Penn State coaching search: Why Matt Campbell is 'the best candidate available out there'

Prepare yourself to see a whole lot of hot boards coming out of Penn State following this afternoon’s firing of James Franklin. However, Josh Pate has one with just one single candidate’s name on the list – Iowa State’s Matt Campbell.

Reacting to Franklin’s dismissal on ‘Josh Pate’s College Football Show’ on Sunday night, Pate naturally wondered who’d be the next coach of the Nittany Lions. That’s in the midst of a coaching carousel that has already started the past few weeks, and will only continue coming by the end the regular season and into the offseason.

“Who are they going to hire? Where is Penn State going to go?” wondered Pate. “I can tell already, by looking at some of the lists out there and hearing some of the chatter, some folks are going to overthink the room. Penn State is open now, the Penn State head coaching job is open right now. Penn State is not the only major job that’s going to come open, and I can already tell, by putting my ear to the ground, people are going to overthink the room on this.”

“Guys, I’m telling you. It’s about to be crazy. Just get ready for it,” said Pate. “Some of them, you can tell are going to come open. There are a couple of major ones that are going to come open that are not on your radar right now. So, just get ready.”

Campbell was the extent of his list, though. Through a decade in Ames, Campbell is 69-53 (.566) as head coach of the Cyclones, including 16-5 (.762) the past season and a half with an appearance in the Big 12 Championship. That includes four eight-plus win seasons, with a decent chance at five with this season despite having lost two straight, as the winningest coach in school history. For reference, the program has been to one less bowl game in his tenure, accounting for a third of their postseason appearances ever, than the previous 37 campaigns combined from 1979 to 2015. That resumé is why Campbell is the clear candidate to Pate for the now open job in University Park.

“I’m going to do you a favor. Pate State Committee is just running coaching searches over here for you guys free of charge,” said Pate. “Matt Campbell is the best candidate available out there. He’s the best candidate out of all the lists that I’ve seen out there. Are you looking for flash? Or are you looking for a football coach? If you’re looking for flash, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a stud football coach, he’s just in plain sight. He’s right there at Iowa State. Iowa State was in a conference title game last year. Iowa State is horrible historically, and Matt Campbell has won consistently there. What Matt Campbell has done at Iowa State is right on par with what some other coaches have done in literal national championship runs at more major programs.”

Pate, though, knows it’s not as simple as that. He realizes other people get involved in these decision-making processes and, with that, programs end up overlooking better candidates for bigger names. He described how that happened just very recently when discussing Campbell in another context.

“Let me tell you how I know there’s so much ignorance in this process. I suggested it today, to a person, at a place, not Penn State, that will be soon in the market for a new head coach…I was talking to someone that will be involved in one of those coaching searches. They asked, ‘Who do you think?’. I said Campbell. Like, are you an idiot? Campbell. He said, ‘Oh, man. They lost to Colorado last night,'” recalled Pate. “At that point, I just throw my hands up. You are the reason why so many schools are tied up in buyouts being paid. You have no idea how to properly qualify candidates, how to properly vet candidates, how to properly filter candidates.”

“You’re looking at Matt Campbell right now, and if the first question in your mind is, ‘Oh, is he really the right guy for the job? I mean, they lost to Colorado last night‘? I happen to watch a lot of Iowa State. So, yeah, they sure did lose to Colorado – down a starting tailback, lost their nose guard in the game, down two starting corners for the year, just sent two wide receivers to the draft, believe they were down to their third-string kicker. Yeah, man. Iowa State sure did come up short last night,” Pate said.” Coaching carousel season, man. Insanity…You have never been more underwhelmed than you would be if I could take you behind the curtain and you could watch how coaching searches actually operate…All the wrong people get involved in coaching searches.”

Again, all kinds of names are about to be connected to one of the seven head coaching jobs, currently for now at least, open in the FBS, let alone just at Penn State. And, if no one else wants him, including the Nittany Lions, Pate knows Iowa State will be just fine keeping Campbell too.

“I’m using Campbell as an example, because I think he’ll win anywhere he goes. There will be people who look at Matt Campbell and just, ‘Ugh, Matt Campbell’. They’ll dismiss it. Like, you have no clue what actually wins in college football. So, whatever,” said Pate. “I’ll keep him at Iowa State. I’m just saying.”

“So many people are going to ask who I’d hire. I’d hire Matt Campbell in a nanosecond, if you can get him,” Pate stated.