A now-former Iowa State star is drawing major transfer portal interest aside from Matt Campbell, Penn State

Injuries forced Quentin Taylor Jr. into a full-time role for the Iowa State secondary, and it turns out the redshirt freshman was up to the task. After playing in just two games in 2024, the former three-star recruit emerged as a key piece of Matt Campbell and defensive coordinator Jon Heacock’s secondary, finishing the season with 27 tackles and five pass breakups. 

Now, with Campbell at Penn State and Jimmy Rogers taking over in Ames, Taylor is heading to the transfer portal and is drawing significant interest. Campbell has brought much of his staff from Iowa State, and a few recruits from the 2026 class, but it won’t be quite as easy to land Taylor on the open market. 

According to On3’s Pete Nakos, Mississippi State, Louisville, North Carolina, Georgia, Tech, Cincinnati, and Minnesota are already in the mix for Taylor. 

Matt Campbell could miss out on Quentin Taylor, a top Iowa State transfer

It’s unclear what state Penn State’s roster will be in when the transfer portal opens on January 2. It’s safe to assume that there will be some turnover, but if Campbell and Terry Smith, who served as the team’s interim head coach in 2025 and is staying on staff as the highest-paid non-coordinator in college football, can prevent a mass exodus, then Taylor may not be a top priority for the Nittany Lions. 

Penn State was deep at cornerback last season, with true freshman Daryus Dixson emerging as a depth piece behind A.J. Harris and Audavion Collins. Harris has yet to declare for the NFL Draft, and backup cornerback Elliot Washington II has declared for the portal, which is a fairly good indicator that the players ahead of him on the depth chart plan to stay. 

If that’s the case and Harris, Collin, and Dixson are all back in 2026, then Campbell won’t need to enter a bidding war for his redshirt freshman Iowa State standout. 

A huge reason that athletic director Pat Kraft paid up to keep Terry Smith, who served as the program’s cornerbacks coach in recent years, was to keep the roster intact. Players grew loyal to Smith and advocated for him to get the head coaching job as he led them on a three-game win streak to close out the regular season. 

That will be money well spent if Penn State doesn’t suffer massive transfer portal losses, because in most cases it's cheaper to retain talent than to acquire it on the open market. 

Campbell had players who will be highly sought after when the portal opens on his Iowa State roster last season; Taylor and sophomore safety Marcus Neal Jr. chief among them. That means they’ll likely be expensive to bring to Happy Valley. 

Penn State is a big step up in resources for Campbell and general manager Derek Hoodjer, but he still needs to spend his money wisely to maximize those resources, especially in Year 1 of a rebuild.