The Penn State teaching search didn’t go as deliberate, and at occasions it seemed as if this system had miscalculated how fascinating its soccer job can be. They stored getting turned down by their high selections, whereas different huge names had been joyful to stay the place they had been and even take different jobs (like Brian Hartline taking the South Florida job).
It was turning right into a circus, and a foul search for a program that has been in the midst of a brutally disappointing 2025 season.
In the long run, every part labored out about in addition to it presumably might have as Penn State was capable of salvage its search on Friday night time by locking in former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell.
Penn State salvages head-coaching search with Matt Campbell
Campbell’s contract is reportedly an eight-year cope with Penn State the place he shall be tasked with serving to this system recover from the hump and turn into a nationwide championship-caliber staff.
Below James Franklin’s watch, Penn State had developed right into a constant top-15 staff that was all the time in competition for a playoff spot, and eventually made the sphere in 2024 and went so far as the nationwide semifinal. It was just about two performs away from taking part in for the nationwide championship, setting championship-or-bust expectations for the 2025 season.
However Penn State’s incapacity to win the massive video games and beat the highest groups within the nation, mixed with a collection of brutal upset losses to UCLA and Northwestern, led to the Nittany Lions firing Franklin early on this season and sending this system right into a chaotic two-month head-coaching search.
As embarrassing because it checked out occasions, the one factor that issues for Penn State is it might have truly discovered itself one heck of a soccer coach. Campbell has had success at each his head-coaching stops, placing aggressive packages on the sphere at each Toledo and Iowa State, working his method into the highest 25 at each stops. That isn’t a straightforward factor to do at these packages.
The query now shall be whether or not or not that may translate over to the Massive Ten and the expectations that include teaching at Penn State.
In any case, he’s strolling right into a program that simply fired a particularly profitable coach as a result of the staff was good as a substitute of nice, and fewer than one calendar yr after taking part in within the semifinals. Certain, you possibly can argue that Franklin was given a 12-year run with wildly secure job safety, however the reality stays that was a fast change on the first signal of actual hassle.
One of many greatest obstacles Campbell must overcome early in his tenure is the truth that Penn State’s recruiting class this yr was just about an entire zero because of the teaching search. A number of years in the past, which may have been problematic, however the switch portal and NIL opens up avenues for him to herald his personal established gamers.
He additionally retaining Penn State interim coach Terry Smith on his employees. Smith is a Penn State lifer and extremely revered throughout the program and group, and he’s an enormous win for Campbell to retain.
If Penn State had gone proper to Campbell and employed him two weeks in the past, it most likely would have been a rent that was greeted with common applause. It would nonetheless be greeted with applause, however it was only a very round-about method of attending to an excellent consequence.
