Penn State’s latest loss laid bare a problem Matt Campbell can’t coach away.
The Nittany Lions fell 31-23 to USC on Saturday night at Beaver Stadium, and by the time the rain came down late, so did some bottles and other debris from the stands. It wasn’t a full-scale revolt, but it was enough to register. This, after all, is not what Penn State fans expected when Campbell took over.
Campbell understood the mood afterward. For the third straight Big Ten loss, he came back to the same message: disappointment, accountability, and a promise that better days are coming.
"My disappointment is, right now, we can’t give them the result that they deserve," Campbell said late Saturday night at Beaver Stadium. "But the reality is, we will. We will find a pathway forward."
Penn State opened with a roar in front of an announced crowd of 114,419, the fourth-largest in college football history. The atmosphere was everything you’d want at the start.
Then USC quarterback Jayden Maiava settled in, the rain arrived, and the game quickly tilted. Even a halftime drone show couldn’t turn the night around.
USC didn’t just win. It showed Penn State exactly where the gap is.
The Trojans’ offense spent much of the night operating in comfort, with Maiava protected and in rhythm. He finished 21 of 33 for 301 yards and three touchdowns, and he repeatedly punished Penn State on third down.
Freshman receiver Trent Mosley was a major part of that, catching nine passes for 111 yards. Another freshman wideout, Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, helped round out the damage, and the two combined for 11 catches and 139 yards.
USC’s youth wasn’t a weakness. It was a weapon. The Trojans signed 20 4- or 5-star players, according to 247Sports, and several of them made their presence felt. 5-star freshman Luke Wafle, who Penn State tried to recruit, had five tackles and a sack. 4-star freshman left tackle Vlad Dyakonov handled his first start well. 4-star freshman tight end Mark Bowman didn’t even have to play.
That’s part of what made this result sting. USC head coach Lincoln Riley called it "one of my favorites," while also turning the Trojans into the plucky side in his postgame description.
"Nobody in the world gave us a chance to come in and win this game, and we did it," Riley said. "We did it our way."
Penn State, meanwhile, looked like a team still trying to find its footing after piecing together a roster through 40 transfers from 17 different schools. The talent shortage showed up on both sides of the ball, but especially against a USC team with deeper resources. According to The Athletic, Penn State’s football budget is about $30 million, while USC’s sits around $37 to $40 million.
The difference played out in the trenches and in the back end. Penn State’s defense couldn’t consistently bother Maiava, and the Nittany Lions finished with just two sacks in six games.
The only sack Saturday came from linebacker Tony Rojas, who now leads the team with four. D’Anton Lynn tried to vary looks and personnel, but USC still rolled up 431 yards and 31 points.
Offensively, Penn State has the same problem with a different shape. Campbell brought in Carson Hansen from Iowa State and James Peoples from Ohio State, and he kept Quinton Martin Jr. and Cam Wallace from Penn State.
Still, there hasn’t been a true lead back to anchor the attack. The Nittany Lions have run for just 116 total yards over their last two Big Ten games, and no running back has broken off a carry longer than 9 yards in three conference games.
That left too much on quarterback Rocco Becht, even though he played his best Big Ten game of the season. Tight end Andrew Rappleyea led Penn State with seven catches and said the staff is pushing to fix the ground game.
"We've still got to run the ball better," Rappleyea said. "We're emphasizing trying to do that more in practice. That's the biggest thing."
Chase Sowell gave Penn State a spark early with four catches for 95 yards, but he looked limited after an injury in the second half. Koby Howard remains the name to watch if he returns, possibly for Purdue on Halloween. Beyond that, the roster simply doesn’t have enough game-breaking punch.
That’s the heart of this thing for Campbell in Year 1. He built this team in six weeks, leaning heavily on the transfer portal, and he brought in players who care and compete.
He’s said repeatedly that the locker room has the "right people" and the "right human beings." He said it again Saturday.
"I definitely think we took a step forward," he said.
He expanded on that point, too.
"The great thing is, I know I've said this this week and I’m going to continue to say it, we do have great humans in that locker room that stand for what’s right and always grow forward," Campbell said. "We’re not where we need to be yet, but we are growing forward, and we’ll demand a pathway forward because we’ve got such a great fanbase, and they deserve that."
No one is questioning the effort. The issue is talent. At the moment, Penn State has a couple of players who can tilt a game - Howard, maybe when healthy, and Rojas on defense - but not enough around them to stand up to a roster like USC’s.
Campbell knows what he has. The question is how long the climb will take.
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Jayden Maiava was central to USCs answer, completing 21 of 33 passes for 301 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. The game had the feel of one that might tilt either way deep into the night, with lead changes and scoring drives keeping the pressure high, but USC handled the decisive moments well enough to make sure the record crowd went home remembering a loss Penn State will not shrug off quickly. [Read more 🡒]