![\"Iowa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2245902984-1024x670.jpg\")
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Penn State has been searching for James Franklin’s replacement since October. Is Matt Campbell next? Ron Jenkins \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
By The Athletic College Football Staff<\/p>\n
Dec. 4, 2025Updated 9:04 pm EST<\/p>\n
By Ralph D. Russo, Bruce Feldman and Chris Vannini<\/strong><\/p>\n Penn State\u2019s ever-winding coaching search<\/a> has now turned its focus to Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, people briefed on the situation told The Athletic. Penn State and Campbell\u2019s camp have been in conversation on Thursday.<\/p>\n Campbell has spent the past decade at Iowa State, posting a 72-55 record with two appearances in the Big 12 Championship Game. His 2024 team won a school-record 11 games, and the 2020 team went 8-0 in conference play, the first time ISU finished atop its conference standings since 1912. He\u2019s the winningest coach in school history, and he\u2019s responsible for five of the program\u2019s 12 seasons with eight wins or more, across 133 years of football.<\/p>\n The Ohio native, who graduated from Division III power Mount Union, spent one season of his playing career at Pitt and the next 17 years in the state of Ohio, including 2012-15 as Toledo\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n Penn State\u2019s search to replace James Franklin<\/a>, now 53 days long, has missed on several targets, including BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, who on Tuesday opted to remain at his alma mater<\/a>. Louisville\u2019s Jeff Brohm also decided to stay at his alma mater<\/a>, according to sources briefed on the talks. Other names in the mix this week included former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who has the support of the Pegula family that owns the Buffalo Bills and are big Penn State donors. Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees have also been in the mix, and interim head coach Terry Smith has gotten support from current and former players.<\/p>\n Campbell has been involved in many coaching searches over the years. He received interest from the New York Jets that he declined, and he was a finalist for the USC job that went to Lincoln Riley.<\/p>\n This story will be updated.<\/p>\n Dec 5, 2025<\/p>\n Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State has been searching for James Franklin’s replacement since October. Is Matt Campbell next? Ron Jenkins \/…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,1318,8798,1317,1315,1316,1381,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-425496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-iowa-state-cyclones","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115664680140103777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n