Penn State’s first training camp under Matt Campbell is shaping up to look a lot different from the lighter touch the program used in 2025.
Campbell said he wants the Nittany Lions to get back to a tougher, more physical camp when the team returns in early August to start building toward the 2026 season. That approach fits both his coaching style and what he believes this roster needs right now.
“I’m a believer that fall camp has to be physical," Campbell said in a radio interview with Jeff Byers and Keith "Goon" Conlin. "I’m a believer that fall camp has got to be a real challenge, because I think you’re starting to build your armor and putting that sweat equity in for the football season we want to play.”
Penn State’s 2025 camp was shaped by the previous year’s playoff run, which stretched to 16 games, along with the number of veterans back on the roster. This time, Campbell is taking a different tack. The players are wrapping up summer workouts, staff members are returning from vacation, and the program is closing in on the start of camp.
That month of practice before the Sept. 5 opener against Marshall at Beaver Stadium will be the first real chance to see what this team actually is. Campbell likes the way the group has come together through winter bonding, spring work and summer progress, but he’s not pretending the picture is complete yet.
“We're going to have to earn the right every step of the way," Campbell said in the interview. "We want to play for a long time this season, and [it's] having the opportunity to earn that in fall camp and I think earn real confidence.
Real confidence is earned by the ability to consistently replicate your job, and that's how we're going to try to do a great job of evaluating this football camp. But we're going to have to go earn it in fall camp, for sure.”
The roster itself is one of the biggest reasons Penn State is drawing preseason playoff buzz. The schedule is viewed as one of the friendlier ones in the Big Ten, but the team is still hard to pin down because of how much turnover Campbell managed.
He kept 52 players from the 2025 roster, including 11 seniors who are expected to play major roles. At the same time, he added 55 newcomers, with 40 arriving through the transfer portal. Twenty-four of those players followed him from Iowa State after playing for him there last season.
That kind of mix has helped the group settle in during the offseason, but Campbell still wants to see how it holds up once the hitting starts. He pointed to several positions that remain up for grabs, including left tackle, where redshirt freshman Malachi Goodman was the spring leader.
In another preseason interview, Campbell said the process is still very much about building toward the right version of the team, not just collecting talent.
"It's too early to tell, but I don't care what year it is: You're always trying to build a team to play championship level football in November and December and now in January," Campbell said in a separate preseason interview. "The reality from our end of it is, every step of the way we were thinking about, how do you build the best roster to be our best?
"I think we grew immensely through the first 16 weeks of our time with this football team, but are we ready? Are we capable?
We had a lot of injuries [during spring practice], and a lot of guys didn't practice this spring, so did we gain real momentum? I think this is a team that, if it’s going to reach its full potential, it’s going to have to be able to be its best.
"Sometimes being your best is being a little lucky with injuries, being groomed to be its best physically and play its best in critical moments. I think those things are still out there.
Like, what kind of team are we really? I think fall camp will tell us a lot more about who we are and where we're at.”
Campbell’s full interview aired on the Goon & Ironhead Show.
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