Penn State announced the hiring of Matt Campbell as 17th head coach

After many twists and turns in its coaching search over the last two months, Penn State named its next football coach on Friday.

Matt Campbell, who has been the head coach at Iowa State for the last 10 seasons, will become the Nittany Lions’ 17th full-time coach. Campbell led the Cyclones to an 8-4 record this season and has a 72-55 overall record with Iowa State.

With 19 wins over the last two seasons at Iowa State, the 46-year-old Campbell, a Massillon, Ohio, native, led the program to its best two-year stretch in history, including the Cyclones’ first double-digit win season, in 2024. In Campbell’s 10 seasons with the Cyclones, they have achieved bowl eligibility eight times.

Although he hasn’t won the Big 12 in his tenure, he’s made two championship game appearances (2020, 2024) and has consistently maximized his rosters despite Iowa State being ranked outside the top 40 of national recruiting rankings every year he’s been in Ames, Iowa. Iowa State is ranked 50th in the 2026 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

Before he took over Iowa State in 2016, Campbell had a successful four-year run as Toledo’s head coach, compiling a 35-15 record and leading his team to back-to-back Mid-American Conference championship games. Overall, he spent seven seasons with Toledo, first as a run game coordinator and offensive line coach, then as the offensive coordinator in 2011 before taking over as head coach in 2012.

Campbell has a 17-28 record against teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25 poll, including four wins against AP top-10 opponents in his coaching career that has spanned Bowling Green, Mount Union, Toledo, and Iowa State in 23 years.

He has long been a name mentioned in the college football coaching carousel and was interviewed in January for the Chicago Bears’ vacant head coach opening.

The hire comes after Penn State fired James Franklin on Oct. 12, 54 days ago. The coaching search nearly came to a close earlier this week when BYU’sKalani Sitake emerged as a top candidate for Penn State on Tuesday. According to multiple outlets, Sitake was close to taking the Nittany Lions’ job before he ultimately decided to stay in Provo, Utah, and got a contract extension in the process.

Penn State chose Campbell over Terry Smith, who went 3-3 as the interim coach and helped the Nittany Lions reach bowl eligibility for the fifth straight season. Smith reportedly has drawn interest from Memphis and Connecticut to fill their head coach openings.

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

Campbell has some ties to the area. He was teammates with Eagles coach Nick Sirianni at Division III Mount Union from 1999 to 2002. Sirianni was a wide receiver, while Campbell was a defensive lineman. Campbell later joined the Mount Union coaching staff in 2005 as offensive coordinator, a year after Sirianni coached defensive backs for the program. Both also coached and played with current Toledo coach Jason Candle.

Campbell will have his work cut out for him at Penn State. The program only signed two players on the early national signing day and will be replacing several starters on both sides of the ball.