Report reveals Penn State AD Pat Kraft's NSFW thoughts amid Matt Campbell hiring process

The Penn State coaching search landed on one of the most well-respected coaches in the country — Matt Campbell. Getting there was quite the odyssey, though.

Later on in the search, reporting tied BYU head coach Kalani Sitake to Penn State. Once out, Crumbl Cookies CEO Jason McGowan, a BYU booster, publicly praised Sitake and began to make a push to keep him in Provo. He’d stay, which forced Penn State AD Pat Kraft to go back to the drawing board.

A recent report from ESPN dove into what happened next in the Penn State coaching search. An associate of both Campbell and Kraft would reach out to Kraft, saying, “If I were you, I would turn my attention to Campbell quickly.”

The associate would further advocate for Campbell. After all, he’d proven he can build a successful culture at Iowa State, his regional ties, and the detailed and disciplined approach that he has. With family for Campbell less than three hours away in Ohio, Kraft had a suspicion about what they’d say about it taking so long for Penn State to reach out, “What the f*** took you guys so long?”

Once Penn State made a move for Matt Campbell, he would make the move relatively quickly thereafter. On December 4th, reports emerged that the Nittany Lions were focusing on Campbell. By the next day, he’d been hired.

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

Leaving Iowa State wasn’t easy for Matt Campbell. Still, he’s excited about the opportunity at Penn State. That was something that Campbell explained at his introductory press conference when detailing the process of taking the Penn State job.

“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. And it was midday Wednesday when somebody reached out and said, ‘Hey, Pat Kraft would love the opportunity to speak with you.’ 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.

“We talked for a while on Wednesday night and really it was from that point on it was a whirlwind five days. 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?”

Matt Campbell was at Iowa State from 2016 through the 2025 season. He found success there that most Iowa State coaches didn’t come close to finding. Still, when he left, he did so for the right reasons for him.

“We left there on Thursday night with really no agreement,” Campbell said. “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?’ 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.”