Matt Campbell was hired away from Iowa State after the early signing period for the 2026 recruiting class was already underway. So, he arrived in Happy Valley with just two signees, Peyton Falzone and Jackson Ford, and was only able to import 13 more from the class he signed to join him in Ames.
Of that 15-player group, defensive back Josiah Zayas has undoubtedly made the biggest impact on the field for the 2026 Nittany Lions. Zayas played 46 of Penn State’s 55 defensive snaps against Michigan, his second week as a full-time starter at nickel as Zion Tracy transitions back to safety, and had the play of the game - a ridiculous one-handed interception.
Zayas was just a three-star, ranked No. 414 in the country by 247Sports Composite, exactly the type of hidden gem Campbell and general manager Derek Hoodjer were known for uncovering at Iowa State. And that fact is something Penn State fans can take solace in as Campbell’s 2027 class lingers around No. 20 in the country and lost its lone QB commit, Will Wood, to Boston College on Sunday.
That Campbell is adept at finding underrecruited players who can impact his football team and is just as good at developing them into potential NFL contributors is maybe the biggest feather in his cap, but it could also be a trap for the program if everyone involved is overly invested in his ability to do so.
Penn State can’t live off 3-star hidden gems
You can go pretty far in college football by uncovering hidden value to build your roster. Curt Cignetti just won a national championship that way. However, even Cignetti and Indiana recognize that you won’t pluck a former two-star recruit like Fernando Mendoza out of the transfer portal every year.
Rather than rely on Group of Six up-transfers, Cignetti has leveled up his recruiting apparatus in Bloomington. This offseason, he imported a transfer class with higher-upside physical talent like Kansas State edge transfer Tobi Osunsanmi and Michigan State wide receiver transfer Nick Marsh, and made a massive push for in-state five-star wide receiver Monshun Sales, beating out Alabama for his commitment.
The Hoosiers are also spending like a top contender, with a roster budget estimated by The Athletic between $36 and $40 million this year. Penn State, meanwhile, is down in the middle of the pack at $29-32 million.
A lot of coaches like Cignetti would have relied on their superior scouting abilities and a coaching staff with two elite coordinators to continually outperform the talent on the roster. But Cignetti understood that to keep pace with Oregon and Ohio State, the two biggest spenders in the Big Ten, he needed to take bigger swings, and Campbell will need to do the same at Penn State.
Josiah Zayas is a nice piece, not a model for sustainable roster construction
An example to the contrary is Mike Norvell at Florida State. He supercharged his operation in 2023 by hitting big on Jared Verse, who transferred from Albany, and a legendary transfer class. Then, he tried to run it back in 2024, neglecting the fertile high school recruiting grounds of Florida, and saw the volatility that comes with betting that you know something that no other coach in the country does.
Sometimes you’re right, but if you build the entire roster out of “hidden gem” three-stars and overlooked transfers, when you’re wrong, you’re really wrong.
Campbell has already begun to improve his roster construction apparatus at Penn State with that 2027 class, which ranks No. 20 nationally. It features three top-200 players by 247Sports Composite rankings and seven four-stars. However, the bulk of the class is still three-star talent.
A few of those players could turn out to be the next Josiah Zayas. But most of them won’t, so Campbell and his staff need to put as much energy and resources into proven veteran transfers this offseason and into raising their roster budget through fundraising efforts to close the gap to the top of the Big Ten as they do to mining the Midwest for their next three-star stud.
Zayas is a great story, and with the margins at the top of the sport shrinking, finding players like him is paramount to constructing a championship roster. It just can’t be the only thing that you do. Hopefully, that’s not Campbell’s plan.
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