Ouch. Penn State 2027 Recruiting Decline?

[1UNI2ISU]

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

They kept James Franklin for 12 years as he went 15-28 against Top 25 teams and would still be there had he beaten UCLA and Northwestern last year. I'll be Campbell flips those numbers in his first 43 games against ranked teams.

Penn State doesn't make impulsive coaching decisions.

 

[KnappShack]

The PSU community will look the other way, and I mean REALLY look WAY other there, if the team wins.

Matt and his little cult will be fine.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

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.

It's all in the details, the highest rated players by 247 for 2027 are going to Penn. State and Minnesota, EIU got players 3, 4, and 5, along with 9 and 10. ISU got 6 and 8 with #7 not being recruited by either school.
You have to look past the total and look at their rankings. Our other two recruits are 18 and 19, while EIU's lowest is 14th. There were only two 4 star instate recruits for the 2027 class and both are going out of state. So of the top 10 instate players 7 are staying in state and EIU got 5 of the 7.

2027 Top Football Recruits in Iowa

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.

247sports.com

 

[CascadeClone]

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...

They will inexplicably lose a home game they shouldn't.

I'd guess Minny. Feels like the kind of rock fight where CMC plays the game in the style the opponent prefers.

 

[CyGuy5]

Man I can’t wait until they lose to a team they have no business losing to. I might have to make a burner just for that

“Linebacker U” is going to start Kooper Ebel. That fanbase won’t accept that

 

[1SEIACLONE]

What is going to get to many ISU fans is that Penn State is going to win 10 to 12 games, make the playoff and will be doing with a lot of former ISU players at key positions. There will be a lot of talk on here about how that could have been us, and they will be correct. Campbell is good of a coach and has learned from the mistakes he made here to stop repeating those mistakes. He will just have better players to coach than what he did here. Heck I saw the Oline coach the other day saying he has never worked with so many good players as he has this year. They just have and are going to get better players than ISU.

 

[madguy30]

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.

Wait is this sarcasm or are we calling 3-6 including some baffling weirdness in that game pretty good?

Thankfully it didn't define CMC's time but outside of eeking out some ugly wins recently it was not good.

 

[Texbudman]

What is going to get to many ISU fans is that Penn State is going to win 10 to 12 games, make the playoff and will be doing with a lot of former ISU players at key positions. There will be a lot of talk on here about how that could have been us, and they will be correct. Campbell is good of a coach and has learned from the mistakes he made here to stop repeating those mistakes. He will just have better players to coach than what he did here. Heck I saw the Oline coach the other day saying he has never worked with so many good players as he has this year. They just have and are going to get better players than ISU.

Wasn't every offensive line gonna be the "best ever" according to Campbell every year? And I'm not sure he learned from his mistakes during that debacle in Boulder last year

 

[drmwevr08]

Matt did pretty good against EIU while he was here.

Say what?

 

[RagingCloner]

Matt did pretty good against EIU while he was here.

This is 100% recency bias.

Part of me hopes you are being facetious

 

[Kinch]

Man I can’t wait until they lose to a team they have no business losing to. I might have to make a burner just for that

“Linebacker U” is going to start Kooper Ebel. That fanbase won’t accept that

He's listed a lot of his former Iowa State players as starters on the two deeps. Surprised it was that many. This was a team that was 5-4 in the Big 12 and ranked in the middle offensive and defensive statistical categories.

 

[clonedude]

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...

IMO.... if they lose to both USC and Michigan... they will not have a "good win" on their resume... and one of the easiest non-conference schedules in the country. No way a team like that should make ANY playoff.... but I'm sure they would for sure. Those are the times we're living in.

If Rocco is their starter, nothing against him at all, but they will lose at least 1 or 2 games they have no business losing IMO. And Mouser will cost them 1 or 2 also IMO. UNLESS... both Rocco and Mouser have gotten a LOT better since last year.

 

[MeowingCows]

This is 100% recency bias.

Part of me hopes you are being facetious

We were competitive in most of those games, but found incredibly stupid ways to lose a bunch of them.