Matt Campbell Has His First Problem

I want to skim through a few things from Matt Campbell’s press conference yesterday, but first, a problem that has bubbled up Thursday morning.

The loss of Pauley — who also just spoke to the media on Wednesday — is the first meaningful blow to the Matt Campbell era. Pauley hadn’t coached a snap at Penn State yet but is regarded as a quality young coach in the profession with good developmental skills. Penn State’s recent struggles at receiver are well documented at this point and Pauley was likely to be the spark that room needed.

Who Campbell turns to remains to be seen. Be that poaching another staff or finding someone looking for work. It’s a big problem to solve.

But back to the task at hand.

Matt Campbell spoke to the media on Wednesday for the first time since his introductory press conference — effectively to celebrate [?] National Signing Day. The February version of NSD has become less notable in recent years with the early signing period becoming the main attraction, but the guy has signed around 400 new faces since getting the job so there’s a lot to catch up on.

Initial thoughts?

It’s probably not fair to Campbell to expect his first real press conference to be anything out of the ordinary, but he seems like a coach who is good at saying a lot of words without saying a whole lot of substance. That’s the safest way to go, especially in the early stages of his tenure, but his transcript worked out to be a 14 page Google doc and I’m not sure any of it was headline making. I get the impression that Campbell was that way at Iowa State, but it will be interesting to see how coach-speak goes over in front of a much larger audience.

That said - a few quotable moments of note. These are portions of longer answers because the man is a talker.

“Yeah, that's probably one of my favorite things because it's my responsibility who comes into the program and building the program, both holistically for right now, and then obviously where we're going.”

“I think Taylor has proven over his two-year period to be one of the up-and-coming bright minds in all of college football. I think he has a fearlessness as a play caller

We played Miami two years ago in the bowl game and had to win 43-42, and you’ve got to make the critical calls in the moment, and you’ve watched him really kind of mature in terms of who he’s become as a playcaller, great leader of people.

I think you’re expecting a gentleman and somebody that’s got unbelievable leadership ability and the ability to align and unify a group, and Taylor has done a great job of that.”

Everybody uses the buzz word “culture”. Culture is not words; it’s how you live, it’s how you act, it’s how you carry yourself. We get to begin to build those foundational blocks within our program, and we’re excited about that.

“That’s my biggest thing. You guys will hear me say it probably, and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of heck for it as we go forward, but, players, formations, plays.

Who are the players? What formations are we going to get in? It doesn’t matter if it’s offense, defense, or special teams. What plays are going to get called? When you don’t play by that model, I think it’s really tough to have success. When you do highlight the players, put them in the best position to be successful, and man, let the players go win the games on Saturdays, that’s how you have to play football, and it doesn’t matter in what phase.”

“Obviously, it took a while to get to where we got to, but Coach Lynn, for him to financially give up some things to get here, to kind of come here with purpose and integrity, I don't know if I could be any more excited to be able to lead with him.”