Size over stars: How Matt Campbell is changing Penn State football’s philosophy on size

New Penn State head coach Matt Campbell’s rebuild of the Nittany Lions isn’t just happening in the Lasch Football Building, on the coaching staff or on the practice field. The former Iowa State man is also changing the weight programs, the food the players eat and the measurements given to recruits.

Since appearing in Happy Valley, Campbell has focused on adding more weight, length and bulk to the field at Beaver Stadium in hopes of competing with top athletes across the country. The Massillon, Ohio, native said during the spring football press conference that the Nittany Lions gained more than 480 pounds during the eight weeks of spring training.

This is a departure from former head coach James Franklin’s philosophy of not being a “weight for weight’s sake” program and being “lean and athletic” rather than physically dominant.

The defensive line saw its biggest philosophical change when Campbell and defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe brought in four portal additions over 315 pounds. In 2025, the Nittany Lions did not have a single defensive player weighing over 300.

“We have completely redesigned the D-line. I think my vision, our vision, [is to be] bigger and more physical,” Campbell said at his signing day press conference. “This is the Big Ten, you have to stop the run. We have to be big and physical in that. I feel like, especially on the inside of the defensive line, we’ve totally reshaped things.”

Malloe brought two of those 300-pounders from UCLA. Siale Taupaki and Keanu Williams both spent the last three years with the Bruins and bring tons of experience to Penn State. Both players also played one season with new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn at UCLA in 2023.

“I think Keanu had a pretty good spring, and Siale will be starting soon,” Malloe said in April. “We just wanted to be careful with him. There’s some things we want to take care of, but for him, he’ll probably be one of our most athletic tackles we’ve seen in a long time.”

Oklahoma State transfer Armstrong Nnodim is another potential contributor for Penn State this fall and is listed at 319 pounds. “The Pitbull,” as Malloe called him, received high praise from offensive lineman Cooper Cousins ​​during spring training for being difficult to move and a dominant powerhouse at the line.

Campbell, Lynn and Malloe generally look to better fill the holes in Penn State’s defensive line, which ranked 56th nationally in rushing yards allowed in 2025 and was outpaced by athletic quarterbacks like Nico Iamaleava (128 rushing yards) and Mark Gronowski (130 yards).

This change in body type is also impacting high school recruiting, with Aniti Paiva (315) and Stanley Montgomery (300) both committing to Penn State in the class of 2027. The Nittany Lions’ last 300-pound defensive lineman was Cole Brevard in the 2020 class.

Campbell has also worked to change the look of the running back room. The Nittany Lions’ new leader has had success punishing backs like David Montgomery and Breece Hall in the past, and appears to be trying to do the same in Happy Valley.

After Campbell of Ames, Iowa, 220-pound Carson Hansen will likely be RB1 at the start of the season. The running back played in 11 games for Iowa State in 2025, recording 952 rushing yards on 188 attempts and six touchdowns. Campbell said he was physically one of the most trusted players the Cyclones had last year.

“He’s durable. He’s strong. He’s physical. He’s got great vision. He’s got that ability that if you need him to carry the ball 40 times in a game, he can do that,” Campbell said.

Hansen will likely be supplemented by Ohio State transfer James Peoples, who Campbell said has an “impressive build” and is a great downhill runner. Peoples has experience catching passes and could play in the receiving role on third down for Penn State.

Returning running back Quinton Martin Jr. is the most striking example of a physical change in an individual player under the new regime. Despite rushing for 103 yards in the Pinstripe Bowl, he was tasked with adding nearly 30 pounds in the spring. Campbell said he told him to move up from 195 to 220 during the 2025 season.

Wide receivers have also increased in size under Campbell and new position coach Kashif Moore. The Nittany Lions added four players who stand at least 6-foot-1 in the transfer portal, nearly matching Penn State’s total of receivers above that mark in 2025.

“If you look at the sizes and shapes of our guys over the last 12 years, X receivers have looked like this, slot receivers have looked like this, Z receivers have looked like this and they had certain qualities,” Campbell said. “I think knowing what you’re looking for makes the process really efficient.”

Campbell has seen a lot of success producing talented and long receivers such as Houston Texans Jaylin Noel. The Kansas City, Missouri native was ranked as the No. 124 wide receiver in the 2021 class, but after four good years in Ames, he was drafted in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Moore also values ​​size at receiver, making Skyler Bell a Biletnikoff Award finalist. Even though the UConn player stood just 6-foot-4, the wide receiver coach claimed his combination of speed and size is what made him so special in 2025.

The trend toward big, fast receivers has continued in the high school recruiting ranks. Penn State added 6-foot-4 Josiah Zayas, 6-foot-1 Amarion Jackson and 6-foot-1 Ben Whitver to the roster in the class of 2026. Both 2027 commits at the position are also taller than 6-foot-1.

“I think [the receiver room is] an area that we’re really confident in because the receiving room at Iowa State has been our staple for the last 10 years,” Campbell said after signing day. “And I know we’re getting to a place where we need to reshape that a little bit and bring that back to life.”