How long does Matt Campbell get?

As we get closer to real start of Matt Campbell’s tenure, I’ve thought about how unique he is in the history of Penn State football.

It might not feel like it, but Campbell is the first coach Penn State has hired with the program operating at full capacity since Joe Paterno was named head coach in 1966.

Bill O’Brien and James Franklin both took the jobs when Penn State was facing unique scholarship challenges - among other things - and that (more for Franklin than O’Brien) created a necessary grace period along the way. You couldn’t reasonably expect either to win at a high level given the constraints they were originally operating with.

That truth no longer applied to Franklin as the years went on, but there was a stretch when many of Penn State’s issues were more a product of circumstance than anything else.

So, given the largest NIL budget in program history, a newly renovated stadium and an athletic director who spends money like the world is ending - how long does Campbell get to make the most of it?

It’s an interesting question considering Campbell’s contract runs until 2033 (eight years if you’re not into math) and has an automatic two-year extension clause every time Penn State makes the College Football Playoffs.

One imagines Pat Kraft isn’t planning on giving Campbell a decade to figure things out, and considering everything we learned about how fluid contract buyouts are with Franklin, the threat of paying Campbell a ton of money to leave feels more technically true that materially true.

Of note, like just about every coach in the country, Campbell’s contract buyout states he will be paid what he is owed for the remainder of the deal “subject to Coach’s mitigation” which effectively means: if he can get a job he is required to try. The amount Penn State owes him for being fired would be the difference between the new job and the old. That’s what happened with Franklin, although this language was not in the previously available public contract documentation. It’s entirely possible this was added for Campbell after dealing with Franklin’s buyout.