To borrow a baseball metaphor, Penn State director of athletics Pat Kraft was in an 0-for-20 slump while swinging from his heels trying to blast a home run.
He missed on Mike Elko, Kalen DeBoer and Marcus Freeman during his bungled one-man search.
He pursued a coach, BYU’s Kalani Sitake, while underestimating his deep roots and way of life that kept him in Provo, Utah.
He passed on James Madison’s Bob Chesney, a Pennsylvania native who has literally won at every level of college football and who’s now headed to Big Ten brethren UCLA.
While other schools were hiring new coaches within two hours or less, Kraft took almost 60 days to find a new coach, which cost Penn State a recruiting class.
He finally got a hit with the late Friday night hiring of Iowa State’s Matt Campbell. It might turn out to be a double, triple or even a home run.
Penn State director of athletics Pat Kraft: “Coach Campbell is, without a doubt, the right leader at the right time for Penn State football.” (RICH SCARCELLA–READING EAGLE)
The 46-year-old Campbell has spent the last 10 years at what was once regarded as a graveyard for coaches. He led the Cyclones to a 72-55 record, eight bowls and their only two top-15 finishes in the polls.
“Coach Campbell is, without a doubt, the right leader at the right time for Penn State football,” Kraft said in a statement released late Friday night by the athletic department. “He is a stellar coach with a proven track record of success.
“His values, character and approach to leading student-athletes to success on and off the field align perfectly with the traditions and values of Penn State.”
Campbell was the best that Penn State could do this late in the game. He was hired after university president Neeli Bendapudi, other top administrators and presumably large donors became actively involved after Sitake said no on Tuesday.
Getting Campbell was like pulling a rabbit out of the hat. He should have been on Kraft’s short list in October after he fired James Franklin, nine months after the Nittany Lions lost in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
Some outlets reported Friday night that Kraft first considered Campbell shortly after he dismissed Franklin, had incorrect contact information for the new coach and never went further until this week.
It sounds a lot like, “My dog ate my homework.”
There has been a lot more to this ongoing soap opera at Penn State.
Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith receives postgame lift from offensive linemen Vega Ioane, left, and Anthony Donkoh after the Nittany Lions’ 28-10 win over Michigan State Saturday night. (AP Photo/Sam Balkansky)
Interim head coach Terry Smith will stay on Campbell’s staff, agreeing to a four-year contract extension. Smith kept the ship from sinking after Franklin’s firing and guided the Lions to a 3-3 record, including wins in their final three games.
He openly campaigned for the job and had the backing of current and former players. In fact, several current players met with Kraft in the days before the Rutgers game to express their support for Smith.
Which leads to a sensational chapter. The audio purportedly from the meeting was leaked and an edited version was released late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Whoever leaked the recording might have committed a felony for wiretapping.
Kraft’s voice could be heard telling the players in the room that Smith was a legitimate candidate to be the permanent coach and then said he would never lie to them. That’s hard to believe when he could have hired Smith at any point since Oct. 12 and didn’t.
Kraft also could be heard taking shots at Michigan, Oregon, Indiana, Rutgers and even Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski and dropping several expletives. If in fact it was Kraft, he embarrassed himself and Penn State.
Hours after the edited audio was released, former Penn State All-American linebacker LaVar Arrington ripped Penn State trustees Jay Paterno and Anthony Lubrano on his nationally syndicated radio show. He blamed them for trying to undermine the leadership at the university and for leaking information regarding the coaching search.
Matt Campbell will walk into the Penn State circus when he’s introduced at a press conference Monday at noon at Beaver Stadium. He reportedly signed an eight-year contract worth about $10 million per year, according to Matt Fortuna of The Inside Zone.
It seems like he was beloved at Iowa State, his director of athletics there saying he owes nothing to that university. He previously went 35-15 in five seasons as head coach at Toledo.
Can Campbell lead the Lions to a championship like his former college roommate Nick Sirianni did with the Philadelphia Eagles? We’ll see.
He’ll definitely have more resources than he had at Iowa State, with Penn State reportedly promising $30 million in NIL money and $17 million for his coaching staff.
He’s a geographical fit with his Ohio roots and is a coach who has developed NFL players such as Brock Purdy, Breece Hall, David Montgomery, Will McDonald IV and Allen Lazard.
Will Campbell be better than Franklin, who led Penn State to a school-record 34 wins from 2022-24 and a .698 winning percentage in his 11-plus seasons?
Even Kraft admitted that his professional future depends on it.
“If I don’t get this right, my career is over,” Kraft purportedly said in the meeting with the players. “If I don’t hire the right person, my career is over. If I don’t find the right person, in two years they will fire my (expletive) and I don’t get another AD job.
“How could you (expletive) up Penn State?”
