Matt Campbell always built his rosters in Iowa State to sustain a lot of turbulence; this time, the turbulence struck, and it’s carrying loads of former Cyclones to State College, Pennsylvania.
The latest Cyclone turned Nittany Lion happens to be Iowa State’s leading tackler from the previous season, sophomore safety Marcus Neal, who now joins Ben Brahmer and several other Big 12 stars at Penn State.
Neal, a 6-foot-1 defensive back from Kansas City, Missouri, had some smoke surrounding the possibility of him heading closer to home with Kansas or Kansas State. Ultimately, Matt Campbell got the first visit and wrapped things up before letting Neal head home.
In his two-year Cyclone career, the Missouri native posted 95 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and a fumble recovery. Due to his impressive play, Neal earned the title of a Top 100 player in the transfer portal in the eyes of 247Sports. He is currently listed as a four-star player in the portal cycle and the seventh-best player at the safety position.
As noted yesterday when Ben Brahmer committed to Penn State, these guys aren’t the first players to follow their head coach to a new program through the transfer portal, and they certainly won’t be the last. They won’t be the last players to go from Ames to State College either, and more news could be on the way very soon for Matt Campbell and his former program.
For Jimmy Rogers and Iowa State, it’s crunch time.
