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Everything Matt Campbell said from Penn State's third week of spring practices

nate-mug-10.12.14by: Nate Bauer04/12/26NateBauerBWI

Penn State head coach Matt Campbell met with reporters on Thursday this week, his third time out of the program’s five-week spring practice session. The first of his tenure, the Nittany Lions’ progress has taken center stage as they cross the midpoint and toward the April 26 Blue-White Practice at Beaver Stadium.

How are things going? Which players and position groups are standing out?

Campbell offered his perspective on all things Penn State football this week. Transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.

Everything Matt Campbell said on Thursday, April 9

On Taylor Mouser’s journey to becoming Penn State offensive coordinator

Taylor’s had an interesting journey. Right when he got done playing, there was a connection. His dad was a general manager for AAA hockey with the affiliate with the Detroit Red Wings, and had some connections in Toledo. At Toledo, you would take a free coach anytime somebody would offer one. They said, “Hey, we got a young guy that’s really interested in getting into coaching.”

He came on board. I’ve always been a huge fan of promoting from within, and especially people that come in and do a great job. Taylor, he’s curious, he’s a great connector, and you kind of just saw every responsibility that we gave him, just he elevated any of those areas.

And it started out, a lot of it, it was in recruiting at Toledo and really his first year at Iowa State. We would give a lot of credit – he’s the guy that found Brock Purdy in the recruiting process. He’s the guy that found Breece Hall in the recruiting process.

And then you talk about development. Mouse made himself a really great student of the game. I think if you talk to Allen Lazard and Akeem Butler, some of those great players we had early on at Iowa State, they’d give a lot of credit to their development to him.

We then moved him over to the tight ends, and really did an unbelievable job. Charlie Kolar, Chase Allen, who’s now on staff with us – some of those guys who are first NFL guys there. Man, he did an unbelievable job with that tight end room. How they played. They were a huge piece of our success.

And it’s just like every role and responsibility we got, he elevated. And then when Nate Scheelhaase left to go to the Rams, him and Taylor really did a great job kind of reorganizing our offense after ’22, and they were both a huge piece of that.

It was a pretty easy decision on who deserves the right to take over the reins of the offense. And again, what we did in ’24 and ’25 offensively – ’24, an awesome year. And then ’25, you had a new group of guys that kind of surrounded Rocco, and I thought we did a really great job.

So in leadership roles, I still believe you got to be curious enough to continue to evolve and change, and you got to be a great connector of that room. And he’s done an incredible job. He’s a great leader. He’s got a really bright future, for sure.

On how spring practice is going so far

So much of this is about how we do things. I think if you said, what would your ultimate goal of spring practice is, how do we practice? What’s it look like to show up every day with great consistency?

And we’re asking a lot of our guys in this five-week block of spring practice. We really are. From continuing to gain strength in the weight room, to putting in two brand new systems on the offense and defensive side of the football, also some guys evolving with Coach Stig in special teams – there’s a lot of growth process.

So just showing up isn’t good enough. How you study every day, how you prepare, how you take care of your body – all those things have really been our emphasis.

And as I kind of talk to our guys at the midway point, we talked about it yesterday, is can we individually and collectively create momentum for ourselves leaving spring practice? What does that look like? And what does that feel like?

I think it’s the consistency of how we go about our process. There’s obviously great room to grow, and we’re all going through change together. So I think the reality is can we create that momentum for ourselves, leaving spring practice?

I thought today, at least, is a step in the right direction.

3-2-1: At Penn State’s spring midpoint, program built on details takes shape

On freshman defensive end Jackson Ford

I think what he can do this fall will be probably what happens between now and the end of fall camp. But I think his physical tools and physical ability, it’s been really impressive.

I think the maturity – he comes from a really great high school football program. It’s got a great high school football coach. I got to get there in the short time that I was able to go out on the road, so I left there, leaving, man, super impressed with what his high school program was about.

And I think he brought that maturity here. He’s a guy that stuck out and has stood out, really in every phase – winter conditioning. For him to get up in the morning and compete the way he competed, for him then to come into this block and again, brand new defense, a lot going on, and I feel like his adjustments one day at a time have been really impressive.

So you’re right in saying there’s certainly, he flashes with what his ability looks like. And as any young player, can you consistently do those things every day? Can you be trusted enough to find a role on a football team?

But I think he’ll certainly have the ability to compete to do that as we get into fall camp.

On the rehab progress for tight end Ben Brahmer and receivers Chase Sowell and Brett Eskildsen

Ben is full go. Ben has had a really good spring. Honestly, this is the first offseason that Ben has truly had during his collegiate career.

And I think you see it. He’s almost 258 right now in terms of body weight. He’s as strong and physical as he’s been. And I really thought, so far, he’s had a tremendous spring.

As a mover, as a point-of-attack football player, some areas where we were really trying to hone in on, I think he’s made great strides.

And then Chase and Brett, I think, are certainly kind of like Rocco. Those guys have probably a week or two ahead of where we thought they would be. They’re still not live in terms of live action. But it’s huge for them to start to get reps together, start to really get back involved.

And I think the second half of spring ball, hopefully we can continue to get them into more and more, and the rhythm, the consistency, all those things it takes to be a good offense. We’re going to need those guys to get quality reps here the rest of the way.

