Josh Pate evaluates Penn State coaching search, Matt Campbell fit: 'All the way around the world to find treasure'

Penn State officially tapped Iowa State coach Matt Campbell to be its next head coach, ending a saga that went on for quite a bit. But to college football analyst Josh Pate, the Nittany Lions lucked out.

The veteran analyst loves the fit for Penn State. Even if it took a roller coaster ride to get there.

“I’ll tell you what I felt like I just watched,” Pate said on Josh Pate’s College Football Show. “I feel like I just watched Penn State go all the way around the world to find treasure in their backyard. This should have been the first call they made.

“They weren’t getting (Marcus) Freeman. They weren’t getting (Kalen) DeBoer. None of those grand slam, unicorn candidates were available. That should have always been evident. Mike Elko. They were not close on him. I am just telling you from first-hand knowledge that was not happening. But Matt Campbell could have happened. And you could have saved yourself, potentially, a recruiting class. And you could have saved yourself a lot of heartache. Anyway, Matt Campbell finally happened.”

The long-time Iowa State coach has been met with mixed reviews, mainly because he’s a bit of an oddball in the sport. Campbell had some serious early success with the Cyclones but didn’t bolt for another job like many other coaches would.

So while some ding him for a “lackluster” overall win total or never having truly had a breakout season, others see what Campbell has been working with. Pate pointed out he didn’t play on the same platform at Iowa State as he will at Penn State.

“‘Oh man, he hasn’t won big games,'” Pate said of a common refrain he hears from fans. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Relative to expectation and relative to resource, he crushed it at Iowa State.”

The analyst discussed some of the pushback he heard on the Matt Campbell hire. None of it, he said, was grounded in solid football analysis.

“No one brought any football counterarguments to the table, because there really are none,” Pate said. “Here’s what a lot of people said. They didn’t trust their own instincts, they blindly trusted rumors or perceptions of other instincts when they said, ‘Well if he’s so great, if Matt Campbell’s so great, how come he hasn’t gotten job offers before?’ And I bit my tongue as long as I could, and then I couldn’t take it anymore and I told you on the show a couple weeks ago: They have. They’ve come his way.”

Pate outlined that Matt Campbell has had legitimate interest or outright offers from the likes of Florida State, Tennessee and even USC over the last several years. Those are big-time jobs.

The college football analyst even noted that Campbell had an extremely difficult time leaving Toledo for Iowa State. He is just the type of coach that likes to put down real roots and “build something real,” as Campbell puts it.

That led Pate to a very positive Matt Campbell observation for Penn State fans. He explained.

“I’ll tell you why I think he’s a perfect fit here,” Pate said. “He’s dead serious about that Toledo stuff. Matt Campbell came very close to just not leaving Toledo for Iowa State. That’s how dug in he was at Toledo. And then he got to Iowa State and thought to himself: ‘I’m not leaving here.’

“A lot of guys talk like that and give it lip service. I don’t know how else to tell you, he’s just telling you the truth, other people are lying to you. He’s telling you the truth there. So it took a lot, it took a lot to peel him out of there. Penn State was able to do it. So the first thing I would take comfort in if I’m a Penn State fan, one of the first things I would take comfort in is knowing that guy’s not going anywhere.”