Head coach Matt Campbell has not even coached a game at the Penn State football team yet, but his early moves make it clear he plans to rebuild the Nittany Lions from the inside out. One of his first major steps was prying Derek Hoodjer away from Iowa State to serve as his personnel chief in State College.
Hoodjer, long viewed as Campbell’s behind-the-scenes “GM” in Ames, was central to the Cyclones’ ability to stack competitive, system-fit rosters without blue-blood resources. Bringing him to Penn State is a loud signal that roster building, evaluation, and long-term identity are going to be at the heart of Campbell’s tenure.
From there, Campbell turned directly to the high school ranks with a message tailor-made for Pennsylvania and the surrounding region. Speaking about his recruiting philosophy, he laid out an aggressive, local-first blueprint via Daniel Gallen on X.
“You’re in the most fertile ground of excellence of high school football in a six-to-eight-hour radius. Everything will start with building high school football and continuing to do a great job in this state and our surrounding states. Nobody’s going to attack more than us.”
For a fan base that has long wanted Penn State to lock down its backyard, that is exactly the kind of promise they have been waiting to hear from the next head coach.
The hiring of Campbell itself came after a thorough process that even reached into the NFL. Before finalizing a deal with the former Iowa State coach, Penn State interviewed Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, a fast-rising 33-year-old play caller with roots at Notre Dame and Alabama.
Rees reportedly impressed enough to remain in serious contention late in the search, and his candidacy showed how open the school was to a younger, offense-centric profile before ultimately opting for Campbell’s proven program-building resume.
Now, with Hoodjer on board and a clear pledge to dominate regional recruiting, Campbell’s early blueprint at Penn State is coming into focus: keep the core footprint close, evaluate relentlessly, and build a roster tough enough to match the identity he crafted in Ames, only now on a much bigger stage.
