Here are five things to know about Matt Campbell, Penn State’s next head coach

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State is finalizing a deal to hire Matt Campbell as the 17th head football coach in program history, according to multiple reports on Friday.

Campbell, 46, had served as Iowa State’s head coach since 2016, where he won three Big 12 Coach of the Year awards and three bowl games. The Massillon, Ohio, native emerged as a candidate in recent days following Penn State’s reported whiff on BYU’s Kalani Sitake, among other candidates.

Here are five things to know about Penn State’s next head coach.

» READ MORE: Reports: Penn State to hire Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as next head coach

Campbell and Eagles head coach Sirianni were teammates and roommates at Mount Union in the early 2000s. Sirianni caught 13 touchdowns as a wide receiver while Campbell starred on the defensive line.

Both returned to the Purple Raiders’ staff to begin their coaching careers as assistants, Sirianni in 2004-05 and Campbell in 2005-06.

During Campbell’s tenure as Toledo’s head coach from 2012-15, the Rockets went 35-15, including two nine-winning campaigns. Campbell won the MAC Coach of the Year in 2015 and went to three bowl games before departing for Iowa State.

In five of Campbell’s 10 seasons at Iowa State, the Cyclones won eight or more games, a mark the program had previously not reached since 2000. Iowa State won a program-record 11 games in 2024, and after eight wins in 2025, Campbell departs as the program’s all-time winningest coach (72 wins).

The Cyclones have made two Big 12 championship game appearances in their 30 years as a member of the conference. Both of those appearances came under Campbell.

The 6-foot-2 Campbell spent one year at Pittsburgh before transferring to Mount Union, where he played defensive end from 1999-2002. He was an All-American and a two-time conference defensive lineman of the year.

The Purple Raiders went 54-1 during Campbell’s four-year career. They won four conference titles and three NCAA Division III national championships. Campbell was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2018.

Campbell leaves Iowa State after signing 247Sports’ No. 50 recruiting class for 2026, the highest-ranked class of his tenure. The group contains 22 players, all of whom are three-star recruits, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings.

Campbell’s recruiting motto is “recruit, retain, and develop.” The 46-year-old will likely bring that motto, and some of the players in his 2026 class, with him to Happy Valley as he stares down a roster overhaul in his first season as head coach.

» READ MORE: Penn State’s recruiting class takes a hit as its search for a head coach continues

Campbell and his wife, Erica, met in sixth grade, started dating in their senior year of high school, and later married. The couple has four children: Katie, Izzy, Rudy, and Rocco.

Campbell comes from a football family. His father, Rick, coached high school football at Massillon Jackson in Massillon, Ohio.