Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547542
5 2 D E C E M B E R 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 E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM VARSITY VIEWS M att Campbell was preaching pa- tience coming out of Penn State's bye week in late October. With his team in the midst of a four-game Big Ten losing streak, the Nittany Lions' first- year head coach cited his previous stints at Toledo and Iowa State, places where there was no tradition of sustained ex- cellence, and the preconditions for suc- cess — culture, personnel, fan support — had to be built up over time. "Going through those experiences has certainly helped with the dynamic of this ex- perience," Campbell said. "What are you trying to get out of Year 1? What are you trying to get out of building a football team and a program? How do you not waver and flinch when adversity hits? "I still think leadership is not about what happens when it's going great. Leadership is the ability to build cul- ture, and when you're not getting the results you want, identifying why you're not getting them, but certainly not leaving the plan of how you want to build the team and what the expecta- tions and standards are." Patience is a rare and precious com- modity in big-time college athletics, and Campbell needs as much of it as he can get. The Nittany Lions still weren't bowl-eligible heading into their next- to-last home game against Minnesota on Nov. 14, and unlike at Campbell's previous coaching stops, there's a win- ning tradition at Penn State that makes transitional seasons like this one espe- cially tough to bear. Given the circumstances of the staff's first 11 months at Penn State — the late start, the implosion of PSU's 2026 recruiting class, the exodus of high-im- pact players via the transfer portal — it's reasonable to assert that this year's on- field results are not a fair test of Campbell's coaching abilities. But talent acquisition is part of the test, too, and that's what gives pause as the season winds down. You can live with an occasional bad year; James Franklin's first season at Penn State was certainly a dud, with the Nittany Li- ons dropping four consecutive Big Ten games after starting out 4-0 and need- ing an overtime win in the Pinstripe Bowl just to finish above .500. What gave hope, though, was that Franklin scored some major recruiting wins even as his team was struggling on the field. His first full recruiting class included the likes of Saquon Barkley, John Reid, Ryan Bates and Juwan John- son. It was ranked 14th nationally by On3 and second in the Big Ten. Within two years of signing with PSU, those players would be Big Ten champions. Will Campbell's first full class have that kind of impact? The verdict on any recruiting class is always years away, but the 2027 class is ranked 21st nationally and seventh in the conference. Its 21 members include seven blue-chip pros- pects in the Rivals Industry Ranking, for a blue-chip ratio of 33 percent. Histori- cally, national championship-winning teams have had BCRs well above 50 per- cent over a four-year period. One could argue that the BCR — and high school recruiting in general — is less important than it was in 2015 now that the transfer portal has created an alternate talent pool made up of expe- rienced college players. But Penn State still wants to be the kind of program that relies on the development of high school prospects rather than bring- ing in dozens of free agents like it was forced to do this past January. In some respects, the team's recruit- ing challenges are another byproduct of the administration's scramble to find a new coach last year. Campbell and many of his incoming assistants lacked established ties to the Nittany Lions' familiar recruiting territory and had only months to develop relationships. The program also lost key recruiting staffers who might have been able to open doors in places where the Lions need a strong presence. At Iowa State, Campbell and his staff were accustomed to signing underval- ued players, maximizing their abilities, then turning them loose in a confer- ence with a less-pronounced talent differential between the top teams and everyone else. It was a great plan for a long-suffering Big 12 program, and Campbell executed it really well. But if he's going to succeed at PSU, he'll need to win his share of battles for elite talent. That will involve some combination of relationship-building, positive on-field results, and cold, hard cash. The teams Campbell and his staff must now go up against — Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, USC — are among college football's biggest spenders. If the Lions are going to compete with those teams, they'll need the resources to make competitive offers. Do those resources exist? It's the question on which the program's future hangs. Campbell is asking for patience. Success stories on the recruiting trail would help him earn it. ■ Matt Campbell Is Staying The Course Campbell is asking Penn State followers to keep in mind the big picture while he works to steadily build the program. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL