New Penn State football coach Matt Campbell knows all about historically big, annually bitter, fierce inter-conference, nationally significant long-time rivalries between two in-state football rivals that do not like each other.
Proof of concept? Let’s look at Campbell’s personal college football history:
Campbell was in a Pitt uniform as a freshman for the Sept. 19, 1998 Penn State vs. Pitt game, won 20-13 by the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions in the first contest of the series played in Pitt Stadium in six years.
“One of the greatest memories of my life was when No. [8] Penn State comes into Pitt, I think after a long drought of games played at old Pitt Stadium,” said Campbell on Monday. “I think the rivalry had been shut down. I’m warming up for the game. We run out, I’m sitting on the sidelines. And Joe Paterno, LaVar Arrington and Courtney Brown are running out in Pitt Stadium. And I said, ‘Holy cow.’ So, it’s ingrained in my head for the rest of my life. It was one of the great memories I’ve ever had.”
A defensive lineman, Campbell transferred to Division III powerhouse Mount Union the next season, and over the next three years he earned All-American status and helped Mount Union to three national titles.
Campbell is well-versed in Nittany Lion football history, and reveres it, as he rattled off the names of several Penn State stars through the years, and coach Joe Paterno at his Monday press conference.
“I spent so much of my childhood in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania,” Campbell said with great emotion. “My great-grandfather worked in the coal mines, my grandparents worked in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania. And all you heard around these family discussions was Coach Paterno and the toughness and the character of the Penn State football program.
“My great-grandparents and their history and work ethic and the pride — they took in Penn State football and Coach Paterno. The fact of the matter is I know we’re at Linebacker U. I know it might as well be in Running Back U. You can probably go down the line in almost every position group. I know the history of this place, and I really look forward to spending time with all the great people.”
(A little more Pitt-Penn State history for you, Matt: Penn State has played a total of 1,409 games to date and 14.09% have been against Pitt. The 100-game series ran for 93 consecutive years, from 1900 to 1992. Penn State leads 53-43-4.)
Iowa State vs. Iowa is a big deal in college football. The in-state rivalry game, featuring Big 12 member Iowa State vs. the Big Ten’s Iowa, started in 1894 — won 16-0 by Iowa State — and is contested annually for the Cy-Hawk Trophy. The Hawkeyes lead the 71-game series, 47-25. Campbell’s Cyclones lost to Kirk Ferentz’s squad the first five times the two coaches squared off. But Iowa State has roared back to win three of the last four games of the series, including this year’s contest. All three were quite tight: Iowa State won 10-7 in 2023, 20-19 in 2024 and 16-13 in 2025. #BigGameMatt
WILL PITT ONCE AGAIN BE IT?
So, it was with that context on Monday — in a session as part of a small group of veteran Penn State beat writers — that I asked Campbell a series of rapid-fire questions about the Penn State-Pitt series, which went on hiatus back in 2019. Who better to ask about the future of the legendary and now dormant series, I thought, than The Man who played for the Panthers and is now the head coach of the Nittany Lions?
The question: “Matt, you know Pitt. You know Pitt-Penn State. Do you ever see that possibly coming back? And what are your thoughts on a non-conference schedule [with] Power 4 vs. not Power 4?”
Campbell’s answer: “Those are really good questions. I have probably not…I haven’t thought enough to give you an educated answer on it — other than I will say this:
“What makes college football really great is rivalries, right? We know that. I know that. At Iowa State, we had that inter-conference rivalry, Big 12 and Big Ten. But at the end of the day, I think probably that I’m uneducated to give a qualified answer other than that’s how I feel about that.”
I like how he feels. So, as has been the case since Campbell first stepped foot on tarmac at the State College Regional Airport at 4:35 p.m. on Sunday, he gets it. He gets Penn State. Its history. And its rivals — so much so, he was once one.
PENN STATE’S NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Unless athletic director Pat Kraft gets to some deal-making, the earliest that Pitt could end up on the Nittany Lions’ — and Campbell’s — schedule is in 2029. But, it’s possible. As we have learned with the coaching search that ultimately, painstakingly landed on Campbell, Kraft makes things happen. We also know that the more Campbell’s predecessor was entrenched at Penn State, the more he avoided Pitt.
Campbell seems to me to be a guy who embraces challenges, understands traditions, is not just about wins and losses, and can’t be buffaloed into almost exclusively (and excluding) loading his non-con schedule with blue hens, cardinals, owls and punchless Minutemen.
Here is Penn State’s current non-conference schedule, noting that the 2027 home opener will be the Nittany Lions’ first in a completely renovated Beaver Stadium. As luck would have it, Pitt does not currently have a game scheduled for that day.
2026
Sept. 5 — Marshall, Beaver Stadium
Sept. 12 — Temple, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Sept. 19 — Buffalo, Beaver Stadium
2027
Sept. 4 — Syracuse, Beaver Stadium
Sept. 11 — Delaware, Beaver Stadium
Sept. 18 — Temple, Beaver Stadium
2028
Sept. 2 — Ball State, Beaver Stadium
Sept. 9 — Syracuse, JMA Wireless Dome
Sept. 16 — UMass, Beaver Stadium
