Josh Pate tabs Matt Campbell as his top candidate for Penn State job

Josh Pate is picking Matt Campbell as his favorite candidate to take over at Penn State. The college football analyst laid out the case for Campbell during a recent episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show on Sunday.

Campbell has been the coach at Iowa State for 10 seasons, leading them to a 70-55 record in that span. He’s helped transform the Cyclones into one of the most consistent teams in college football yet turned down opportunities to leave for bigger programs. Pate would like to see Penn State attempt to change that.

“My guy on there is Matt Campbell,” Pate said. “Matt Campbell’s biggest flaw is he doesn’t really play the game the same way other guys do. He refuses to be a candidate for this stuff during a season. Therefore, his name is not really involved in a lot of coaching searches because the earliest that he’s gonna allow his name to be involved in a coaching search is the end of November.

“But the people who push back on Matt Campbell as a legitimate candidate just floor me. Their reasons just floor me. I’m not gonna relitigate all of this. Matt Campbell’s a stud as a head coach. I think he’s perfectly cut out for the Penn State job. The edge, the grit, the attention to detail. The different way you have to sell Penn State. The understanding of placing premium on eval and development. The magnetism that the guy’s program has. How much discount players taken to play for him, and staffers. Everything you would want in a Penn State coach he has.”

Pate pointed to the fact that Campbell has been a candidate for several other big name schools. He thinks that if Nittany Lins fans knew which ones, they’d love to have him as their coach.

“Here’s what turns a lot of people off and what really sucks about this whole process: Matt Campbell sucks at promoting Matt Campbell because he doesn’t really care to do it,” Pate said. “If I changed nothing about Matt Campbell about that guy other than publicizing the head coaching jobs he has turned down, he would be viewed as a premium candidate for some fo these jobs. It’s not my business to float that. …Matt Campbell’s been the guy for a number of the big opening over the past several years. I’m fairly convinced that there is a subset of the Penn State fan base that if they were equipped with nothing more than that information, would all of a sudden be totally interested in Matt Campbell.”