PSU coach Campbell needs to understand expectations of his fan base
PSU point/counterpoint
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What disappointed you most in the Wisconsin loss?
Matt Campbell came out with a pair of doozy comments Tuesday that were perplexing at best and alarming at worst.
There was a lot to be disappointed about in Penn State's loss to Wisconsin, and Neil handled the football part of why Campbell deserves plenty of criticism this week.
I'll tackle the PR part.
Words matter, and what a coach says after a loss often can give us the most genuine, emotional insight we'll ever get into how his mind works.
Some things Campbell said Tuesday made it clear that he doesn't seem to fully grasp what he's up against with this Penn State job.
"It's not always about the result," he said. "It's about who we are becoming for this journey, so we can learn from our mistakes and not make the same mistake twice."
No. Nowadays, it IS always about the result. At Penn State anyway, and numerous other places where nothing short of winning will be tolerated.
Campbell could maybe get away with that kind of comment when he was at Iowa State. There, he would say things like the goal is to become "the best version of ourselves," and he was able to make that happen at a program where expectations simply were not that high.
I get what the coach is trying to say with the whole "not about the result" and "best version of ourselves" comments. I coached Little League baseball for years and would often tell the kids stuff similar to that.
But Campbell isn't coaching Little League. He coaches professional football that still disguises itself as college, and in pro sports, that kind of delusional romanticism is little more than hooey.
Campbell is making $70 million over eight years to be Penn State's coach. His team's salary commitment this year is $31 million. The last coach was fired 15 days after getting to No. 3 in the country -- because he lost. You don't fire a coach as successful as James Franklin was and then sit idly by while the next coach says anything remotely close to "it's not always about the result."
The other disturbing comment Campbell made: "You're playing with such a lead early on that you don't want to screw it up, and you're playing such great defense and you're putting yourself in a great situation … the flow of the game, the turnovers, just wanted to keep playing field position."
Field position? C'mon, man. That's playing not to lose, instead of playing to win. That's the kind of nonsense you'd expect Iowa's Kirk Ferentz to say.
This is Penn State. You play to win. You coach to win. You make public comments that assure fans you know how to win at this level, with these kinds of lofty expectations.
Campbell probably got the message about all the public backlash he took from his comments Tuesday night, so Wednesday he did offer up this: "We let the fan base down."
Yes. But it was just one game. It's not the end of the world.
However, Campbell needs to understand that he's not at Iowa State anymore. He can't just get up there and give preachy answers about developing "kids" and downplaying results.
Because the bottom line is, he'd better get tremendous results, or he will lose the trust of the fan base very quickly.
Cory Giger hosts the Blue & White Wrapup postgame show following each PSU game on 107.1-JACK FM