While Matt Campbell arrived in Happy Valley this offseason much like James Franklin did in 2014, as a proven winner at underresourced programs looking to prove his success will translate to a traditional power, they achieved that status in very different ways.
Franklin was, and still is, known as an elite recruiter. While that didn’t translate to top-10 classes every year, they weren’t an anomaly during his tenure. Campbell is known as a high-level developer of under-recruited talent, sending former three-stars off to successful NFL careers with impressive regularity.
So, after Campbell's hot start on the recruiting trail faded, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Nittany Lions check in at No. 19 in Rivals' updated Industry rankings. That’s a huge improvement on where he was at Iowa State, and there’s obvious room for improvement in-state as he establishes himself with future classes. Yet, that ranking stings because of the team one spot ahead at No. 18: James Franklin’s Virginia Tech Hokies.
Updated Rivals Industry Teams Recruiting Rankings following a busy start to July🎆https://t.co/pT5tmMCdqN pic.twitter.com/1IvzWfn5KH
— Rivals (@Rivals) July 6, 2026
James Franklin has a narrow edge over Matt Campbell on the recruiting trail
Historically, purely on resources alone, Penn State should be able to edge out Virginia Tech in the recruiting rankings. However, Franklin’s arrival in Blacksburg came with a massive financial commitment to the program from the university and its biggest donors. So, Virginia Tech is suddenly on, or much closer to, a level playing field with the top programs in the country, and when the money is equal, Franklin is going to win a lot of battles.
Recruiting isn’t the reason Penn State moved on from Franklin. His roster construction was far from flawless, especially with a few too many swings and misses in the transfer portal, but he was consistently bringing talent to Happy Valley. The issue was how he maximized that talent. So, Penn State and athletic director Pat Kraft are betting that Campbell, who is still learning how to recruit elite talent, can get more out of the No. 19 class in the country than Franklin can out of the No. 18 or the No. 6-ranked class he landed in 2022.
With so many frustrating losses in big games, that’s the right bet to make. Penn State needed a change, and those losses were beginning to affect the recruiting class with top commits like Kemon Spell, Layton Von Brandt, and Khalil Taylor all telegraphing de-commitments before Franklin was fired in the fall and the class ultimately fractured.
The in-state recruiting base was losing belief in Franklin, and with that, the donors were becoming tougher to activate to win high-priced recruits. So, frankly, if he were still at Penn State, Franklin may not have a top 20 class right now. At Virginia Tech, he represents optimism that the program hasn’t had in years, and he’s still hardly outperforming Campbell, so it’s not unreasonable for Penn State to find itself behind its former coach. It still stings, though.
Campbell has real recruiting issues he needs to solve in the 2028 class, particularly in-state. He struggled recruiting in Pennsylvania in 2027, but that appears to be trending in a more positive direction for the next cycle, with James Armstrong and Deonte Flemings Jr. already committed. If that problem is solved, he’ll climb even higher than No. 19 in 2028, and likely leapfrog Franklin. But even if he doesn’t, the optics are worse than the reality because Campbell wasn’t brought to Happy Valley to outrecruit his predecessor; he was brought there to outperform him, however that comes about.
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