Matt Campbell’s first few weeks at Penn State have already revealed something that stood out immediately: he says what he sees, and he says it plainly.
That kind of openness is a noticeable shift from what came before. Campbell didn’t hide from a mistake at Temple, where he admitted his players covered for him after he wrongly believed the Nittany Lions had picked up a first down late in the first half and that the clock had stopped when it had not.
Those seconds disappeared. The next week, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser took the same approach, criticizing himself for not dialing up better plays to get the run game moving sooner.
That sort of candor matters. It shapes the room.
Campbell kept that same tone earlier this week when he said standout receiver Koby Howard was “dinged” against Buffalo and that his status was unclear. The next day, he went further and said Howard would miss “extended time.”
That level of injury disclosure is a sharp break from the James Franklin years, when Franklin would not discuss injuries at all unless they were season-ending. Weekly updates were off the table. So was any real detail.
The same was true in another way, too: many coaches, Franklin included, tend to live week to week and barely acknowledge the bigger picture. Campbell is doing the opposite.
He’s already started framing the season in chunks. After the Buffalo win, he told his team, “This is an interesting (second) quarter,” and added, “This quarter defines contenders and pretenders.”
Campbell explained that he thinks about the schedule in quarters even before the season begins.
“Even before the season starts, honestly, I try to break our season down into quarters, because I think it's the simplest way for us to kind of communicate where we're at,” Campbell said. “(That) helps me make the right practice adjustments as we work through the season.
“Really the first quarter of the season for us was fall camp and the first three games of the season, just knowing ... where did we want to be by the time we got to the end of it?”
Penn State got the result it needed, going 3-0, but the first stretch also answered a few questions. The defense showed toughness and depth.
The quarterback play was solid. The skill talent came through in multiple ways.
And the kicking game held up.
“We wanted to end the first quarter with great momentum,” Campbell said.
Now comes the real test: tonight against Wisconsin, then Northwestern, then USC at home, and a trip to Michigan after that. Campbell made it clear he sees the challenge coming.
“I think that you're getting into (tougher schedule), it's why you come to Penn State,” he said. “It's what you want to be a part of are these special opportunities, starting this week to play great teams, great coaches, great opponents, and what's it going to take? It's going to take everything you learned from the first quarter of the season.”
He pushed that same point in a Penn State video, telling the team, “How great do you want to be? Pretenders say one thing and do another. Don't get to the end of this and say, 'woulda, shoulda, coulda.'''
With Howard sidelined, the next question is who steps forward as Rocco Becht’s primary target. Zay Robinson is one option, and Brett Eskildsen should see his role grow.
Eskildsen caught five passes for 48 yards in the opener and scored, but he has just four catches over the last two games for 34 yards. Coming out of fall camp, some observers believed he could be among the team’s top five players.
Elsewhere, Luke Fickell’s struggles at Wisconsin are another reminder of how steep the jump can be from Cincinnati and the Group of Six and the American Athletic Conference to the Big Ten. Fickell went 57-18 in six years at Cincinnati and is 19-22 in his fifth year with Wisconsin.
And in a meeting of Penn State’s last two coaches, James Franklin’s Virginia Tech team visits Bill O’Brien’s Boston College squad today. The Hokies are favored by two touchdowns.
In Other News...
Penn State Already Faces An Uncomfortable Question About Life After Franklin
Penn States stumble at Beaver Stadium against Wisconsin in Matt Campbells Big Ten debut as head coach put an immediate spotlight on what life looks like after James Franklin. Coaching changes are never clean, especially when a new leader is being asked to steady a program with expectations as high as Penn States. Campbell arrives with a reputation as a builder, the kind of coach who needs time to shape a team in his image rather than simply patching over what came before.
For the Nittany Lions, the uncomfortable part is not just that the transition has begun, but that recent results have already started to look more fragile than the standard Franklin set in earlier years. This is the part of a changeover that programs hope to avoid, when every loss turns into a referendum on the new era and every uneven performance invites comparisons to the old one. Penn State is only at the beginning of that process, but the pressure to show progress is already very real. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Has A Scheduling Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Penn State had plenty to feel good about when it took a 17-0 lead into halftime, but the second half against Wisconsin turned into a reminder that early control does not always mean a game is secure. The offense managed only a field goal after the break, while Wisconsin kept chipping away and eventually put up 24 points to flip the result. Matt Campbell acknowledged the missed opportunities afterward, and the loss fit a familiar pattern for a team that can look polished before the pressure really ramps up.
That is why the conversation around the Nittany Lions non-conference slate has become hard to ignore. An easier early schedule can help a team build confidence and stack wins, but it can also hide flaws that only show up once the calendar turns and the opponents get stronger. For Penn State, the concern is not just the loss itself, but whether the schedule has given a truer picture of what this team is before the tougher conference tests arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State's Offense Hit A Troubling Low In Loss To Wisconsin
Penn States offense has had uneven stretches this season, but the loss to Wisconsin brought a new low in the grading as well as the scoreboard. Pro Football Focus gave the unit its worst mark of the year, while the defense, which held up far better, posted its second-highest grade of the season and had one of the days biggest bright spots in freshman Josiah Zayas.
Zayas finished with the top defensive grade on the team after returning an interception for a touchdown, a play that briefly gave Penn State some life. The other side of the ball told a harsher story, with quarterback Rocco Becht turning in a rough outing and several offensive linemen also drawing season-low grades, leaving the offense searching for answers after another frustrating night. [Read more 🡒]