Penn State targets Matt Campbell as Nittany Lions look to poach Iowa State coach

After whiffing on quite a few candidates, Penn State has turned the main focus of its lengthy, winding teaching search to a outstanding identify within the Massive 12. The Nittany Lions at the moment are focusing on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, sources confirmed to CBS Sports activities’ Matt Zenitz. The 2 sides had talks on Thursday. 

Campbell has achieved unprecedented success, posting a 72-55 document all through a decade-long tenure at Iowa State and has been tied to numerous teaching searches throughout the Massive Ten on quite a few events. Every time his identify popped up as a candidate for a premier job, although, Campbell elected to stay with the Cyclones. Previous to his stint at Iowa State, Campbell made a reputation for himself as a head coach by going 35-15 throughout 5 seasons main Toledo within the MAC. 

Whereas it has taken some time for Campbell to emerge as a Penn State goal, his monitor document of maximizing his program’s potential signifies he might thrive with the Nittany Lions. Campbell inherited a perennial middling operation when he took the Iowa State job in 2016, and he shortly turned his program into one of many Massive 12’s most constant winners. After a three-win debut, the Cyclones posted only one dropping season from 2017 onward. They racked up 5 consecutive bowl appearances for the primary time in class historical past and reached their first convention championship recreation in an 11-win 2024 marketing campaign.

Ought to Penn State shut the cope with Campbell, it will deliver a splendid conclusion to a training search that turned bitter as candidate after candidate dismissed curiosity within the Penn State job. Eight presumptive candidates locked up contract extensions or engaged in such conversations with their present faculties as a substitute of taking the place. On Thursday, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer turned the most recent to disclaim ties to the Nittany Lions.

This extended search has had main ramifications on this system’s speedy outlook. Penn State inked simply two recruits on Signing Day after dropping numerous commits, a lot of whom adopted Franklin to Virginia Tech. Reconstructing the recruiting class and attacking the switch portal when it opens Jan. 2 could be amongst Campbell’s most urgent duties upon his arrival.

Might Campbell ship Penn State’s elusive subsequent step?

For all the much-deserved reward Franklin acquired for rebuilding Penn State right into a Massive Ten title contender, the frustration of constantly falling in need of championships didn’t sit effectively with the Nittany Lions trustworthy. This system stays searching for its first nationwide championship since 1986, and it achieved Massive Ten supremacy simply as soon as in Franklin’s 12 years on the helm.

For a possible Campbell tenure to be thought of a hit, not solely would Penn State must constantly advance deep into the Faculty Soccer Playoff and win the occasional convention crown, however it will additionally must fare higher towards premier competitors than it did over the past decade. The Nittany Lions went simply 4-21 towards AP top-10 groups below Franklin’s watch and simply 2-21 towards groups within the high six.

The ground is extremely excessive at Penn State. Campbell could be tasked with elevating the ceiling. Something lower than a breakthrough would make the Franklin firing seem as a waste of a training change.

Campbell does extra with much less

One signal of a prolific coach is the constant exceeding of expectations. By that measure, Campbell is a star within the business. Iowa State had not cracked the AP High 25 in a decade when Campbell arrived, and he led the Cyclones to rankings in all however three of his seasons — 3 times reaching the highest 10. This system additionally solely had 12 bowl appearances in its historical past previous to his tenure, and he made seven postseason journeys.

Not solely has Campbell overseen the best interval of Iowa State soccer to this point, however he additionally did so with a modest quantity of expertise. By no means in his tenure did the Cyclones safe a recruiting class higher than No. 39 within the 247Sports staff rankings, and most of the time, this system signed lessons ranked close to the underside of the Energy 4. Campbell’s participant improvement acumen and in-game skills helped him overcome the expertise hole.

After all, the expectation at Penn State is to recruit at a excessive degree, so Campbell must show extra able to attracting blue-chip prospects to this system than he has been at Iowa State.