Penn State bungled its way to luring Matt Campbell away from Iowa State -- the perfect outcome all along

There were bizarre twists and turns along the way, but Matt Campbell should have been Penn State's target from the beginning

There is no exact science to hiring a football coach. Sometimes a school goes through a great hiring process, dots all its Is, crosses all its Ts and lands on a perfect candidate -- somebody who checks every box and is hailed by fans and media alike as a grand slam hire. Then, the next thing you know, three years have passed and that incredible hire is being cut a huge check to stop coaching for you because it's been an abject failure.

Sometimes you have a terrible process, get turned down by everybody you go after, miss out on candidates who didn't wait around waiting for your call and end up with a horrible hire. Then, sometimes you stumble into success. Sometimes you watch all your top targets get raises and extensions at their current jobs, and you end up making a great hire anyway.

Congratulations, Penn State, you did it. You bungled your way into a great hire.

I wrote back in October, days after Penn State fired James Franklin, that while Nebraska's Matt Rhule was the favorite for the job, and the coach I felt was most likely to get the job, my top candidate was Iowa State's Matt Campbell. Nearly two months later, Penn State finally agreed. Whether he was the first choice, or depending on how many reports you want to believe, the 432nd doesn't matter. What matters is Campbell is a great choice and should've been one of the first targets.

It's a great hire. I have no idea if it will work out. I like its chances, though. It's hard to deny the amount of success Campbell has had at Iowa State, a Power Four program that's long been considered one of the toughest places to win consistently -- yet Campbell did.

An overall record of 72-55 with a conference record of 50-40 may not jump off the screen, but Iowa State is a program that has had 12 seasons of eight wins or more in its 128-year existence. Campbell has been the head coach for five of them. He's only had two seasons with fewer than seven wins in his 10 overall, and his 72 wins with the Cyclones are the most in program history. They're 16 more than Dan McCarney, who coached in 14 more games. His .567 win percentage is the highest of any Iowa State coach since 1919.

He's also responsible for half the school's seasons of nine wins or more and is the only coach to have won 10 games or more (the Cyclones went 11-3 last season). All of this after he went 35-15 at Toledo in five seasons with a mark of 24-8 in conference play. The man has won and raised the floor everywhere he's been as a head coach.

🏈 Inside Matt Campbell's tenure at Iowa State

Season	Overall Record	Big 12 Record	Bowl
2016	3–9	2–7	No bowl game
2017	8–5	5–4	Won Liberty Bowl
2018	8–5	6–3	Lost Alamo Bowl
2019	7–6	5–4	Lost Camping World Bowl
2020	9–3	8–1	Won Fiesta Bowl
2021	7–6	5–4	Lost Cheez-It Bowl
2022	4–8	1–8	No bowl game
2023	7–6	6–3	Lost Liberty Bowl
2024	11–3	7–2	Won Pop-Tarts Bowl
2025	8–4*	5–4*	Bowl eligible
Total	72–55	50–40	7 bowl appearances under Campbell

What should matter to Penn State fans, though, is more than the wins and losses. Campbell had a tremendous amount of success at Iowa State while largely recruiting three-star players, but that hasn't stopped the Cyclones from churning out 15 NFL Draft picks since he showed up. That pales in comparison to the number Penn State has produced, but considering the different caliber of player that typically makes their way to each campus every season, Campbell and his Iowa State staff have punched well above their weight when it comes to identifying fits and developing players.

Give them the keys to Penn State's greater ability to recruit and lure four-star athletes, and it's easy to suspect it will be business as usual in Happy Valley when it comes to churning out NFL players.

Something else that matters, and is an area Penn State has plenty of familiarity with, is Campbell's ability to replace coaches. Campbell has seen members of his staff leave for promotions or bigger paychecks elsewhere, and that's at both the college and NFL levels. One of a coach's greatest strengths that often goes overlooked is the ability to fill out a staff and replace members of it. Campbell has done well in this department throughout his decade in Ames, much like James Franklin was able to do when he was seemingly having to replace his defensive coordinator every year.

The biggest surprise about the hire to some -- outside of how long it took to get to Campbell -- may be that Campbell took the job. Many viewed him as an Iowa State lifer, and believe me, if you ever mentioned the idea of Campbell being interested in another job on social media, Cyclones fans have never been shy about sharing their thoughts about your intellect for even daydreaming it's possible. His name has been floated for plenty of gigs due to his success in Ames, but year after year, despite the rumors, he remained with the Cyclones.

There was mutual interest between Campbell and Florida State before the Seminoles hired Mike Norvell in 2020. Last year, there was plenty of smoke that North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham had Matt Campbell at the top of his list (alongside new Florida coach Jon Sumrall), and that there was mutual interest, before North Carolina's boosters went all-in on Bill Belichick instead. There are myriad reasons why Campbell may have turned down those offers and others to stay at Iowa State.

Why might he have changed his mind this time? Well, aside from the fact Penn State is a top program in a top league, there's the current landscape of college football, and how it could affect Iowa State going forward.

Campbell built Iowa State into one of the Big 12's best programs the "old-fashioned way." He identified talent to fit what the program does, developed it and coached it. However, in the age of NIL and the portal era, leagues like the Big Ten and SEC are at a financial advantage to begin with due to their conference television deals. There are also recent reports of Iowa State's athletic department facing a $147 million budget deficit by the time the Big 12's current television deal expires in 2031. The school has already halted renovations on its basketball arena, Hilton Coliseum, because of it. Given the importance of money to not only build your roster but keep it together, in the current landscape, Campbell might realize his job is about to become a lot more difficult at Iowa State, which only makes a job like Penn State look more enticing than it already is.

Much like the process that led to Campbell taking the job, the reasons behind it don't ultimately matter to Penn State. What matters is that, as tortured as the process may have been, Penn State and athletic director Pat Kraft ended the search at the right place.

It certainly isn't the first time somebody has had a difficult time getting to State College, and it won't be the last.