Matt Campbell Is Good for Penn State. And Vice Versa

Two things can be true: Matt Campbell is good for Penn State. Saturday was proof positive of that — on, going onto and off the field.

Also, though: Penn State is good for Matt Campbell.

He said as much after his team’s 45-0 thrashing of Marshall on Saturday, his first game as the Nittany Lions’ head coach. Allie Berube of Harrisburg’s WHTM noted that “so many people took a leap of faith to join you here in Happy Valley, players, staff, their families” and then asked what this meant for them.

Campbell replied for them, but in some ways, for himself as well.

“I think, and probably there was a little bit of reflection for me early this week, it’s been a long road, right? Campbell said. “You’re picking up families from our nutrition staff to our academic staff to our strength and conditioning staff to our coaches. There are a lot of young families that picked up and moved across the country because of their belief in what we were doing together, that had nothing to do with me. … So certainly, I’m really grateful for each and every one of them.”

Campbell is being characteristically humble, of course. I’m sure they’re great and caring people. The transplanted Iowa Staters I’ve met fit the bill. But TBH, they would not have been asked to move the 901 miles east from Ames, Iowa, to State College, Pa., if not for Campbell.

Of course, the destination being Penn State made it a whole heckuva lot easier to make the leap. For all of them, including their head coach.

YOU ARE…WE ARE…THE MAGNET

Like the song: Penn State was the magnet. Campbell is the steel.

Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser said it all in a nutshell this week, when he was near the end of a short session with local media. At one point, Mouser was a former D-II defensive lineman, working at a Little Caesars in Arizona, hoping to get into coaching.

“It’s like you don’t understand how I got here,” he said to the reporters. “And sometimes neither do I. But it’s…it’s a dream come true to go out there on a stage like this.”

Penn State is a great job. A massive, loyal alumni base. A student population that worships football and having a good time (or is that the other way around?). State College is a great place, the schools — Campbell’s oldest graduated from State High the spring — the outdoors, the legit caring community.

That all figured into Campbell’s decision to take the job, as did the Penn State tradition and renovated stadium and excellent facilities. And thus, the same for the dozens of Iowa State players and coaches and staffers who followed. After 14 years at Toledo and Iowa State, he had plenty of offers. But…

“I never wanted to be that coach that was going to jump from job to job,” Campbell, who has four children with his wife Erica, said during his introductory press conference back in December. “Your focus has to be on the kids.”

MORE MOUSE AND THE CHEESE

Through the years, I’ve heard Mouser-like comments again and again, from coaches who came before him. Two former Penn State head coaches, one of them interim, who both worked at big brand-name schools and in the NFL, both told me years after they left that Penn State was the best job they ever had. Both deeply wanted to return years after they departed.

The most recent interim head coach, Terry Smith, proved it by his words last fall and his actions in electing to stay and work for Campbell. Joe Paterno never really had another job, having coached at Penn State for 61 years — though he had multiple chances to leave. And James Franklin stayed a long time in the peripatetic and volatile world of big-time college football. He entered the 2025 season ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten and No. 8 overall in the FBS for longest tenure at the same school. It was a credit to both him and Penn State.

I remember attending a coaches clinic outside Allentown a month after Franklin was hired, and afterwards I had a few off-the-record beers with a pair of the incoming assistant coaches. Good guys. Both came from Vandy with Franklin. Penn State was still heavily feeling the after-effects of the scandal. So the job, the place, the program had seemingly lost some of their luster.

Still, these two football lifers who were also smart guys, with undergrad degrees from a pair of excellent and rigorous academic institutions, were beside themselves with the opportunity to coach at Penn State. Penn State. They couldn’t believe it.

We’ve heard about Campbell’s roots in Carmichaels (current population: 423), about an hour south of Pittsburgh and 25 miles north of Morgantown, W.Va. His great-grandparents and grandparents lived there, and his grandfather ran the local coal mine. He visited often. So you believe him when he shows gratitude — Cael Sanderson’s word, speaking of an authentic and beloved coach — for being the head football coach at The Pennsylvania State University.

This is not meant to downplay the job Campbell has done in his 272 days at Penn State. He has notched dozens of wins, in many ways, even before his team took the field on Saturday. And, come to think of it, even when his team took the field.

He’s a great fit. But right fits require two parties, at least. And, for all its warts and hiccups and hiring search stumbles, Penn State — and Pat Kraft, he certainly deserves his props here — ended up with The Right Guy. And, my point: That right guy ended up at the right place.

Campbell is not working pro bono. His eight-year, $78.5-million contract works out this way, I told the students in my Sports Management class at Penn State this week: CMC is being paid $1,124 an hour and $9.81 million a year. Quite a hike from the $5 mil a year he got at Iowa State. And more on an annual basis than what his predecessor earned; Franklin pocketed almost $90 million in Penn State paychecks and perks, including his buyout, for an average of $7.8 million per year.

Bottom-line, there are dollars. And there is sense.

Nittany Lions fans have embraced Campbell & Co. in large part because they know he appreciates Penn State’s history and he cares about them and their school and their community and their football team. And that he 100% wants to be where he’s at.

In other words, Matthew Allen Campbell gets it.