Breaking Down Matt Campbell’s First Day at Penn State: Terry Smith, NIL Strategy & Portal Plans

Penn State football introduced its 17th head coach in program history on Monday afternoon when Matt Campbell took the podium in the Beaver Stadium media room. Today on the BWI Live show, we’ll discuss his comments, athletic director Pat Kraft’s comments, and the journey it took over 54 days to name him as the next head coach of the program. Reporter Nate Bauer has followed the coaching search closely and will provide key context to the comments from yesterday’s press conference. We’ll also play select quotes from the nearly hour-long press conference for fans to hear in context. We’ll also discuss the next steps for the program and what Campbell will need to do between now and the transfer portal start date on January 2.

Join the Show today at 10 a.m. to discuss that and more on the BWI Live Show. We’ll be taking your Penn State football questions and comments from the live chat to discuss on the show. If you can’t catch us live, be sure to subscribe to the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel so the show appears in your YouTube feed daily! As always, you can catch us on demand anywhere you get your podcasts.

Penn State introduces Matt Campbell

We’ll start today’s show with our general impressions of Campbell in his first appearance as the Penn State head coach. What sort of personality and characteristics did he show? We’ll discuss. Next, we’ll dive into the most interesting answers to questions from the media on Monday.

We’ll start with Kraft and the coaching search, discussing the long saga one last time. Kraft responded to a question about the leaked audio from Thursday night on Dec. 4. We’ll address the situation for the first time on the show and give our thoughts on what was said during the roughly 30 minutes of audio. We’ll also discuss Kraft’s response to the situation on Monday.

Campbell’s immediate decision to keep interim head coach Terry Smith on his staff as part of the announcement of his signing was also a topic on Monday. Why was Smith so important? We’ll play you Campbell’s comments and discuss what keeping Smith on staff means for Penn State’s chances of retaining the current roster.

Campbell’s GM decision also came up on Monday. We’ll review Campbell’s outline for program building and use of NIL and the transfer portal. What does Bauer think of the plan as he outlined it? Where are there things not being said to the public? We’ll discuss this key ingredient in the next phase of Penn State’s future.

What’s next?

Finally, we’ll spend a few minutes discussing the next steps for the program. What does Campbell need to do in the next three weeks to put Penn State in the best position to have a competitive team in 2026? We’ll discuss the tight window that he has to evaluate the roster, build a staff, and attack the portal for the upcoming year.