As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Good? Maybe not. Nevertheless, Pat Kraft, the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Nittany Lions have found their guy. After firing James Franklin 54 days ago, Penn State concluded the dreadfully prolonged coaching search.
Matt Campbell, formerly the head coach at Iowa State, will take the reins in Happy Valley.
Sources: Penn State is finalizing an 8-year deal to make Matt Campbell the school’s next head coach. The deal is pending board approval for the compensation. Campbell has agreed to be Penn State’s coach and the sides have hammered out terms. https://t.co/ArKKDxldkw
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 6, 2025
The Good
In reality, there wasn’t much “good” that came out of this dilemma. Penn State’s championship aspirations at the beginning of the season crashed and burned to the fullest extent. Franklin’s departure and everything that followed were a byproduct of that.
Despite the stalemate between Kraft and any legitimate candidate, it’s finally over. It seemed as if that point would never come. Just as a restless set of fans and players had enough, so too did Kraft.
This search entailed many names, and the truth was that half of them were simply unrealistic. Whether it was Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Kalen DeBoer or Marcus Freeman, the Nittany Lions were not going to land a major fish. But it got one that has done lots of work in the Big 12 seas.
When the deal fell through with BYU’s Kelani Sitake, it appeared to add further drama to the fix. However, it was addressed–within the same week–and replaced with a name that arguably is better.
Campbell is no stranger to winning, and did so quite efficiently in the Big 12. Over his 10 years with the program, he became the winningest head coach and tallied a 72-55 record. While the numbers aren’t too flattering, consider this: Campbell took the program from 1-8 to 8-1 just a year later.
His extensive winning background is appealing. Penn State had to attack a proven winner, and that is what it's getting here. Frankly, this hire should have, and could have, been made weeks ago.
Kraft and the Penn State Athletic Department knew the stakes in this hire. Having seen many pieces break off, the future state of the program was left in serious doubt.
After missing out on Sitake, and with the various coach extensions around college football, this was likely the best available contestant. Safe and responsible.
The Bad
Penn State took its time with this hire, and while seemingly every other program was finding its guy, the Nittany Lions waited till the last possible moment—missing on several occasions.
This process was excruciating in that it was very well documented. From the very beginning, the move to fire Franklin was enough to categorize this whole process as a leap of faith. Then came part two, which was hiring the replacement.
As it turned out, the impatience built to the point where audio leaks circulated on the internet of Kraft’s ambitions to ‘get it right.’ Having taken this long, Penn State missed out on a lot.
It starts with the recruiting, where a long list of decommits favored Virginia Tech and Franklin’s now-top-25 recruiting class. Penn State fell so far in the recruiting ranks that it is now on pace to have its worst recruiting cycle in program history.
With just two commits, the program is going to need Campbell to mark some level of vast recruitment, whether that be in the transfer portal or in the high school realm.
The issue is that Campbell has spent a majority of his time focusing on recruitment in the midwest. Now and moving forward, he must directly compete with Franklin for the northeast region and the state of Pennsylvania itself.
The good news is that Campbell may very well turn to the transfer portal more—an area that Penn State had previously lacked. However, it will be interesting to see how much convincing he will need. This is somewhat of a messy situation at Penn State, to say the least.
The Ugly
Terry Smith.
It’s bad enough that Penn State lost the number of recruits it did. Now, with Smith likely gone too, the number of active players set to hit the portal will rise even more.
Smith was the string that held this together in the midst of all the chaos. The players rallied behind him and were able to squeeze out a miraculous six wins, now en route to a bowl game. Subsequently, Smith was rumored to have drawn interest from schools like UConn and Memphis with a head coaching vacancy.
Smith wanted the job more than anyone, and to Penn State’s respect, it all made sense. Smith was the perfect guy on paper. He ‘bleeds blue and white,’ and had a knack for saying the right thing. He became a fan favorite.
After winning the game against Michigan State, Smith cemented his name as a considerable candidate for the job. The “Hire Terry” propaganda began to move, and it made its way over to the players, who voiced their opinions loud and clear.
Now, the real drama begins. Who’s staying, and who’s going? Players like Tony Rojas and King Mack are essential to retain if Penn State wants to keep the backbone of its current team. But whether that’s realistic or not remains to be seen.
Smith not landing the job may leave a mark, but it likely was for the best. All you could do is hope he stays and persuades the current players to remain put as well. Time will only tell how that shapes out.