Penn State targets Matt Campbell: Bizarre search turns focus to poaching longtime Iowa State coach

After whiffing on numerous candidates, Penn State has turned the focus of its long, winding coaching search to a prominent name in the Big 12. The Nittany Lions are now targeting Iowa State's Matt Campbell, sources confirmed to CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz. The two sides had talks on Thursday. 

Campbell has achieved unprecedented success, posting a 72-55 record throughout a decade-long tenure at Iowa State and has been tied to various coaching searches across the Big Ten on numerous occasions. Each time his name popped up as a candidate for a premier job, though, Campbell elected to remain with the Cyclones. Prior to his stint at Iowa State, Campbell made a name for himself as a head coach by going 35-15 across five seasons leading Toledo in the MAC. 

While it has taken a while for Campbell to emerge as a Penn State target, his track record of maximizing his program's potential indicates he could thrive with the Nittany Lions. Campbell inherited a perennial middling operation when he took the Iowa State job in 2016, and he quickly turned his program into one of the Big 12's most consistent winners. After a three-win debut, the Cyclones posted just one losing season from 2017 onward. They racked up five consecutive bowl appearances for the first time in school history and reached their first conference championship game in an 11-win 2024 campaign.

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Robby Kalland

Should Penn State close the deal with Campbell, it would bring a splendid conclusion to a coaching search that turned sour as candidate after candidate brushed off interest in the Penn State job. Eight presumptive candidates locked up contract extensions or engaged in such conversations with their current schools instead of taking the position. On Thursday, Alabama's Kalen DeBoer became the latest to deny ties to the Nittany Lions.

This prolonged search has had major ramifications on the program's immediate outlook. Penn State inked just two recruits on Signing Day after losing countless commits, many of whom followed Franklin to Virginia Tech. Reconstructing the recruiting class and attacking the transfer portal when it opens Jan. 2 would be among Campbell's most pressing tasks upon his arrival.

Could Campbell deliver Penn State's elusive next step?

For all of the much-deserved praise Franklin received for rebuilding Penn State into a Big Ten title contender, the frustration of consistently falling short of championships did not sit well with the Nittany Lions faithful. The program remains in search of its first national championship since 1986, and it achieved Big Ten supremacy just once in Franklin's 12 years at the helm.

For a potential Campbell tenure to be considered a success, not only would Penn State need to consistently advance deep into the College Football Playoff and win the occasional conference crown, but it would also need to fare better against premier competition than it did over the last decade. The Nittany Lions went just 4-21 against AP top-10 teams under Franklin's watch and just 2-21 against teams in the top six.

The floor is incredibly high at Penn State. Campbell would be tasked with raising the ceiling. Anything less than a breakthrough would make the Franklin firing appear as a waste of a coaching change.

Campbell does more with less

One sign of a prolific coach is the consistent exceeding of expectations. By that measure, Campbell is a star in the industry. Iowa State had not cracked the AP Top 25 in a decade when Campbell arrived, and he led the Cyclones to rankings in all but three of his seasons -- three times reaching the top 10. The program also only had 12 bowl appearances in its history prior to his tenure, and he made seven postseason trips.

Not only has Campbell overseen the greatest period of Iowa State football to date, but he also did so with a modest amount of talent. Never in his tenure did the Cyclones secure a recruiting class better than No. 39 in the 247Sports team rankings, and more often than not, the program signed classes ranked near the bottom of the Power Four. Campbell's player development acumen and in-game abilities helped him overcome the talent gap.

Of course, the expectation at Penn State is to recruit at a high level, so Campbell would have to prove more capable of attracting blue-chip prospects to the program than he has been at Iowa State.