As Penn State safety King Mack described his initial impressions of new Nittany Lions coach Matt Campbell on Wednesday, he took a turn and offered his take about what went wrong this season.
Mack said that a lack of leadership and buy-in led to Penn State falling way short of lofty preseason expectations and going 6-6 in the regular season.
He helped organize a meeting between a group of several players and director of athletics Pat Kraft to discuss the program and who Kraft might hire as coach, less than two weeks before Campbell was hired Dec. 8.
Someone in the room recorded the meeting and leaked the audio to a website. It went viral and included Kraft cursing and criticizing fellow Big Ten programs Michigan, Indiana, Oregon, Rutgers and Iowa. Kraft has since apologized for his remarks.
“A meeting like that should have never been broadcasted, to be 100% honest,” Mack said during a Pinstripe Bowl news conference. “It shocked me because I didn’t even know that it got broadcasted until my parents called me and mentioned the meeting to me.
“That shows the lack of leadership and accountability,” he said. “Somebody in that room jeopardized everyone. Anything could have been said and could have jeopardized anyone’s future or career. I feel like that’s part of the selfishness and lack of leadership around the team that we have to fix.”
Mack was one of four Penn State players available for interviews Wednesday. He was clearly the most outspoken one regarding the 2025 season, which included consecutive losses to Oregon, UCLA, Northwestern, Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana and the firing of James Franklin, who was in the middle of his 12th season as coach.
“There was some lack of leadership and some lack of having people buy in,” Mack said. “It doesn’t seem as big of an issue, but it is. Not having all 100 people locked in and focused on one thing at one time, it’s hard to be successful when people on your ship are on a one-on-one mission.”
A junior from Miami, Mack has played in every game this season with seven starts. He’s fourth on the team with 56 tackles and has an interception and three pass breakups.
He said he hasn’t decided whether he’ll stay at Penn State for the 2026 season or transfer.
But after meeting with Campbell, he was impressed with him and sounded like he’s going to stay.
“Coach Matt Campbell is a great guy,” Mack said. “We had a great conversation. He’s very honest. He’s straight forward. He sees where we went wrong this year. His job is to get it fixed as soon as possible and to use all the seniors as one big group to help us fix all those issues as well. Coach Matt Campbell plans on changing the culture. I feel like the plan that he has is a great plan.”
Safeties coach Anthony Poindexter, who was on Franklin’s staff, will serve as the defensive coordinator when Penn State meets Clemson (7-5) in the Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 27 at Yankee Stadium. After one year with the Lions, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left last week for the same job at Tennessee.
It’s uncertain whether Poindexter will be on Campbell’s new staff or go elsewhere.
“Coach Dex knows his players,” Mack said. “He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He’s going to put us in position to play fast and to make plays. With Coach Dex being the defensive play caller now, it’s honestly fun. He’s high energy. He’s not going to have you over there thinking outside of the box. He’s going to keep it short, sweet and simple.”
Campbell already has hired several assistant coaches from his Iowa State staff, including Deon Broomfield, who was the Cyclones’ safeties coach.
“He’s [also] from Florida,” Mack said. “He’s very smart and passionate about the game. He loves to teach. He told me straight up that he’s going to teach us from the ground up. He’s a great dude, a great person. Just off the conversations I had with Coach Campbell and Coach Broomfield, I could see the culture they had at Iowa State. Everyone loved each other. Everyone got coached. I’m honestly excited. I can’t lie.”
Mack said Penn State played better in the final half of the regular season and won their final three games after interim head coach Terry Smith, who will be on Campbell’s staff, asked the Lions how they wanted to be remembered.
“Do you want to be remembered for losing those first four games and the rest of the season?” Mack paraphrased Smith. “Or do you want to flip the script? Everyone in that meeting made a decision to flip the script.”
