4 reasons why Matt Campbell and Penn State football fit so well now

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The man now leading Penn State football had been a sought-after coaching candidate for big college and NFL jobs for years.

No matter that Matt Campbell‘s demand was low visibility.

“I’m not a great self-promoter. I could be really bad at that,” Campbell told reporters after he arrived at Penn State last week. “It’s not about the head football coach, even though we love to make it that way. It’s about the team. To me, I have always felt that if you do good, the right things will happen.”

Certainly, Campbell did better than most could have expected and or thought possible to sustain at forlorn Iowa State. He won nearly every year over a decade at a place not accustomed to it, including a school-record 11 victories in 2024.

It turns out, as Campbell begins putting together his first Nittany Lion staff and team, that this may be his best fit, now. That the school’s long and wielding search for a new head coach would, ultimately, end with him.

Because he knows he could have gone elsewhere before.

“I would say there were probably two really close (coaching) opportunities that I probably accepted and then said, ‘You know what? I can’t do it.’ I slept on it and walked away from it. In fairness to those organizations, I’m not going to talk about them.”

Matt Campbell at Penn State football: Timing

So why Penn State?

Campbell first credited the timing of the opportunity. Penn State’s job, after more than 50 days, was still open at the end of the regular season.

“I don’t have an agent, so I purposely made sure I wasn’t talking to anybody” about open coaching jobs in October and November, Campell said. “I’ve always done (that) because you have to look at yourself in the mirror. I’m not getting on the phone and talking to anybody during the season. It’s my responsibility to our kids” at Iowa State.

Matt Campbell at Penn State: Hiring message

Why Penn State?

He said he was impressed, “wowed” even, by the hiring message of support and partnership from Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi and athletic director Pat Kraft.

“After getting off that phone call, I thought, this is the type of people that I want to associate with,” Campbell said.

Matt Campbell at Penn State: Financial support

Why Penn State?

His financial and infrastructure support will be dramatically improved in State College, making it easier to succeed. That comes in the form of salaries for assistant coaches, NIL and revenue sharing payments for his players and the quality of facilities, including the ongoing $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium.

Campbell said he “probably had three-fourths less of the support financially” at Iowa State.

“We were the lowest paid Power 4 football team in all of college football the last two years … in terms of players and financial availability. And our kids stayed, Our top 20 kids were getting drastically different numbers than what was going on with everybody else and we just couldn’t …

“There was never an opportunity or never a chance in our time at Iowa State where we financially had the ability to compete with who we were going against. So, you had to win in all the other things, and I’m glad we did.”

Matt Campbell at Penn State: Proximity to family

But why Penn State, once more?

There also is the appealing proximity of State College to his family in Ohio − less than a three-hour car drive. Campbell admired Penn State from afar growing up, first while living in Massillon, Ohio and while spending time with his grandparents in Carmichaels, Pa., south of Pittsburgh.

Campbell, 46, referred to this coaching move as “the regionality of bringing my family back home.” Campbell and his wife, Erica, have four school-aged children, two sons and two daughters.

“Being 12 hours away (at Iowa State), for my kids to never see their grandparents, never see their cousins, and to have my father and my mother and Erica’s family to come and be a part of this experience again (at Penn State)? I can’t lie and tell you that it didn’t have a big impact. It certainly did …”

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: 4 reasons why Matt Campbell and Penn State football fit now

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