Penn State coaching rumors shift to Iowa State's Matt Campbell

As Penn State's search for a new head coach drags on, the pressure is mounting on the shoulders of athletics director Pat Kraft to come away with a solid hire. The coach now garnering the most attention in the rumor mill is Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell.

Multiple reports from On3 (subscription required) and CBS Sports on Thursday suggest Campbell is now the primary focus of the Penn State job search, which has notably been coming up short left and right on potential candidates. Campbell has been a successful coach at Toledo and Iowa State and has managed to guide the Cyclones program to one of the most successful strings of success in program history.

Campbell is 72-55 overall in his 10 years with the Iowa State program and is wrapping up the best three-year run in program history. Iowa State went 8-4 during this season with a bowl game still to be played, and Iowa State went 11-3 during the 2024 season. It may be easy to look at Campbell's overall coaching record, specifically at a Big 12 program, and suggest it pales in comparison to what Penn State just experienced under James Franklin, and that would be fair to suggest. However, what Campbell has managed to do at Iowa State with far more limited resources and muscle to work with is what makes Campbell an attractive candidate for the Penn State job, no matter the timing.

There is a reason Campbell has been a fixture on the evolving coaching hot board updates for Penn State since the job opened up in mid-October. That it came to this late in the game for Campbell's name to gain any traction is a suggestion that he was flying under the radar of Kraft until push came to shove.

And if this job search does end up with Campbell moving from Iowa State to Penn State, then perhaps Penn State will be OK in the long run after all.

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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Penn State coaching rumors lock in on Iowa State's Matt Campbell