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News—Dec. 5, 2025
Matt Campbell Next Penn State Head Coach?
Penn State is reportedly in final talks with Iowa State Head Coach Matt Campbell to become the new Head Football Coach of the Nittany Lions. Campbell has been at ISU since 2016 and has been successful in getting the Cyclones to bowl games and, in 2024, to come up one win shy of a berth in the CFP. He has been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year 3 times and had led Iowa State to its only top 15 poll finishes in its history. Reportedly, the Board of Trustees has scheduled a meeting of its Human Resources Committee for Dec. 8. This is the group that would vote to formally approve major contracts such as that of the head coach.
The coaching search conducted by AD Patrick Kraft has been an ordeal that has run 54 days since the firing of James Franklin after a 3-3 start to a season of much higher hopes. Countless candidates, for one reason or another, took themselves out of the running leaving Kraft scrambling to find a top-flight replacement for Franklin while opening the door a tad for Terry Smith to keep the job of head coach and remove the interim tag.
Kraft has been facing football players and alumni who began to wage a vocal campaign to promote interim Terry Smith to the top job. “Hire Terry Smith” signs appeared at the conclusion of the home finale victory over Nebraska and were seen at the Rutgers game, as well. Kraft called Smith, who is a former PSU player and long-time assistant under Franklin, a serious candidate but that seemed to ring hollow with Terry’s supporters as the search dragged-on while the list of candidates dwindled over the past week or two. Kraft reportedly also came under fire from senior administrators and high-rolling supporters for appearing to “botch” the search process and damaging Penn State’s reputation. Smith himself has even reportedly become the target for both UConn and Memphis in their head coaching searches adding a sense of urgency for Penn State to act.
On Dec. 4, an audio recording began to circulate on social media that allegedly came from a private locker room meeting between Kraft and an unknown number of players where Kraft used profane language and rude references to Big Ten opponents (Michigan, Oregon, etc.) as he defended his decision to remove Franklin and his own handling of the somewhat chaotic search. Players were allowed to express their concerns and ask questions of Kraft. Questions do remain as to the source of the leaked recording and the legality of it having been made and released publicly. If the recording’s release was intended to embarrass Kraft, it may have backfired as public reaction to Kraft’s comments has been generally favorable.
On Dec. 5, Former Penn State player LaVar Arrington, whose son is on the current roster, used his Fox Sports Radio podcast to criticize Board of Trustees members Jay Paterno and Anthony Lubrano for “leaking information” and “continuing to push an agenda” that has damaged the coaching search. It is not clear how the two actually may have negatively impacted Kraft’s search process.
