Matt Campbell walked into his new office at Penn State's Lasch Football Building and, much like the rest of the team's facility, was overwhelmed with the sheer size of it.
"There was so much space in there, I said, 'Holy smokes, what are we doing here?'" Campbell said of his initial tour after arriving from Iowa State.
The bigger problem became evident later, when Campbell learned that Penn State's specialists had to go hunting for whatever empty room they could find to watch film.
So, following spring ball, Campbell had a crew frame a wall inside his own office, carved off a chunk of his square footage, and turned it into a multi-purpose meeting room where the specialists finally have a home.
Campbell may be the first head coach in the football history to order a renovation that made his office significantly smaller.
Initially, the players had a hard time wrapping their head around it, as they told Sports Illustrated.
"I honestly didn't believe it," kicker Ryan Barker, a preseason Lou Groza Award nominee who tied for the nation's best field goal percentage last season, said. "I was like, really?"
Special teams coordinator Justin Lustig, who was retained off the previous staff after joining Penn State in 2024 and leading the Nittany Lions to ESPN's top special teams efficiency ranking last fall, shared exactly what that decision by Campbell has signaled to his first-year team in Happy Valley..
"It's humility No. 1, and then selfishly, it's the importance of special teams, and that's so critical for these guys," Lustig shared with SI. "A lot of these kids that come from high school and are maybe in their first year playing for us don't understand how important special teams are, not only to the team's success but for their future to play in the NFL."
Penn State's specialists didn't even need a room for themselves last year to be the nation's top unit, posting a 72.7 efficiency rating according to ESPN's College Football Power Index, which was nearly four points clear of second-ranked Georgia Tech's special teams units.
Barker tied for the best field-goal percentage in the country last year at 94.7%, going 18 for 19 with his only miss coming on a blocked long-range attempt. Punter Gabe Nwosu finished second in the Big Ten at 46.03 yards per boot. Long snapper Tyler Duzansky signed with the Las Vegas Raiders.
"We don't need to do all the flashy stuff," Barker said, also admitting Campbell's move added a weight the specialists are glad to carry.
"It shows us that special teams isn't a joke to him," Barker said. "If he's giving us as many advantages and as many resources as possible, we feel the weight on our shoulders to perform."
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