EQUAL PARTS HAPPY and relieved, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft sat at the interview table inside the media room at Beaver Stadium with new coach Matt Campbell to his right.
After 58 days, Penn State had completed its coaching search with a selection who was both exciting and sensible, someone who seemingly could have been sitting with Kraft a lot sooner.
Campbell, only 46 years old, had become Iowa State’s all-time coaching wins leader and elevated the ISU program to historic consistency. Plus, he needed no introduction to Penn State and its tradition, having spent much of his childhood following Nittany Lions football while visiting his grandparents in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania.
Campbell’s hiring drew instant praise. But everyone wondered the same thing: What took so long?
«We didn’t really have a timeline, I mean that,» Kraft said. «We were focused on finding the right person, and at all costs.»
He paused.
«There probably will be a Netflix documentary at some point.»
Penn State’s was the first top-tier coaching job to open during a cycle that included 15 Power 4 hirings, but, until the Sherrone Moore scandal broke at Michigan, it was the very last to be filled. The search lasted so long that James Franklin, the coach Penn State abruptly fired after 12-plus seasons and 104 wins, found his next job at Virginia Tech three full weeks before Campbell was introduced in State College.
The 58-day saga included tens of millions in contract extension money for potential external candidates, a recruiting class that in large part followed Franklin to Blacksburg, the leaking of a secret audio recording of Kraft airing grievances, and the CEO of Crumbl cookies taking an interest.
ESPN spoke with sources in and around the Penn State search to assess what happened behind the scenes and why two sides seemingly meant for each other took so long to come together.
Drew Allar and many of Penn State’s top players had returned. The team made significant investments in the roster and the coaching staff, where Franklin plucked defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from national champion Ohio State. Penn State debuted at No. 2 in the AP Top 25, its highest preseason ranking in 28 years. But the team looked sluggish in nonconference play against non-Power 4 opponents Nevada, Florida International and Villanova.
After a heartbreaking overtime loss to Oregon at home, losses to winless UCLA and unranked Northwestern followed.
«Things really progressed poorly this year,» a source familiar with the search said. «Didn’t feel like they were going to get better within this year, and then didn’t feel great about the future.»
Franklin went 4-21 at Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 against Big Ten teams in the top 10. At a news conference on the day after firing Franklin, Kraft made it clear that Penn State needed to start winning the biggest games more often, including the ones that would secure the school’s first national championship since 1986.
«Football is our backbone,» Kraft said. «We have invested at the highest level. With that comes high expectations. Ultimately, I believe a new leader can help us win a national championship, and now is the right time for this change.»
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Smith quickly gained support from current and former players, especially as the team improved under his watch with three straight wins to end the regular season. He was a legitimate candidate, sources close to the search said, and went through the same process as others, but ultimately lacked the FBS head coaching experience Penn State desired.
By late November, the school was locked in on Sitake, whose name had, to that point, not been widely connected to the Penn State job. University president Neeli Bendapudi had involvement in the effort to bring Sitake to Penn State, sources familiar with the search said.
Campbell, meanwhile, had not gained much traction. Despite Penn State’s initial interest, the school had received «some intel that was not accurate» about the ISU coach, a source familiar with the search said. Essentially, Campbell was portrayed as a coach who would struggle with the magnitude of the Penn State job, especially the recruiting and roster construction elements when targeting higher-profile players who would demand serious money.
An industry insider «basically bad-mouthed Matt, told Pat that he didn’t work the portal well,» said a source familiar with the search. «It dampened Pat’s interest. He got a bad read about Matt from that [person]. That’s why I think he steered in a different direction.»
As the regular season concluded, Sitake was seemingly in line to become the next Nittany Lions coach. The hope was that his name wouldn’t get out publicly, and an agreement could be consummated after the Big 12 championship game.
But Sitake’s name began to leak during the final weekend of the regular season. By Dec. 1, a Monday, reports labeled Sitake as the focus of Penn State’s drawn-out search. BYU’s financial machine, which had activated to obtain top basketball recruit AJ Dybantsa and others, quickly kicked into gear to keep Sitake at his alma mater.
Several prominent BYU donors stepped up, including Jason McGowan, CEO and co-founder of Crumbl, the national cookie bakery chain, who lives in Provo, Utah, near BYU’s stadium. McGowan posted on X, «Some people are not replaceable. Sounds like it is time for me to get off the sidelines and get to work.»
Within 24 hours, BYU announced a new, enhanced long-term contract for Sitake, designed to keep him in Provo for good and compete regularly for the CFP. Penn State seemingly was back to square one.
In an attempt to rub sugar in the wound, a BYU fan sent Kraft a box of Crumbl cookies through DoorDash, while Virginia Tech just happened to serve Crumbl cookies at its first signing day event under Franklin.
JACKSON FORD SIGNED his letter of intent around lunchtime Dec. 3. Then reality set in.
A four-star defensive end at Malvern Prep, a private school 25 miles west of Philadelphia, Ford grew up watching the Nittany Lions. When he sprouted into a Power 4 recruit, Penn State was among the earliest programs to offer. «Dream school — I always wanted to play there,» Ford said.
He committed to the Nittany Lions in June. And while Franklin’s October dismissal came as a surprise, Ford never wavered on his pledge to the program this fall. But, as Ford walked out of his signing ceremony inside the Malvern Prep gymnasium, a flurry of news washed over him.
For at least a few minutes, Ford was officially the last man standing in Penn State’s 2026 class.
«It was kind of nerve-racking,» he told ESPN. «Like, ‘Dang, it’s really just me.'»
As the coaching search dragged on in the weeks before the 2026 early signing period, a once-promising Nittany Lions recruiting class crumbled almost entirely.
