After spending 10 years at one of the most underresourced programs in the Big 12, Matt Campbell has a different way of doing things on the recruiting trail. Now he’s at a powerhouse Big Ten program, but it seems that old habits die hard.
In Ames, Campbell was accustomed to hosting two major official visit weekends during the summer OV season. In 2026, he hosted 17 recruits on June 6 and 10 on June 13. At Penn State, he’s taken that approach to an extreme with 26 recruits slated to visit Happy Valley this Friday after the Nittany Lions didn’t host any recruits last weekend.
Campbell’s second biggest recruiting weekend this offseason is June 12, when five recruits will be in State College. Only one recruit, four-star safety Cooper Ohnmacht, is scheduled to visit Penn State on the final OV weekend on June 19.
That is an incredibly unique way to operate in the official visit season, and it’s a new experiment for Penn State, which took a much more traditional approach to the OV season under James Franklin. The results may not show up right away this weekend, but Campbell needs to determine whether this approach is viable at Penn State because his first offseason is the most leeway he’ll ever have.
Matt Campbell’s 26-recruit official visit weekend is a major risk
19 of Penn State’s 20 verbally committed recruits in the 2027 class will be on campus this weekend. Only three-star safety Jonathan Galette is taking his official visit next weekend. That means seven of the visitors are recruits Penn State is hoping to land, though four-star EDGE Zahmar Tookes may or may not be in attendance after committing to Florida on Wednesday.
That’s obviously intentional from Campbell as he looks to establish a culture for the 2027 class ahead of their arrival either as early enrollees this winter or next summer. For a new head coach, and one who historically does much of his recruiting work very early in the cycle, it’s understandable why he would use recruiting visits this way, but there is a risk.
If the uncommitted players aren’t buying into that budding culture and connection on the visit, it’s going to stand out. If nearly the entire class is there with them for their visit and they don’t have a good time, it’s hard to make another pitch to that player because they know with relative certainty that the fit is not right. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe Campbell is looking for OKGs (our kinda guys) and wants to identify who those players are from the outset.
However, if Penn State comes out of this weekend and doesn’t land a commitment from any of those six uncommitted recruits visiting (not including Tookes), then that’s a major whiff because a few of those players are Penn State’s top priorities in the class.
Uncommitted visitors for Penn State’s loaded OV weekend:
- Khalil Taylor: 4-star WR, Pittsburgh, PA
- Deshawn Hall: 4-star WR, Prattville, AL
- Case Alexander: 4-star LB, Washington, OK
- Ifeanyi Emedobi: 3-star EDGE, Fort Wayne, IN
- Caleb Cooper: 3-star S, Charlotte, NC
- Tyson Washington: 3-star LB, Springfield, VA
Taylor is a former Franklin commit in the 2027 class. An elite in-state four-star wide receiver, he’s a dream target for the Nittany Lions. He and Deshawn Hall have become increasingly important with four-star wide receiver Jamir Dean on flip-watch with Georgia breathing down Penn State’s neck.
Alexander could be Campbell’s first true addition to the LBU legacy. Emedobi is a fast-rising athletic freak, but he appears to be headed to Michigan. Cooper and Washington are both favored to Virginia Tech by Rivals, so Campbell is taking a big swing with two head-to-head battles against Franklin, who bested him for four-star quarterback Peter Bourque earlier this offseason.
Campbell needs to come out of this weekend with at least one commitment, if not more. Getting Dean to shut down his recruitment would be another big win, but hard to pull off. Unless that happens, it would figure that momentum will begin to seriously fade with these prospects, and Campbell can’t have that because he needs to bring in a large first class after salvaging just a 15-player high school class in 2026.
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