Penn State limited the reps and contact drills, particularly among veteran players, during training camp in 2025. That resulted from the 2024 playoff run that spilled into 16 games and the number of players who returned for 2025. However, that’s going to change under Matt Campbell
The first-year Nittany Lions coach said he plans a tough, physical training camp when the team reconvenes in early August to prepare for the 2026 season. For Campbell, that’s a combination of his historical coaching ethos and the specific needs of this team
“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.”
In a wide-ranging discussion on the Goon & Ironhead Show, Campbell discussed the team-building process, his approach to NIL and recruiting and how the past six months have felt like a perpetual sprint. The players are concluding summer workouts, and staff members are returning from vacation to prepare for the beginning of training camp in early August
Penn State will have a month to prepare for its Sept. 5 opener against Marshall at Beaver Stadium, and Campbell does not yet know what kind of team he’ll have. He liked how players bonded through winter, practiced during spring and made incremental gains during summer workouts. Training camp will be the last litmus test for the roster before the season
“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.”
Penn State is getting some preseason playoff attention, largely based on a schedule that is one of the friendliest in the Big Ten. However, Penn State also is one of the conference’s most difficult teams to assess based on its roster construction
Campbell built Penn State’s roster nearly in halves. He retained 52 players from the 2025 roster, including 11 seniors who will play key roles for the Nittany Lions. Campbell also brought in 55 new players, including 40 from the transfer portal. Twenty-four of them played for him at Iowa State last season
While the roster assimilated well through those preseason periods, Campbell still isn’t sure how it will play together on the field. He said in the radio interview that multiple positions will be competitive, including left tackle, where redshirt freshman Malachi Goodman led during spring drills
“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.”
Check out Campbell’s entire interivew on the Goon & Ironhead Show
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MARK WOGENRICH
Mark Wogenrich is the editor and publisher of Penn State on SI, the site for Nittany Lions sports on the Sports Illustrated network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs, three Rose Bowls and one College Football Playoff appearance
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