As newly-minted head coach Matt Campbell continues to get acclimated to life at Penn State, he’ll be surrounding himself with some familiar faces.
Nittany Sports Now was confirmed via the university directory as well as the university’s email system that the following staff members will be joining him:
- Derek Hoodjer – General Manager
- Reid Kagy – Head Strength and Conditioning Coach
- Trent Slattenow – Director of Player Personnel
- Skip Brabenec – Chief of Staff
- Aaron Hillman – Sports Performance Manager
Hoodjer had been with Iowa State since 2011 when he was a student assistant. Prior to coming to Penn State, he was the Assistant Athletics Director for Football Player Personnel and was responsible for building their Name, Image and Likeness collective from the ground up according to Campbell.
Hoodjer is the only staff member Campbell has mentioned would be joining him and the rest of the staff has yet to be formally announced.
Kegy spent three years in Ames as the Director of Football Strength and Conditioning. It was his second stint with the Cyclones after spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons at Boise State. He’s an Ohio State graduate and won two national championships as a player at Mount Union. Kegy was also a part of Campbell’s staff at Toledo.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Slattenow spent the past four seasons as Director of Player Personnel for the Cyclones and has been with Campbell’s staff dating back to his time as a recruiting student assistant from 2018-2021. He assisted in all things recruiting for the Iowa State staff.
Brabenec and Campbell first crossed paths when the two were at Bowling Green. Since then, Brabenec has been with Campbell nearly every step of the way. He started as a graduate assistant at Toledo before being promoted to Director of Football Operations for 2014 and 2015. He went with Campbell to Iowa State and was Director of Football Operations from 2016-2020 before being named Assistant Athletic Director for Football/Chief of Staff, a position he held from 2021 until coming to Penn State.
Hillman spent nine seasons with the Cyclones the last four being as the Director of Football Performance Operations. In that position, he oversaw all aspects of sports performance units, including strength and conditioning and nutrition.
The only known departure of those still left at Penn State is Ty Howle who is going to be the co-offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech. Departures and arrivals are expected to ramp up for the Nittany Lions over the coming days.
