that integrity and history. I think in a short amount of time, be- ing involved with so many of our former players and hearing their stories, hear- ing what it means to represent this foot- ball program on fall Saturdays [has been powerful], but also representing this football program off the field. I t h i n k t h o s e t h i n g s — b e i n g i n t h i s co m m u - nity and watching t h i s c o m m u n i ty respond to Penn State football — that part has been re- ally awesome. BWI Are you comfortable at this point? CAMPBELL Yes. At least being me, yes. There are two types of people — people who are trying to be somebody and people who are trying to do some- thing. I've always felt like I'm probably more in the "do something" category. And I think part of that is just being re- ally comfortable with who you are and what you're about. BWI Have you felt like you've navi- gated all those relationships? Have you met the people that you need to meet at Penn State? The way the sport is propped up, money is so important to how teams and programs are built. Do you feel like you've navigated that part of your tenure at Penn State? CAMPBELL That's actually a really great question. That's probably a "let's take a year or so to figure that out" sit- uation. I feel like my responsibility is "I'm not a believer in winning at all costs. I'm a believer in building a program that sustains success, but also stands for something on and off the field, doing it the right way. That's what I've always believed and what I'll continue to believe." C A M P B E L L