Think of it as an early Christmas gift.
A glimpse into my mind.
I recognize that’s an awful Christmas present. But I did want to share a few things that have been rattling my brain over the last week or so as Penn State has kicked off the Matt Campbell era.
So here we go, and no I didn’t get a gift receipt.
• When Penn State announced Matt Campbell, they announced him as the 17th coach in Penn State football history. In fact, he got a jersey with the number on it at Monday’s press conference.
But if you go to our Penn State records by coach page, you will see there are 19 coaches on that list, plus an era of no coach. The reason for the discrepancy in the number of coaches between the very official source of Penn State and our very unofficial source on the blog is the addition of Tom Bradley and Terry Smith on that record list.
Bradley served as the interim after Joe Paterno was fired and Smith is still presently serving as the interim. I would argue that because these coaches have wins and losses attributed to them, Campbell should be the 19th head coach in program history. Their wins aren’t attributed to the coach before them.
But in checking with the official source, Penn State’s sports information department, as is the case at other schools, because Smith and Bradley had the interim tag, they are not counted toward the official total of coaches.
“Interim head coaches are not typically counted as ‘head coaches’ in school histories,” Penn State senior associate AD for communication Kris Peterson said via email.
It is somewhat of an obvious answer and I appreciate Peterson dealing with another one of my odd email requests.
• The Pat Kraft audio was effectively confirmed as authentic in part thanks to his apology at Monday’s press conference. That means we can talk about it. And if you can sift through the f-bombs in there, he left some juicy bits of information related to the sports business aspect around Penn State.
The biggest piece of information was the confirmation that Penn State had “one of the highest-paid rosters in the country.”
There has been a disconnect, in part due to how rough of a start Penn State’s NIL programs got off to, that Penn State was struggling when it comes to paying its players. It seemed that Penn State had a woe-is-me attitude about it. But it appears Penn State now has some dough.
We didn’t get an official number from Kraft in the audio. However, as Matt Fortuna reported this week, Campbell will have $30 million in NIL dollars backing his team. That is more money than Iowa State made in all athletic ticket sales in 2023-24 ($23 million).
The other piece related to NIL in the audio was that Penn State was paying “103” players on its roster. By my count, that’s all but 24 guys on the 2025 roster. And, according to Kraft, schools like Texas are only paying 65 players.
This is the biggest glimpse into how NIL funds are both being spent and used at Penn State – and potentially how they could be used moving forward. However, unless some audio leaks again, I’m doubtful we will ever get another update on it.
• Boy, Kraft does not like Oregon and from the business standpoint, this makes sense.
Oregon is probably a greater threat to Penn State’s stance in the Big Ten, particularly in football, than Ohio State is — at least right now. I think this also provides some clarity around why Penn State pursued Kalani Sitake to open up and potentially make a dent in Oregon’s west coast pipeline.
Moreover, Penn State just signed one of the biggest apparel deals in college football history with Adidas, which is of course Nike’s chief rival. Nike obviously has been Penn State’s apparel provider since the 1990s and it appears the reported bad blood between PSU and Nike recently seems to be an underlying tone to what Kraft said. Plus, Nike’s Phil Knight has no shortage of money to put into the Ducks football program.
A few people scoffed at the Venmo Rivalry series – and the logo that appeared on the field at Beaver Stadium this year. Yes, it was a bit unnecessary and odd for schools that have rarely played, but between these comments and two tense football games – one of which may have altered Penn State’s history – its placement could make sense in coming years.
• Penn State’s social media game has been strong since Campbell came to town.
From showcasing his first steps in Happy Valley to exploring the Lasch Building to providing clips from the press conference, Penn State did a strong job showcasing its new coach.
The best piece of the week, by far, was the video the Campbell family taking their first steps onto the field inside Beaver Stadium. The emotions captured of Erica Campbell are what make the clip so great.
It will be interesting to see how Penn State’s social media presence and really whole creative team operate moving forward. Franklin notoriously had a tight grip on that content but I can’t see Campbell being the same way.
• The execution from Roar+ to share the first exclusive interview before Campbell’s press conference was a solid move. LaVar Arrington handled the interview in his usual role and for an introductory conversation, he seemed to have good chemistry with his de facto podcast co-host moving forward.
I also read Fortuna’s exclusive interview with Campbell, which went live on Monday and is worth the sub alone. His content was also strong during the coaching search.
Lastly, if you haven’t listened to the interview that Josh Pate conducted with Campbell, you should. It’s probably the best of the bunch, with a good national perspective.
• Of the publicly available contracts at Penn State, which isn’t many, Campbell’s is the first to include language related to an automatic extension should Penn State make the College Football Playoff.
Additionally, it’s interesting that language around mitigation was included. I really believe the conversation around Franklin would have been very different had Penn Staters known that.
You can see Campbell’s term sheet here.
• Where’s the 2026 schedule? Unless I missed something, we still don’t have a date for when it will be released. On BTN Tailgate prior to last year’s Big Ten title game, the conference announced the 2025 schedule would be announced on Dec. 11, 2024. Yes, that was a year ago today.
However, they did not announce the announcement date at this year’s Big Ten Championship game.
• I was somewhat surprised to see that the Bad Boy Mowers Pintstripe Bowl will be just the second time Penn State and Clemson have ever met. It kind of makes sense. Penn State had generally avoided heading south over the years.
But still interesting, nonetheless.
Alright, that’s it. Too much thinking for today. But fear not. We will have usual game-related coverage and other usual content to wrap up the 2025 season.
If you’ve enjoyed this content, please subscribe to Stuff Somers Says With Steve on YouTube. Or join our newsletter by entering your email below.
