Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545675
A U G U S T 2 0 2 6 2 9 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 / / / / / / / in front of us and what I have control over. So, I feel it. You see it. You hear the chatter about it. But I'm not worrying about it because I can't control it. What the rules are or how the game is going to get played will be unraveled. And then we're going to have to figure out how we adjust and adapt here at Penn State to be competitive and be the best team we can be within the confines of the rules. BWI Your move from Iowa State to Pe n n S ta te h a p - pened on such a condensed timeline in December, and then the transfer window opened shortly afterward, fol- lowed by spring practice. Has the dust settled yet? CAMPBELL I feel like the dust settled a little bit was when we were able to give our kids the opportunity after finals to go home. Our staff went on the road recruiting, and I think everybody got a week off before we came back in June. Our kids got three weeks off before they came back in June. At that point you finally felt like, okay, we're at least on solid ground. But it's a whirlwind. The great thing is, from our players and our staff, everybody has at least gone through the same thing, and that's change. And everybody has had to go through it together. I don't think that was always easy, but I certainly feel like it's probably unified us and allowed us to be tied together. We've all gone through the same common denominator, and that denominator has been change. I feel like we finally felt whole by the time we came back here at the start of June. We were ready to move ourselves forward and really attack the summer together. BWI You have one of the most experi- enced teams in college football this sea- son. Do you feel like you addressed the developmental aspect of the roster by also bringing in some younger players, given your history as a developmental coach? CAMPBELL Yeah, I think we tried. That's the one thing that we were pretty proud of in the completion of the cur- rent roster — we didn't just sell out for all seniors. If you look at it, there's a pretty good class disparity. I do think we have a good senior class, which is awesome. But I felt like we were able to clearly define every player who was coming into our program — where are they at, and then where's their top- end ability to put a finishing touch on their career here at Penn State? We tried to be really d i l i ge n t a n d n o t just take a group of all seniors. I do think there's good class disparity amongst the group, and I think there's great opportunity for growth. You saw that in the spring and even in the winter when you saw our football team physi- cally. They had a tremendous physical change to what they look like. Whether that was in recruiting or the nutrition piece and the strength piece, I think we were able to align ourselves with where we want to take our foot- ball team and what we want this team to look like offensively and defensively moving forward. ■ MATT CAMPBELL BY THE NUMBERS Year Team Overall Conf. Finish Bowl Result 2011 Toledo* 1-0 0-0 Military | Toledo 42, Air Force 41 2012 Toledo 9-4 6-2 T-2nd (West) Famous Idaho Potato | Utah State 41, Toledo 15 2013 Toledo 7-5 5-3 T-3rd (West) — 2014 Toledo 9-4 7-1 T-1st (West) GoDaddy | Toledo 63, Arkansas State 44 2015 Toledo 9-2 6-2 T-1st (West) Boca Raton** Record 35-15 24-8 2016 Iowa State 3-9 2-7 9th — 2017 Iowa State 8-5 5-4 T-4th Liberty | Iowa State 21, Memphis 20 2018 Iowa State 8-5 6-3 T-3rd Alamo | Washington State 28, Iowa State 26 2019 Iowa State 7-6 5-4 T-3rd Camping World | Notre Dame 33, Iowa State 9 2020 Iowa State 9-3 8-1 1st Fiesta | Iowa State 34, Oregon 17 2021 Iowa State 7-6 5-4 4th Cheez-It | Clemson 20, Iowa State 13 2022 Iowa State 4-8 1-8 10th — 2023 Iowa State 7-6 6-3 T-4th Liberty | Memphis 36, Iowa State 26 2024 Iowa State 11-3 7-2 T-1st Pop-Tarts | Iowa State 42, Miami (Fla.) 41 2025 Iowa State 8-4 5-4 T-7th — Record 72-55 50-40 * Named head coach ahead of bowl game ** Did not coach in bowl after accepting head coaching job at Iowa State "There are two types of people — people who are trying to be somebody and people who are trying to do something. I've always felt like I'm probably more in the 'do something' category." C A M P B E L L