Penn State’s tumultuous 54-day search to find its next football coach is nearing an end.

Following several swings and misses, athletic director Pat Kraft is in “the final stages of negotiations” to hire Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, according to national reports.

Campbell, 46, would replace James Franklin, who was fired Oct. 12 after three straight losses.

Breaking: Matt Campbell and Penn State are working toward a deal for him to become the next head coach for the Nittany Lions, sources told @PeteThamel.

There are multiple steps needed to finalize, including agreeing to terms and formal approval of compensation.

Get breaking… pic.twitter.com/qHXWN6secJ

— ESPN (@espn) December 5, 2025

Penn State is in the final stages of negotiations to make Matt Campbell its new coach, sources tell @YahooSports. The Penn State search - spanning more than 50 days - may land on the Iowa State and former Toledo coach who’s heralded as one of the best leaders in the country.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 5, 2025

A three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year (2017, 2018, 2020), Campbell is the winningest coach in Cyclones program history, having guided the team to a 72-55 (50-40 Big 12) record since taking the helm in 2016.

This year, the Cyclones went 8-4 (5-4), tying for seventh place in the Big 12 and now await word on a postseason bowl.

A Massillon, Ohio, native, Campbell played the first year of his collegiate career at Pitt in 1998 before transferring to Mount Union, where he played from 1999-2002.

Prior to coaching at Iowa State, he led Toledo to a 34-15 record from 2012-15 and was an assistant there for three years beginning in 2009. His first coaching stop was as a graduate assistant with Bowling Green from 2003-04 before returning to Mount Union from 2007-08.

Formal terms on compensation and term for Campbell at Penn State have yet to be revealed.

Few programs entered the 2025 campaign with higher expectations than the Nittany Lions, who achieved a preseason No. 2 national ranking and came off a three-point loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal a year ago.

Penn State went 13-3 (8-1 Big Ten) in 2024, falling just short of playing for a national title.

Earlier this season, following a 3-0 start, the still-No. 2-ranked Nittany Lions lost at home in double overtime to No. 6 Oregon, a defeat that would prove to be the beginning of Franklin’s undoing.

The next week, Penn State fell to 0-4 UCLA, then one of the worst teams in the country that was under the guidance of interim coach Tim Skipper in the aftermath of DeShaun Foster’s Sept. 14 firing.

From there, things went from bad to worse for the Nittany Lions, who fell out of the AP Top 25 after the UCLA debacle and proceeded to lose 22-21 to Northwestern on Oct. 11.

A day later, on top of losing quarterback Drew Allar for the season because of injury, Kraft announced a leadership change, relieving Franklin.

Associate coach Terry Smith, an original member of Franklin’s staff, took over and led the Nittany Lions to a 6-6 finish and bowl eligibility.

Franklin went 104-45 (64-36) in parts of 12 seasons in Happy Valley.

Five of his teams (2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024) earned end-of-year top-10 national rankings.

Including CFP play, Franklin went 6-6 in the postseason, as his teams lost the 2016 Rose Bowl, won the next year’s Fiesta Bowl, won the Cotton Bowl in 2019 and were victorious in the 2022 Rose Bowl.

But Franklin regularly hit a ceiling when it came to squaring off against elite opposition.

Against top-10 foes, Franklin’s teams were 4-21, including a 1-18 mark against top-10-ranked Big Ten teams. Franklin went 1-10 against Ohio State and 3-7 vs. Michigan.

Coming off such a strong 2024 campaign and having led Penn State to six double-digit win totals, Franklin immediately emerged as one of the most attractive coaching candidates on the market.

Five weeks after his firing at Penn State, Virginia Tech named him coach Nov. 17. He has since introduced the Hokies’ 2026 recruiting class, which included 11 prospects formerly committed to the Nittany Lions.

Conversely, Kraft struggled to find Franklin’s replacement.

Most recently, he failed to lure Brigham Young’s Kalani Sitake, who instead inked a new long-term deal to stay put in Provo, Utah.

Kraft’s earlier attempts at identifying Penn State’s new coach met with similar results.

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea and Louisville’s Jeff Brohm — all linked to Kraft’s ever-expanding coaching search — also stayed put, signing extensions with their schools.

On3 reported that Penn State’s search wound up netting all the potential suitors who Kraft courted $370.8 million worth in new contracts.

Upon touching down in State College, Campbell faces significant challenges.

For starters, the upending of the program left Penn State with only two signees for the 2026 class.

Allar and plenty more contributors will also depart the program, through graduation, transfer or declaring for the NFL Draft.

Per the Des Moines Register, Campbell was earning just over $5 million, not including bonuses, this season. His buyout would exceed $35 million.

In August, Campbell was extended at Iowa State a year after leading the Cyclones to their first 11-win season, a victory in the Pop Tarts Bowl and a No. 15 end-of-season ranking.

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