Matt Campbell details the process that led to him getting Penn State job

Early in the week Matt Campbell was going about his business as normal. Something like 96 hours later he was introduced as the head coach at Penn State.

It was a fast process, one that unfolded quickly once the Nittany Lions began to express interest. Joining Josh Pate’s College Football Show live on Tuesday, Campbell revealed how the entire saga unfolded.

“When you got to the end of the season, of course, you’re kind of like OK. I was meeting with our seniors on Tuesday, getting ready to meet with our juniors, sophomores and freshmen on Wednesday,” Campbell said. “And it was midday Wednesday when somebody reached out and said, ‘Hey, (Penn State athletics director) Pat Kraft would love the opportunity to speak with you.'”

From there, Matt Campbell immediately went to an official channel. He was going to do everything by the book.

“I called Jamie Pollard, our athletic director at Iowa State, and just said, ‘Hey, listen, I at least feel like I need to take this phone call and listen to what Pat has to say,'” Campbell said.

That call went well. Well enough to set up a follow-up shortly after.

“We talked for a while on Wednesday night and really it was from that point on it was a whirlwind five days,” Matt Campbell said. “The next day on Thursday got an opportunity to a Zoom call with president Neeli (Bendapudi), and she was incredible. By Thursday night Pat and his crew were able to come over and really start to talk about their vision for Penn State football, what they were looking for, was this or could this be a really good fit?”

But at this point, momentum had gathered substantially for Matt Campbell to make a move after a decade at Iowa State. Simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

Still, he wanted to be sure. This is not a coach that jumps jobs lightly.

“We left there on Thursday night with really no agreement, because I felt like it was my responsibility to Iowa State, my wife, our kids, to really sit down and say, ‘Is this the right situation, is this the right time for us?'” Campbell said. “By the time you got to Friday evening you knew this was the right time for me. It was a whirlwind. It went fast. But for me it was the right decision.”