Ouch. Penn State 2027 Recruiting Decline?

[madguy30]

Repeating but I'm curious to see if his offense pisses around pre-snap after an explosive play that gets thrm to like the 5.

 

[hoosman]

When it comes to CFB , if you don’t have hated teams, you’re missing out. It is almost as much fun cheering against the enemies of ISU as it is cheering for ISU and B12 teams. Otherwise you can sit on your high horse and say that you cheer for ALL teams to win while you admire your collection of participation trophies.

 

[dafarmer]

He should be used to the fans carping, there were plenty of it from our fans.

 

[clonedude]

I especially liked the line:

"The losses — if they happen — will definitely hurt the trajectory of the class, and morale around Penn State fans will likely be down."

Skipping over reasonable expectations is the way to go with a new coaching staff.

It’s not about winning. Just want to turn young men into adults…. or something like that? It’s really hard to win at a place like PSU!

 

[aeroclone]

This has always felt similar to the Hoiberg to the Bulls move to me. Yes, it is that step up job that may have been a long time goal of yours. But it clearly isn't a great fit. The skills and style that you have that made you successful at ISU just don't translate to that step up job. You traded another 10+ years and a future statue in Ames for 3 or 4 years of headaches, constant criticism, and a severance package with the new gig.

 

[CascadeClone]

Campbell couldn't handle "hot set guy". He's almost 2 months away from even coaching a game and a portion of the fan base is already ragging on him. Good luck with that.

Yeah, the hidden headline is - "We will ALWAYS find something to criticize, even before anything has even gone wrong"

 

[jsb]

Love. It.

 

[jsb]

Honestly that matters a lot more at places like Iowa State. Schools that think they are National Title type teams need 5 stars. They need the culture 5 star players. Getting 3 star culture guys at Penn State is not going to get the job done at that school. It just won't. We can do the culture, 3 star player thing at Iowa State because not one person thinks we have a shot at the National Title. We have a shot at a big 12 title. So if Matt is trying to go for 3 and 2 star guys that fit the culture, he will fail. Those Miami and Bama teams didn't have the great Culture fellas. They had ballers who played a couple year and then got drafted in round 1.

Agreed. The magic that Campbell did here was getting guys in and then developing them. And those guys were incredibly loyal and turned down bigger money to stay here.

I’m not so sure that works at all school that wants to pretend they are a national title contender.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

Honestly that matters a lot more at places like Iowa State. Schools that think they are National Title type teams need 5 stars. They need the culture 5 star players. Getting 3 star culture guys at Penn State is not going to get the job done at that school. It just won't. We can do the culture, 3 star player thing at Iowa State because not one person thinks we have a shot at the National Title. We have a shot at a big 12 title. So if Matt is trying to go for 3 and 2 star guys that fit the culture, he will fail. Those Miami and Bama teams didn't have the great Culture fellas. They had ballers who played a couple year and then got drafted in round 1.

I wasn’t suggesting that he was targeting 2 and 3 star players, but maybe he’s not as worried about them being from PA as he is that they are a fit for his culture.

 

[Prone2Clone]

Process the trust.

 

[cyfan92]

Penn State's non-conference this year is the easiest non-conference Matt has every played. For some perspective, the SOS rank for Penn State is nearly 20 spots worse than the second lowest Big 10 team (59th in the country)

They will be 3-0 on 9/20. Their big 10 slate, according to SP+ is #62 Wisconsin, @#46 Northwestern, then their hardest two games (#13 USC and @ #14 Michigan), followed by #83 Purdue, @#21 Washington, #45 Minn, #61 Rutgers, and finishes @#53 Maryland. The first top 25 opponent isn't until 10/10 and the median ranking from 10/31-11/28 games is #53 in SP+. As a measuring stick, the 2025 UCONN Huskies were #53 in SP+ last season.

Winning anything less than 9 games in 2026 should cause Happy Valley to burn to the ground...

 

[Pope]

You have a new coach and basically a completely new staff, it's going to take a year or two for them to get out and meet the coaches and players from their region. Don't think for a moment that once Franklin was fired, the other name schools figured that it improved their chances in Penn. and the region to get kids that might have gone to PSU if the coaching change had not occurred. ISU is going to be going through the same thing, which will kill us in the instate recruiting for the next year or two.
If Campbell wins, the recruits will be there, if he doesn't they won't, the same for Rogers.

I think we're doing just fine. Rogers already has 24 commits for 2027 and 4 are from Iowa. Ferentz has 13 commits for 2027 and 6 are from Iowa. All 10 kids who've committed to ISU or Iowa are 3star recruits.

Rogers and his staff are already very familiar with the high school coaches in the midwest. They've recruited Iowa and surrounding states intensely for several years, so they've hit the ground running.

