Penn State’s weekend brought a little bit of everything: frustration on the football field, a split on the West Coast for volleyball, another loss for men’s hockey, and a postseason breakthrough for field hockey.
The football team is still searching for answers after dropping to 0-4 in Big Ten play with Saturday’s loss to Michigan. Penn State is 3-4 overall, and quarterback Rocco Becht’s night was defined by the kind of mistakes that can snowball fast.
He finished 28-of-44 for 267 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, and he also lost a fumble that Michigan turned into points. All three turnovers led to Wolverines touchdown drives.
Becht was also taken down three times.
There were a few bright spots on offense. Chase Sowell was the busiest target in the passing game, hauling in 11 catches on 15 targets for 151 yards and a touchdown.
Carson Hansen led the ground attack with 52 yards on 15 carries and added a rushing score. Defensively, Tony Rojas piled up 12 tackles and accounted for Penn State’s lone sack, a two-yard loss.
He also had two tackles for loss, while Kooper Ebel, Zion Tracy and Caleb Bacon chipped in tackles for loss of their own.
The Nittany Lions will be off in Week 8, but their next game already has a set kickoff. Penn State will face Purdue at Beaver Stadium in Week 9 at 4:15 p.m.
ET on Big Ten Network. Purdue enters the game at 3-4 after a loss to Washington and has also fallen to Wake Forest, UCLA and Notre Dame.
The Boilermakers’ wins have come against Indiana State, Illinois and Minnesota. Both teams are coming off byes.
In men’s hockey, the early season slide continued at Pegula Ice Arena. Penn State opened its home schedule against No.
8 Quinnipiac and came up short in a 6-3 loss, the program’s third defeat in three games. The Bobcats jumped ahead with three goals in the first period, added two more in the second and finished with one in the third.
Penn State did get on the board first, with Justin Larose and Mac Gadowsky scoring in the opening period to make it 2-0 before the halfway point of the frame. Luke Misa added the final goal in the third.
The loss kept Penn State from collecting any votes in the updated USCHO Poll. The Nittany Lions will try to get into the win column Tuesday, Oct. 20, when they host Robert Morris. The Colonials are also winless after being swept by Wisconsin and Miami to start the season.
Penn State women’s volleyball left California with a split after a five-set loss to UCLA and a sweep of USC. Against the Bruins, Kennedy Martin and Whitney Lauenstein both delivered big nights.
Martin finished with 25 kills on 68 attempts and hit .294, while Lauenstein added 19 kills on 54 attempts for a .167 hitting percentage. Martin led the team with 26.5 points, and Lauenstein finished with 21.5.
Gabrielle Nichols posted eight block assists and one solo block, both team highs, while Alexis Stucky handed out 49 assists and led Penn State with 18 digs.
The bounce-back came against USC, where Martin again led the way with 10 kills and 13 points. Lauenstein added eight kills and nine points, Nichols finished with nine points behind six kills, one solo block and four block assists, and Emmi Sellman and Kendall Northern both ended with 8.5 points.
Penn State is No. 16 in the AVCA Poll and will host No. 10 Oregon at Rec Hall on Friday, Oct.
In Other News...
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Week 7 of the 2026 college football season shook up the national picture in a hurry, and the ripple effects reached well beyond the biggest headlines. With half of the AP Top 10 going down, including Georgia and Notre Dame, the sport suddenly feels a lot less predictable, and the Big Tens pecking order got harder to read by the hour. A weekend full of upsets and quarterback absences turned what had looked like a fairly stable race into something much messier.
Ohio State now has its own concern after Julian Sayin was sidelined for several weeks, a development that changes the leagues balance in a hurry. Around the conference, teams such as Rutgers, Minnesota, UCLA and Oregon posted notable results while also dealing with the growing reality of backup quarterbacks being forced into bigger roles. For Penn State, the broader takeaway is obvious: the path through the Big Ten just got more crowded, more unpredictable and a lot less comfortable. [Read more 🡒]
Rocco Becht Faces A Penn State Question Fans Can't Ignore
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Penn State has not done him many favors either. The running game has been weak, and injuries to key receivers have left Becht operating with less margin for error than he would like. Even so, the questions around him are growing because the underlying issues are showing up in the same places week after week, and the Nittany Lions still need a way to turn a frustrating stretch into something more sustainable. [Read more 🡒]
Penn States QB Faces Mounting Pressure After Painful Michigan Loss
Rocco Bechts latest outing left Penn State with plenty to sort through after a 21-18 loss to Michigan, a game in which the quarterbacks mistakes helped tilt the second half. Becht was part of a messy afternoon that featured two interceptions and a lost fumble, the kind of turnover-heavy performance that can linger after a tight road loss and raise questions about how a team moves forward.
Matt Campbell, though, did not sound ready to shift away from his starter. He pointed to Bechts competitiveness and the room he still has to grow, while Becht acknowledged the challenge and said he believes in himself and in the work ahead. For Penn State, the storyline now is less about one bad night than whether its quarterback can steady things quickly enough to keep the season from slipping into something more complicated. [Read more 🡒]