On the importance of the tight end position at Penn State

I hope it’s a great match. I think that’s something that there’s been just tremendous tight end play through the history of this school.

And I think when you look at what Gabe Burkle has stood for, and what he is as a football player, to obviously what Ben – the last two years have been with Rapp. And then you talk about what Finn has done in a short amount of time in his career, he’s a good football player.

Cooper Alexander, we’ve got really huge expectations for what he’s got the ability to be. And then I think Brian Kortovich, it’s a really good room.

And when you have great tight ends, you’re usually great, not only offensively, but you also have the ability to be great on special teams, because those roles, those body types, they can do a lot of things for you to be successful.

So we’ll work really hard to continue that lineage of success here. That’s something that we believe in, all the way back to our days at Toledo. We’ve been fortunate to coach and have great tight ends in our offense, and obviously, with the history of this place, you hope any great tight end would want to be a part of what we have going on here.

Matt Campbell outlines Penn State’s spring focus, progress and injury evolution

On his early impression of Penn State’s young tackles

I don’t know if I could be any more impressed with what I’ve seen from that group.

Malachi Goodman, he’s 330 and he looks like he’s 250. He’s as smooth of an athlete, and his competitive spirit since watching him again in winter conditioning, watching his evolution in the weight room. He may be a redshirt freshman, but I feel like his maturity of physical ability is way beyond that.

I think when you look at Owen Aliciene, Owen’s a guy that can play across the board a lot of different positions. But his athleticism has certainly – it’s been really impressive in terms of watching his ability.

Garrett Sexton has been really impressive, smart, intelligent, tough. We recruited Garrett. It was one of the first guys I saw in the locker room when we got here. It was great to see him, because I knew the human. He’s a great basketball player in high school. Played at a great high school football program in Wisconsin. He’s built for the right stuff.

And you’re not even talking about Donkoh. Kuol Kuol is a young man that we think is really talented. He’s put on 20 pounds since he’s been here. So I think there’s just another physical evolution for Kuol. We got him at 245 at Iowa State. He’s at 305 right now. So it’s been really fun to watch where he’s evolved to.

So there is a lot of guys at that tackle position that we’re really excited about. Obviously, the growth and maturity – and anytime you’re talking about young players, game reps are still really critical, and they’re going to have to learn on the fly a little bit.

But to have a guy like Anthony Donkoh that’s played a lot, that can kind of be the leader of that group – how do you study? How do you prepare? How do you come to practice every day? I think it’s great to have a veteran, and it’s great to have hungry guys that are fighting for competition. So I think it’ll make us the best we possibly can be.

On Penn State’s linebacker depth

You got to remember a little bit we’ve been fortunate, because I think those three linebackers that came with us from Iowa State are guys that have played a ton.

Cooper Ebel has started, was an all-conference player last year. He’s an elite communicator. He’s a guy that rose to the top at Iowa State because of his ability to really understand defensive football. Came from a single wing high school, where he was the single wing quarterback, and a guy that’s just really flourished over his time with us.

Cael Brezina has played a lot of great football. Started as a true freshman a year ago. And in ’24 at Iowa State, I think he had 12 solo tackles against Iowa and really got off to a great start, and then had some injuries and had to fight back through adversity, and did a great job at the end of last year for us.

And then Caleb Bacon has been a great player for us as well. You throw in Cam. I think Cam is a young guy that’s really flashed. He’s athletic. He can run. And so we’re super excited about that group.

And you’re not even talking about, obviously, my admiration for Alex Tatsch and what I’ve seen in the video and watched how I’ve watched him work. Then again, same thing, to have a guy like Tony Rojas, who’s played great football here, who again can kind of be an anchor to everybody and the glue a little bit of what the preparation looks like, what we’re preparing for and toward.

It’s been great to have that room with some great maturity in there as well.

On the competition at the center position

Dom’s been in a tough spot. He’s one of the toughest kids that I’ve been around in terms of, he’s doing everything in his power to practice.

I think Dom is one of those guys that’s so trusted already in our football program because of his mannerisms, his actions. I feel like he’s been a great leader from the time that we’ve stepped on campus here.

So my biggest thing for Dom is getting healthy. Obviously, as we get to fall camp, that’s where some of these competitions will start to unfold themselves.

Dom, he’s been a great leader, even with Brock and that whole line room of just as we install, being able to be a great communicator with everybody.

And then Brock, I think Brock’s taking advantage of every day. He’s really talented. He’s a guy that when you talk game reps, he certainly got great game reps. He got competitive reps to be the center and start as many games as he’s played.

You see a maturity in his game reps. And I think you’ve seen a physical growth for him. He came in at 270. I think he’s right now 295. Probably he’s got the ability to get to 305 by the time we start fall camp.

So his strength is – he was a great wrestler in high school, was a great power lifter. And you can kind of see it. His lower half, his ability to move and really strike has been impressive.

So we’ll watch him continue to grow. We’re fortunate to have two guys like that that have played quality reps.

The center position, in my opinion, when we’ve had a great center, we’ve always had the ability to have a great offensive line. They got to be the conductor of everything that’s going on.

And to have two guys like that, we’re really fortunate.

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