Penn State gets a harsh dose of Matt Campbell reality with the latest Big Ten recruiting rankings

Panic is a strong word, but there is certainly a sense of distress in the Penn State fanbase this week after Matt Campbell lost four-star in-state wide receiver Khalil Taylor to Nebraska and had four-star running back Aiden Gibson flip to Rutgers the very next day. The latest 247Sports Big Ten recruiting rankings won’t help calm things down. 

With 21 commits in the class and just two in the top 100 by 247Sports rankings, Penn State sits at No. 20 nationally and in the Big Ten; that means the Nittany Lions have the seventh-best class. It’s a harsh dose of reality with Matt Campbell, who has never been known as an elite recruiter, and it could become the norm in an expanded Big Ten. 

Matt Campbell’s recruiting woes are cause for concern

Optically, there’s a lot working against Campbell in the 2027 recruiting cycle right now. He got off to a hot start, reaching 20 commits as fast as any program in the country. That vaulted the Nittany Lions into the top five, but with the quality of recruits they had committed, they were much closer to 20th-best nationally by average rankings. Volume inflated the ranking and has exacerbated the perceived slide. 

Then, there are the in-state struggles. Campbell has never coached in Pennsylvania, and though he was close during his time at Toledo, he’s spent the last 10 years recruiting three-star Midwest talent to Ames, Iowa. It was always going to take some time for him to develop the necessary relationships to recruit the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic after airdropping in late this offseason. 

All of that is contributing to the feeling of unease, but the biggest factor is that Franklin was a recruiter and Campbell is not. Campbell finds his success through development. He’s not the charismatic figure who is going to charm his way up and down the recruiting trail, and that’s fine, as long as he wins games. Seeing as he’s yet to coach a game for Penn State, recruiting is all he can be judged for, so he’s hardly making a passing grade. 

The Big Ten landscape has changed, so middle of the pack might have to be okay

The Big Ten added two legitimate recruiting powerhouses with Oregon and USC, and it seems that Bob Chesney has reinvigorated the UCLA donor base since arriving in Westwood this year. Franklin could compete with those programs and their spending power, but it doesn’t appear that Campbell can. It’s fair to wonder if the war chest was quite as big as Penn State administration claimed when they hired Campbell, but much of it likely went toward a massive transfer class. 

Penn State may have to get familiar with somewhere between the sixth and 10th-best recruiting class in the conference, and that’s fine considering Indiana, the defending national champion, is 14th. Cignetti might be a unicorn, but there is more than one way to win in college football. Penn State isn’t going to do its best work in high school recruiting. Right now, that feels like a disaster. If Campbell starts winning, nobody will care.

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