It took Penn State football about eight weeks to find its new head coach after firing James Franklin following the loss to Northwestern in Week 7 of the 2025 season. The long, drawn out process featured a series of top coaches coming off the board as they signed contract extensions with their current, respective teams (e.g. Matt Rhule with Nebraska, Curt Cignetti with Indiana, and Kalani Sitake with BYU).
According to college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, though, the Nittany Lions lucked out with new head coach Matt Campbell and made the wait worth it.
"I'm just a massive fan of Matt Campbell," Herbstreit said on the Pat McAfee Show. "I think that kind of got lost in all the hysteria of what went on at the end of last season — that Penn State made an incredible hire."
"I'm a MASSIVE fan of Matt Campbell..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 4, 2026
This was an incredible hire by Penn State and I'm excited to see what this team can do"@KirkHerbstreit #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/aOkzqQ3kO5
Kirk Herbstreit calls Matt Campbell "an incredible hire" for Penn State
With the potential options the Nittany Lions could've hired throughout the long process, hiring Campbell felt like they took the next best available. He wasn't the top pick heading into the search, and that's okay. There was a huge focus, of course, on getting a coach better than Franklin. That means a national championship-worthy coach. Campbell was the next best option when he was hired, but he has much more to prove taking on this role than someone like Cignetti.
The No. 1 pick doesn't always hit and the underrated pick isn't always a bust. For Herbstreit, he believes Campbell can rise to the challenge and perform to what Penn State's standards are.
In fact, he hopped on the Indiana blueprint train, saying if there's any team that can make a run at a title in 2026, it's the Nittany Lions.
That's a bold statement, and getting national championship hopes up in year one can cause a lot of negative noise. However, the strength of the roster in terms of NCAA experience and Campbell's fit at Penn State are still impressive enough to throw that comparison out there with confidence.
On the roster, the amount returning players (to college football in general, not just Nittany Lions) is a huge advantage. Campbell, like Cignetti had done when he brought over his former James Madison players, isn't starting from scratch. He's starting off his tenure with a bunch of familiar, proven faces just in an elevated conference coming from Big 12.
All the pieces are there. Now, it's Campbell's time to put the results on the field that back the faith people have in him already before Week 1 hits. He may have been an unexciting hire at the time, but if Herbstreit's correct, the Nittany Lions did the right thing waiting it out in the hiring process for their guy.
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