Penn State held pledges from 25 recruits within the nation’s 17th-ranked recruiting class in the 2026 cycle at the time of Franklin’s Oct. 12 firing. Among that group were six members of the 2026 ESPN 300, including coveted in-state recruits Kevin Brown (No. 78 overall), Messiah Mickens (No. 141) and Matt Sieg (No. 162). Four-star quarterback Troy Huhn, a polished, pro-style passer from San Marcos, California, had been committed for more than a year.
By the end of the early signing period on Dec. 5, only Ford remained with the Nittany Lions.
Florida and LSU each retained and signed the majority of their 2026 commits earlier this month despite the respective October firings of coaches Billy Napier and Brian Kelly. At Penn State, where sources familiar with the program described a hushed, old-school approach to financials and a recruiting operation centered firmly on Franklin himself, the infrastructure, or a lack thereof, caved in.
In the immediate aftermath, multiple former Penn State commits told ESPN that members of the Penn State staff said their previously agreed revenue share contracts were «null and void,» at least until the Nittany Lions hired a new coach. Others stopped hearing from the program altogether.
«Once Franklin got fired, they stopped contacting us completely,» the parent of another Penn State decommit said. «It’s like they didn’t have a recruiting department once he stepped away.»
The Penn State job had been vacant for more than a month when Franklin landed at Virginia Tech on Nov. 17 and immediately began targeting his former Penn State commits. «I’m pretty sure he called all of us that night,» eventual Hokies signee Benjamin Eziuka said.
Over the next two weeks, Franklin landed pledges from 11 ex-Nittany Lions commits, including Huhn, Mickens and eight others who had been part of the program’s incoming class on Oct. 12.
Brown and Sieg — two of Pennsylvania’s top five prospects in 2026 — landed together at West Virginia. North Carolina poached four former Penn State pledges. All told, 24 members of the Nittany Lions’ incoming class found new homes across 11 schools during the 58 days between Franklin’s firing and Campbell’s hiring.
But, in the background of the program’s recruiting collapse, interim coach Terry Smith and quarterbacks coach Trace McSorley spent the first 48 hours of December working on a signing day surprise.
The pair of Nittany Lions assistants had kept in touch with four-star quarterback Peyton Falzone after he flipped his pledge from Penn State to Auburn in the summer. When Falzone left the Tigers’ 2026 class on Dec. 1 following the arrival of former South Florida coach Alex Golesh at Auburn, the Nittany Lions were prepared to pounce. Smith sealed his commitment over the phone on the eve of the early signing period. Falzone put pen to paper in a signing ceremony the next day.
Afterward, one of his first phone calls was to Ford. Penn State’s lonely pair of early signing period additions will room together when Falzone and Ford land on campus in January.
«We’re fired up to get up there early and just work our tails off,» Ford said. «We have a lot to prove.»
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Since then, it has been tough to line up perfect timing with perfect destination. And it seemed like 2025 might not be the year, either. Soon after the big jobs started opening, the Cyclones endured a four-game losing streak that knocked them out of the Big 12 title race. They managed to rally back in November and pull off an 8-4 finish.
The morning after Sitake re-upped with BYU, an associate with ties to both Kraft and Campbell reached out to the Penn State AD and brought up Campbell. Kraft was pitched on why Campbell could succeed at PSU: a proven culture, a detailed and disciplined approach and natural regional ties.
«If I were you,» the associate told Kraft, «I would turn my attention to Campbell quickly.»
Kraft agreed and asked to connect with Campbell. The associate thought Penn State would be an ideal spot for the Campbells with their extended family less than three hours away in Ohio. Kraft also suspected what their response might be to Penn State belatedly reaching out.
«What the f— took you guys so long?»
Penn State had an explanation, of course — that it was told Campbell could struggle with certain elements of the Penn State job — but Kraft would need to relay it himself. Late that night, the AD spoke with Campbell over the phone, and came away convinced that Penn State finally had its guy.
«I was banging my head against the wall like, ‘Why did it take so long for us to find each other?'» Kraft said. «He was perfect, and we connected on so many levels. I woke my wife, Betsy, up and said, ‘Oh my god, he’s the guy.'»
Kraft needed to meet Campbell in person and cleared out his remaining schedule for the following day. Campbell had a full slate of end-of-season meetings scheduled with Iowa State players and wasn’t going to think about the job until he completed those. Kraft and others involved in Penn State’s search flew to Ames on Thursday night, Dec. 4, for their own in-person meeting with their new No. 1 target. The Penn State contingent arrived at Campbell’s home with a term sheet in hand, determined to get a deal done. Campbell was joined by several top aides, including general manager Derek Hoodjer and chief of staff Skip Brabenec, sources said.
Iowa State staffers were left in suspense for most of Friday and were nervous that, just like with the Detroit job, this could still somehow fall through. They received radio silence from Campbell while his representative negotiated an eight-year, $70.5 million deal. Finally, Campbell called a 6:30 p.m. staff meeting.
Campbell held a team meeting a half-hour later and ended up talking with Iowa State players until 2 a.m. He describes that night as «one of the hardest moments of my life.» Team leaders assured their head coach they understood and supported his decision.
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard was prepared for his coach’s expected departure and immediately hired Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers that same night as Campbell’s replacement. Pollard went with Rogers over promoting longtime Campbell protégé Taylor Mouser, which made for a cleaner split for both sides and the end of an era.
After a fast and furious 48-hour pursuit to close out the marathon search, Penn State had found its next head coach.
«We got the guy we want,» Kraft said. «We really got the guy, the guy who’s going to lead us to a national championship and bring us back to the best program in the country.»