 

[jsb]

I wasn’t suggesting that he was targeting 2 and 3 star players, but maybe he’s not as worried about them being from PA as he is that they are a fit for his culture.

Can that culture win at a place like Penn State though?

 

[ZorkClone]

Penn State's non-conference this year is the easiest non-conference Matt has every played. For some perspective, the SOS rank for Penn State is nearly 20 spots worse than the second lowest Big 10 team (59th in the country)

They will be 3-0 on 9/20. Their big 10 slate, according to SP+ is #62 Wisconsin, @#46 Northwestern, then their hardest two games (#13 USC and @ #14 Michigan), followed by #83 Purdue, @#21 Washington, #45 Minn, #61 Rutgers, and finishes @#53 Maryland. The first top 25 opponent isn't until 10/10 and the median ranking from 10/31-11/28 games is #53 in SP+. As a measuring stick, the 2025 UCONN Huskies were #53 in SP+ last season.

Winning anything less than 9 games in 2026 should cause Happy Valley to burn to the ground...

Agree. Anyone here who will be hate watching Penn State this year will likely be very frustrated. Penn State will likely be in the playoff, Matt will be praised to high heaven for saving Penn State, and people will bash ISU as a place that was holding Matt and Rocco back. It would be very sweet for them to flop there, but I won't hold my breath.

 

[cytor]

It's less important today than before because of the portal, but recruiting especially the instate kids is very important. If you can't convince the kids from your state to go to your school, why would those outside of your state come? EIU has owned the instate recording year after year, and that needs to change.

Matt did pretty good against EIU while he was here.

 

[Rural]

Agree. Anyone here who will be hate watching Penn State this year will likely be very frustrated. Penn State will likely be in the playoff, Matt will be praised to high heaven for saving Penn State, and people will bash ISU as a place that was holding Matt and Rocco back. It would be very sweet for them to flop there, but I won't hold my breath.

I’d definitely be in wait and see mode whether they’re actually all that much superior to those 20th to 60ish rated teams.

 

[awd4cy]

Penn State's non-conference this year is the easiest non-conference Matt has every played. For some perspective, the SOS rank for Penn State is nearly 20 spots worse than the second lowest Big 10 team (59th in the country)

They will be 3-0 on 9/20. Their big 10 slate, according to SP+ is #62 Wisconsin, @#46 Northwestern, then their hardest two games (#13 USC and @ #14 Michigan), followed by #83 Purdue, @#21 Washington, #45 Minn, #61 Rutgers, and finishes @#53 Maryland. The first top 25 opponent isn't until 10/10 and the median ranking from 10/31-11/28 games is #53 in SP+. As a measuring stick, the 2025 UCONN Huskies were #53 in SP+ last season.

Winning anything less than 9 games in 2026 should cause Happy Valley to burn to the ground...

Campbell would never lose to any teams he should beat.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Matt did pretty good against EIU while he was here.

Sure did and how much better when he have done with the higher rated Iowa kids? Instate kids are the life blood of most programs, you have to keep the better kids in state more often than not and in the case of where you have two instate schools, be beating them for the better talent more often than not.

If you are Georgia you do not want to lose a 5 star instate kid to Alabama, or LSU, even though you are going to get your share of 5 stars also, you want to keep the best athletics in your state going to your school.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

The issue is whether or not that top end player in Iowa is equivalent to the same ranked player in Texas, or more like those other 5 still available there after that. It's not like we are a factory for future NFL players here, the ones we've put into the NFL recently weren't from here for the most part. Again, that's mostly the south and coasts pumping out those dudes. You brought up Iowa, we've won just fine despite not beating them with Iowa crooting. Those Iowa croots haven't gotten them any further than they've gotten us. Every region has a ceiling.

I tend to think basketball is more of a player-sport, where one or two guys can make or break an entire team. That's frequently not the case for football; what provides wins is schematic excellence. You go where you need to go to find players who fit your system on the field, you don't settle for what is close by if you don't need to.

Not really if a kid is rated a 4 or 5 star player, it doesn't matter that he is from Texas or Iowa, the difference is the amount each state produces. Proctor a 5 star out of the state of Iowa is just as good as those that he was competing against at Alabama, many from states that are producing a lot more high talented players, If you can play, you can play, it doesn't matter where you are from.
No one is saying take a 2 star instate kid over a 3 star from out of state, but if the talent is equal you always want the instate kid.

The kids we have put in the NFL were the diamonds in the rough, kids that schools with better records either didn't know or found out late about, where we had zero in and created a connection. Look at Purdy had a great career, player of the year but was only a 3 star recruit according to 247, they missed on him.

 

[harimad]

Matt won't be there in 6 years time. We've all seen how his teams perform when there's sky high expectations.

You pretend like that’s a Matt problem and not an Iowa State problem. I hate saying it, but falling down under the weight of expectations is our ******* calling card at this point.