After a back-and-forth saga that ended with BYU’s Kalani Sitake choosing to stay in Utah over signing to be Penn State’s next coach , the Nittany Lions have once again identified a top candidate for the vacant position.

Penn State has “shifted the focus of its coaching search" to Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, according to an inital report from On3 . A PennLive source also relayed that Penn State is narrowing in on Campbell.

Campbell, 46, has been at Iowa State since 2016 and has earned a reputation as a “do more with less” type of coach. He has turned Iowa State into a competitor after a lackluster history for the program, going 72-55 in his Cyclones tenure.

His best season came in 2024, when Iowa State went 11-3, finishing No. 15 in the postseason AP Poll with a win in the

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