Matt Campbell’s off-the-wall hire is quickly paying dividends on the recruiting trail

Most of Matt Campbell’s inaugural staff at Penn State are coaches who followed him from Iowa State to Happy Valley. That originally included wide receiver coach and passing game coordinator Noah Pauley, until the Green Bay Packers hired him away for the same role. 

Pauley’s unexpected departure forced Campbell to go outside of his familiar staff for a replacement, plucking former UConn wide receiver and WR coach Kashif Moore from Jim Mora Jr.’s Colorado State staff. That off-the-wall hire is already paying dividends on the recruiting trail with four-star wide receiver Landon Blum setting a multi-day official visit with Penn State. 

Penn State locks in official visit with top Iowa recruit, Landon Blum

Blum, the top 2027 recruit in Iowa, had a relationship with Campbell’s staff from their time at Iowa State, and Blum spoke with Rivals’ Allen Trieu about the relationship that he’s been able to build with Moore since he took over as Penn State’s WR coach. 

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound wide receiver is a bit of a tweener who could become a tight end at the next level, but Moore’s involvement in his recruitment indicates that Penn State believes he can stick on the outside at his size. Blum is a bit of an unconventional recruit who plays eight-man football for Woodbine High School in Iowa, but there’s nothing about his skillset that wouldn’t translate to 11-man football. 

Iowa is still in the mix for Blum, and former Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz just offered him a scholarship to Duke in February. 

The jury is still out, but the early returns seem to indicate that Moore can hold his own as a recruiter at the Power 4 level. That’s the biggest question, as it is with Campbell’s entire staff. Moore does have quite the track record of development, though, after shepherding UConn wide receiver Skyler Bell through a 1,200-yard season in 2025. 

It’s critical that Moore can improve Penn State’s wide receiver room long-term, not just by developing the incoming transfers and holdovers from James Franklin’s tenure, but by bringing in a new crop of talent. Franklin, with Marques Hagans as his wide receiver coach, allowed the wide receiver room to atrophy throughout the waning years of his Penn State tenure, and that was one of the biggest reasons that the Nittany Lions never got over the hump.