Penn State Hires Iowa State’s Matt Campbell As Next Head Coach
Tagged under: News, Penn State, pfn
Davin Ridall | December 5, 2025
After a long and painful search, Penn State’s coaching carousel has finally come to a stop, after hiring Iowa State’s Matt Campell to be the next head coach of the Nittany Lions. Some of the other candidates Penn State had been considering included BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, former New York Giants head coach Matt Dabol, and Terry Smith who took over as interim head coach after the firing of James Franklin. Penn State ultimately decided on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, who emerged as the favorite in early December after Kalani Sitake committed to a long term extension with BYU.
BREAKING: Penn State and Matt Campbell have reached an agreement, per Yahoo Sports’ @RossDellenger.
The deal is expected to put him among the top 10 highest-paid college coaches. pic.twitter.com/47GkBsBxam
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 6, 2025
Campbell has been Iowa State’s head coach for the past 10 years and before that was the head coach for Toledo for 5 years. In his ten years with the Cyclones Campbell put together a 72-55 record, finishing with at least 7 wins in all but 2 of those years. In 2020 Campbell led Iowa State to a 9-3 record and a Fiesta Bowl victory, and in 2024 he led them to an 11-3 record. Campbell also went 35-15 in his 5 seasons with Toledo, finishing with 9 win seasons in 3 out of the 4 full years that he coached there. He was also the Big 12 Coach Of The Year three times (2017, 2018, and 2020) and the MAC Head Coach Of The Year in 2015.
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