Let’s get right to it.
Penn State, one of the most successful NCAA Division I football programs in the history of the sport, begins the 2026 season. But don’t be fooled. This team, led by first-year head coach Matt Campbell (who came to campus from Iowa State), which includes 39 players who entered the transfer portal – including 24 from Iowa State – is masquerading as Penn State. In fact, transfers outnumber returning players 39-29.
And, remember, a good number of players from last year’s team pleaded for the university to remove the interim head coach title and make Terry Smith (a former Penn State football player) the head coach. That didn’t happen, but peace was made and Smith is on staff.
So, when the Nittany Lions enter Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon against Marshall, what will the crowd chant? We Are … Iowa (Penn) State!
What exactly is this group of malcontents and opportunists who left college football programs to come to University Park? Do they come as humble student-athletes, grateful for the opportunity to play for a top-notch program and university? Or, do they come as conquerors, hell-bent on showing the locals just how this game is played? Do they even know the Penn State fight song? I didn’t think so. You see, that’s what makes modern-day major college football a subject of mourning, not celebrating.
Go ahead. Get excited about a new chapter. I’ll deliberate.
Sure, Campbell experienced unprecedented success in Ames, Iowa, during his 11 seasons there. He was 72-55 between 2016 and 2025. He was 3-6 against Iowa, with one of those Iowa wins vacated in 2023. When he played in the Big 12 Conference, headlined by Oklahoma and Texas, and with other teams like TCU and Baylor when those teams were highly competitive, the Cyclones never stood out.
Now, the team from the heartland comes to the Big Ten Conference, a conference that has won the last three national championships (Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana). What’s the chance that the Nittany Lions (or Iowa State East) can go toe-to-toe with the B1G?
The Penn State fanbase is arguably the loudest and loyalest in the country. They travel well, and, who knows, the PSU brass (who love to spend money on athletics and then penalize students with ever-higher tuition rates and higher ticket prices), might develop the technology to expand seating to accommodate 50,000 more spectators. Heck, make it an even 175,000. I’m sure that will make the experience a little less than before the stadium started selling alcohol.
Campbell made it a point in his introductory press conference to mention that his grandparents lived in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, and that his grandfather worked in the coal mines. It was a powerful talking point that virtually made Campbell a local hero, even though he grew up in Ohio State country in Massillon, Ohio. Truth is, he’s not a dyed-in-the-wool Pennsylvania guy. Rather, he did a wonderful job of morphing into a Penn State guy in quick fashion.
Was it because of the Carmichaels connection that Campbell was hired – to win back the faithful that was bitter over the whole James Franklin mess? Or was it because Campbell could produce the ultimate winner, the kind of coach that Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft desired? Kraft told the world that Penn State held the highest standards when it comes to its football program after Franklin was shown the door after 11-plus seasons at the helm.
As for Campbell, from the moment he landed in central Pennsylvania, Campbell has been working to assimilate himself into the surrounding landscape, while introducing his personalized culture to a program that has never been the same after Joe Paterno was fired in November 2011.
Campbell has been presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-mold a football program during the most confusing and complicated era of college football. Sports betting has breached the walls of collegiate sports. The Age of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has turned college football into the Wild West, where academics have been sacrificed at the altar of College GameDay.
No matter how the Matt Campbell “experiment” turns out, now is not a happy new age for college football. It is a time to embrace a new perspective, a reckoning, a time to acknowledge that the game that we once loved has been re-appropriated to please mega-corporations and gamblers.
