Penn State heads to Northwestern on Friday night trying to steady itself after a brutal swing against Wisconsin, and the Nittany Lions will have to do it in the glare of a new setting at New Ryan Field.
Kickoff is set for 8:13 p.m. ET in Evanston, with FOX carrying the game.
Connor Onion and Robert Griffin III will handle the broadcast, and Alexa Landestoy will report from the sideline. The matchup will also stream on Fox One.
On the Penn State Sports Network, Steve Jones and Jack Ham are back together for their 27th season, with radio coverage available on Sirius XM channels 84 and 257, the XM app and online through the Penn State Sports Network.
Penn State enters as a 2.5-point favorite at DraftKings, with a money line of -142 and an over/under of 45.5 points. That number comes despite a short week, a road trip and the backdrop of Northwestern opening its new stadium. The Wildcats are calling it the “best place to watch football in America,” and they’re making their own noise after a competitive 29-23 loss to Indiana.
The bigger picture around Penn State, though, is all about response. The Nittany Lions blew a 17-point lead against Wisconsin after a game plan their coach described as not wanting to “screw it up,” and the loss knocked them out of the AP Top 25.
They dropped eight spots to No. 22, though they remain in the Coaches Poll. ESPN’s College Football Power Index still has Penn State at No. 15, but the playoff outlook took a hit, with the Nittany Lions’ chances down to 9.1 percent and their odds of running the table at 8.1 percent.
This is also the second of three straight night games for Penn State, which hosts USC in the White Out on Oct. 10. Monday will bring another answer, too: whether the Oct. 24 trip to Michigan becomes the fourth straight night game.
The recent history with Northwestern adds another layer. Penn State leads the series 16-6, but last year’s meeting is one the Nittany Lions would rather forget.
The Wildcats drove 75 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown and stole a 22-21 win, the final game of James Franklin’s tenure. The teams have split their last six meetings, with Penn State winning three straight from 2017-23.
The last trip to Evanston ended with a 41-13 Penn State victory in 2023 at Old Ryan Field.
For quarterback Rocco Becht, Friday is a chance to put Wisconsin behind him. He called that outing “not great,” and the numbers back it up: a passer-efficiency rating of 71.8, the lowest of his career, and just 114 passing yards, his third-lowest total as a starter. Penn State will be without top deep threat Koby Howard for a second straight game, so the offense has to find production elsewhere.
That likely means more attention to the tight ends. Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser wants the ball going that way more often, and Penn State believes that group can tilt a game, especially 6-7 Ben Brahmer. He caught four passes last week, but only one came after halftime, and Andrew Rappleyear and Gabe Burkle did not record receptions.
The ground game still needs to show more consistency, too. Penn State ranks 43rd nationally in rushing offense, a ranking lifted by the 304-yard outing against Marshall.
In every other game, the Nittany Lions have averaged 3.7 yards per carry. James Peoples may get the first crack at changing that.
The former Ohio State back had the most burst against Wisconsin and is expected to start among the four-man rotation.
There’s also a defensive watch item worth tracking: cornerback Daryus Dixson. He was listed as questionable on the midweek availability report, and Penn State would feel that loss in the secondary. Dixson had an interception against Wisconsin and is viewed as the team’s best man-coverage corner.
Northwestern brings its own problems for Penn State to sort out. Veteran transfer quarterback Aidan Chiles and new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly have given the Wildcats a different edge, and Chiles has been central to it. He leads Northwestern in carries with 30 and rushing touchdowns with four, and Kelly has not been shy about leaning into that part of his game.
Chiles is also rolling through the air. Against Indiana, he went 22-for-29 for 293 yards and three touchdowns.
That made him the first Northwestern quarterback to open a season with three straight 225-yard passing games since C.J. Bacher in 2007.
Northwestern may also be monitoring one of Chiles’ top targets. Tight end Luke Dehnicke is questionable after catching seven passes for 140 yards at Indiana, the most receiving yards by a Big Ten tight end against a conference opponent since Penn State’s Tyler Warren posted 224 against USC in 2024.
In Other News...
Pat Kraft Is Starting To Own Penn States Football Mess
Pat Kraft has spent his Penn State tenure putting his stamp on the department in visible ways, from pushing forward the Beaver Stadium renovation to hiring Mike Rhoades for mens basketball. Since taking over after Sandy Barbours retirement, he has been the athletic director attached to the biggest decisions on campus, and nowhere have those choices carried more weight than in football, where the pressure always settles first and hardest.
This fall, Kraft made the move that reset the program by firing James Franklin early in the 2025 season and bringing in Matt Campbell, a hire meant to steady the most important seat in the building. Instead, the current run has only deepened the scrutiny, with Penn State sitting at 3-2 and the new coach already drawing criticism over game management and roster talent, leaving Kraft to answer for both the timing of the change and the resources behind it. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State's Quarterback Debate Just Shifted After Matt Campbell's Response
Rocco Bechts uneven stretch has put Penn States quarterback situation under the spotlight, especially after back-to-back Big Ten outings against Wisconsin and Northwestern that produced limited passing success and multiple interceptions. The results have fueled plenty of debate around the position, but the larger picture still matters for a team trying to settle into a rhythm and avoid letting one rough patch define the season.
Matt Campbell stepped in to clear up the immediate uncertainty, confirming that Becht remains the starter while signaling confidence that the quarterback can clean up the mistakes and play better. For Penn State, that matters because the conversation is no longer just about what went wrong in a couple of conference games, but about whether Becht can steady himself before the pressure around the job grows even louder. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Loss Sparks Bigger Concern Than Just Matt Campbell
Northwesterns new Ryan Field made its debut in style against Penn State, and the setting only sharpened the unease around what the Nittany Lions looked like on the field. The Wildcats controlled the game from start to finish, and for a Penn State program that has spent recent years producing a steady stream of pro prospects, the bigger takeaway was less about one lopsided loss and more about what it suggested about the current roster.
NFL scouts did not exactly swarm the sideline, and that quiet presence lined up with the larger concern: this Penn State group may not have the same level of NFL-caliber talent as the teams that came before it. The discussion around Matt Campbells hire and what it could mean for the program only adds another layer to a season already carrying plenty of pressure, because the challenge is no longer just fixing one game but figuring out how quickly this roster can be built back into something closer to Penn States standard. [Read more 🡒]