Penn State’s defense has opened the season looking fast, organized and downright suffocating under first-year coordinator D’Anton Lynn.
The Nittany Lions are 3-0 after beating Marshall, Temple and Buffalo, and the early numbers are eye-catching even before the schedule gets tougher. Penn State has allowed just 22 points, the third-fewest in FBS, and the defense has done it with a mix of transfers, returning players and a scheme the players say has come together quickly.
“I’m feeling very comfortable in this defense,” Iowa State transfer safety Marcus Neal Jr. said after Penn State’s win over Buffalo. “Lynn does a great job of just coaching us up on everything, and even our position coaches, so I feel very comfortable in this defense, and we only have room to keep growing.”
The headline stat is Penn State’s 7.3 points allowed per game, which ranks third nationally. But that number doesn’t tell the full story. Two late touchdowns have padded the total, and neither came against the first-team defense.
Penn State opened with a 45-0 shutout of Marshall, then held Temple to three points for most of the Week 2 game before the Owls finally scored late against a group of depth players, adding a touchdown with 1:56 remaining after missing the two-point try. The Buffalo game followed a similar script. In a 55-13 Penn State win, the Bulls got two field goals and then found the end zone with 5:01 left while the Nittany Lions were deep into their bench.
Strip out those garbage-time scores, and Penn State’s first-team defense is allowing just three points per game. Only Iowa, at 4.3 points per game, and Indiana, at 5.3, are better in scoring defense. Neither of those teams has surrendered a garbage-time touchdown this season.
Buffalo learned just how hard this unit is to move the ball against. Quarterback Jason Wright completed only 10 of 25 passes for 60 yards, and Penn State bottled up the Bulls’ top target, Chance Morrow, limiting him to two catches for 31 yards on seven targets. Morrow had entered the game with 18 receptions, 228 yards and five touchdowns over his previous two outings.
That kind of pass defense has pushed Penn State to 90 passing yards allowed per game, second-best in college football. After the Buffalo win, Penn State coach Matt Campbell said the strong work against the pass starts with what the defense does against the run.
After holding Buffalo to three yards per carry, Campbell pointed to the improvement from Week 2 to Week 3.
“That's probably one of the strengths,” Campbell said. “I thought we were better today on first down and second down. I didn't think we were great last week against Temple, and I thought we made great improvement there and got ourselves into some great passing situations.”
Penn State has also been a nightmare on third down. Opponents have converted just six times in 37 tries, and the Nittany Lions are tied with Oklahoma State for the nation’s best defensive third-down rate at 16.2 percent.
Buffalo didn’t finally move the chains on third down until 12:31 remained in the fourth quarter, and that came against depth players with the game already out of hand. The Bulls finished 1-for-15 on third down and completed just 1 of 11 passes on those snaps. Marshall managed only one third-down conversion in the opener.
Asked why Penn State keeps getting off the field, Neal gave credit across the secondary, naming cornerbacks Audavion Collins, Zion Tracy and Daryus Dixson, along with safety Jeremiah Cooper.
“We got a lot of guys [who are] able to cover,” said Neal, who made Pro Football Focus' national team of the week. “Our whole DB room, we put a lot of work in and we trust ourselves, so that's a big deal.”
Penn State’s first real passing test arrives Saturday against Wisconsin. The Badgers’ quarterback Colton Joseph threw for 363 yards and three touchdowns in a 54-10 win over Eastern Michigan, including a school-record 302 passing yards in the first half. Joseph also ran for 46 yards and another score, while Tyrell Henry caught a school-record 14 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown.
No. 13 Penn State hosts Wisconsin at 5 p.m.
ET Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The game will be streamed live on Peacock.
In Other News...
Penn State Suddenly Has A Koby Howard Concern Heading Into Next Week
Penn States injury watch after the Buffalo game centered on a few familiar names, but Koby Howard is the one carrying the biggest question into next week. Matt Campbell said Howard was hurt on a long touchdown run, and with the Lions moving on to the next opponent, his availability is now uncertain. For a team trying to keep early-season momentum rolling, even a single injury note can matter when it involves a player who was in the middle of a scoring play.
Brock Riker appears on sturdier ground and is expected to be available for the next game, while Andrew Rappleyea and Tyler Armstead are still listed as questionable after leaving the Buffalo contest banged up. For Penn State, the focus now shifts from the box score to the training room, where the answers on a few key depth pieces could shape how the rotation looks when the Lions line up again. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Fans Face One Annoying Hurdle For Wisconsin Opener
Penn States Big Ten opener against Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium arrives with the usual conference-stage stakes, but there is one wrinkle for fans planning their Saturday around it. The 5 p.m. ET kickoff makes for a prime-time atmosphere in State College, yet the game will not be on traditional television. Instead, it will be available exclusively on Peacock, NBC Universals streaming platform, which means anyone wanting to watch will need a subscription.
Peacocks role as a Big Ten Saturday Night home will extend beyond this matchup, with the service carrying other conference games throughout the 2026 season while also offering football and entertainment programming. For Penn State supporters, though, the immediate issue is simpler and more annoying: if they want to see the opener against Wisconsin, they will have to navigate another streaming paywall first. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Just Got An Early Recruiting Sign Matt Campbell Needed
Penn States 2028 recruiting class got a noticeable boost this week when quarterback commit James Armstrong climbed 40 spots in Rivals latest rankings, landing at No. 61 overall and No. 7 among quarterbacks. Even in a staff that is known to trust its own evaluations more than outside lists, movement like that matters, especially when it comes from a quarterback and especially when it helps validate the early work being done in Pennsylvania.
There is still a long way to go with this cycle, and rankings will keep shifting as more evaluations come in, but Armstrongs rise is the kind of public sign a program can point to while building momentum. Another in-state commit, cornerback Deonte Flemings Jr., went the other direction with a 50-spot drop, a reminder that the early stages of recruiting rarely tell the full story even when they offer a glimpse of where the class might be headed. [Read more 🡒]