The Associated Press Matt Campbell had coached at Iowa State since 2016.

Friday was a wild day at Penn State and capped a wild coaching search.

It concluded with the landing of a new football coach — Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, who informed his team at a meeting in Ames on Friday night.

Numerous national media outlets that closely cover college football started reporting it at noon Friday.

As it must do for major hires, the PSU Board of Trustees needs to provide 24 hours notice for its Equity and Human Resources Committee to convene and approve the final numbers — eight years at $10 million per.

Once that’s done, Campbell is expected to be introduced in the next couple of days as the school’s 17th head football coach.

Campbell should be a good choice to replace James Franklin, and why it took so long to get to him is a mystery.

But although athletic director Pat Kraft, by all counts, botched the search in getting turned down several times, including at the last minute by Brigham Young’s Kalani Sitake, a curious fit anyway — all the while seeing most of the 2026 freshman class decommit– he does deserve credit for this impressive recovery.

Campbell has built a reputation for tough defense and doing more with less, going 72-55 in 10 seasons at Iowa State, where most of the tradition that exists there he is responsible for establishing.

He also went 35-15 in four seasons at Toledo.

He’s been among the more sought-after candidates for openings, both college and NFL, for the past few years.

He’s a much better geographic fit than Sitake, having grown up in Ohio — Massillon, a cradle of football, no less — and will surely have better recruiting ties in Big Ten country than Kraft’s questionable reach into Provo.

Iowa State does not have Penn State’s resources, and Campbell should mount more consistent challenges for the College Football Playoff here than he could at Iowa State.

Like all new hires, he should get an acclimation period as it’s not fair to judge much earlier than year three.

But there’s plenty of time for that.

Certainly, he will be different than Franklin, who arrived at Penn State by saying he will do a “back-handspring out of bed” in the morning and blow up balloons at birthday parties because he was so thrilled to be here.

Campbell is more reserved.

Speaking of reserved, and this is part of what made Friday so unusual, let’s now turn to Kraft, who is anything but reserved.

Late Thursday night into Friday, a 35-minute secretly-recorded audio of Kraft meeting with some of the Nittany Lions’ players was leaked and went viral.

If you haven’t heard it, click around. It won’t be hard to find.

Just as Kraft’s work during the search brought widespread criticism, there’s no doubt his bluntness — and repeated F-bombs — raised some eyebrows internally.

He disparaged most of the teams that Penn State has had trouble beating.

He said, “Ohio State is Ohio State, but it’s not like they’re way better than us. Just get over the (bleeping) hump. Michigan (bleeping) stinks. They cheated their (testicles) off. Oregon’s “not tough,” and referred to the Ducks’ fan base as “a bunch of (bleeping) weirdos.”

He wasn’t finished. He questioned the Lions’ player development and implied that’s a reason Franklin was fired.

He told injured linebacker Tony Rojas that “without you, the whole (bleeping) defense falls apart” and questioned how “a 90-year-old quarterback from Iowa should run for 180 yards with a torn MCL.”

Although one of them leaked the tape, which is illegal in Pennsylvania to record without consent, the players sounded like they appreciated the meeting.

Much of the internet feedback was actually positive, too.

Kraft tried to talk the players’ language, explained NIL — he estimated Penn State to rank fourth nationally in player funding — and reiterated the goals and challenges of the program.

“We ain’t trying to win six-seven games,” he said. “We’re trying to win the whole (bleeping) thing. And let’s call it what it is — it’s two (bleeping) games you got to win … It’s Ohio State and Oregon. Everybody else we should blow their (bleeping) doors off.”

He also got in a questionable shot at the recruits the Lions lost to Virginia Tech, saying, “They’re not top-500 kids and won’t help us win.”

The meeting took place prior to the regular-season finale at Rutgers, and the players expressed support for Terry Smith.

Kraft said he appreciated the dialogue and assured them that Smith would be considered, although he encouraged them to talk to him rather than post “Hire Terry Smith” signs.

“You guys coming in and being honest and talking has 10 times the effect,” he said.

Some have threatened to leave if Smith isn’t hired, but it’s already being reported that Campbell is retaining him. Smart move.

Kraft admitted he’s feeling pressure — and that was before the audio leaked.

“I don’t know what the future holds,” he said. “Terry’s legitimately a real candidate — I’d never lie. (But) If I don’t get this right, my career is over. Understand that. You’re going to graduate and move on. If I don’t get the right person, they’ll fire my ass, and I don’t get another AD job.”

If that wasn’t enough to generate traffic, on the same day, Fox Sports radio host and former Lion star LaVar Arrington used his national platform for 20 minutes to blame the struggles of the search on Jay Paterno, a Board of Trustees member and son of the Lions’ legendary coach.

Arrington has been a critic of Paterno and fellow board member Anthony Lubrano, who have voted against some improvements to the football facilities and were perceived to be anti-Franklin.

Arrington said Paterno “could be a force for good,” but is focused only on “clearing Joe’s name.”

That has created dysfunction and a lack of trust at a time when Arrington said, “This program should have been allowed to move on.”

Now, eight weeks after a difficult and messy search, it will attempt to do so with Matt Campbell.

Based on everything he’s walking into, I wish him luck. He’ll need it.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.