Not long after Matt Campbell settled in as Iowa State’s football coach, the victories began to accumulate.

Campbell’s 2016 ISU team, his first one, won three games.

His next four teams won a total of 32, including the Cyclones’ 9-3 finish in 2020.

Prior to Campbell’s arrival at Iowa State, winning in Ames was difficult.

It was hard not to notice.

Campbell, who became Penn State’s coach after a 10-year run at Iowa State, said recently he almost left Ames twice before finally saying yes to Pat Kraft and the Nittany Lions.

Almost.

“I would say there were probably two really close opportunities that I probably kind of accepted,” Campbell said last Monday.

“And then I said, ‘You know what, I can’t do it’. I slept on it, and I walked away from it, during our 10 years (at Iowa State).”

“In fairness to those organizations, I’m not going to talk about it.”

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Campbell wasn’t sure then.

But he said it was different when Penn State approached him about becoming the permanent replacement for James Franklin.

Two major reasons why are Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi and Kraft, the Lions’ athletic director.

“From Neeli’s standpoint, she’s a wow, and the wow factor of character, integrity, what she was looking for,” Campbell said.

“After getting off that phone call, I was like, this is the type of people you want to associate with.”

“I would say from Pat’s standpoint, (he is) this uber-competitive, want to be a partner, want to be an asset to you in this changing world of college football,” Campbell continued.

“Like, you can’t do it by yourself anymore. You have to be aligned. … Those two things, they were unwavering for me, and they were things that said, you know what, this is really special.”

A huge factor for Campbell was his family – wife Erica, daughters Katie and Izzy and sons Rudy and Rocco.

“Now, the regionality of bringing my family back home,” said Campbell, who is from Massillon, Ohio.

“I mean, being 12 hours away and for my kids to never see their grandparents and never see their cousins, and to have my father and my mother and Erica’s family be able to come and be a part of this experience with us again.

“I can’t lie and tell you that didn’t have a big impact. I think it certainly did, as well.”

Campbell also knew he reached his ceiling at Iowa State, going 72-55 in 10 seasons. The highlight of his run was the Cyclones’ 11-3 finish in 2024.

“Knowing what we’ve done (at ISU), I mean, the last three years at Iowa State have been the greatest three-year run in the history of the school,” Campbell said.

“I don’t know what else we could have done there, and I’m really proud of what we did there.”