With Penn State dealing with injury uncertainty at wide receiver, the case for getting Zay Robinson on the field has gotten a lot louder.
The Nittany Lions’ passing game has already spent the last few seasons fighting uphill at receiver. In 2025, Trebor Pena paced the offense with just 552 receiving yards.
A year earlier, Harrison Wallace III topped the wideout group with 720 yards in 15 games. Back in 2023, Drew Allar’s first season leading the team, KeAndre Lambert-Smith finished as the top receiver with 673 yards.
That stretch says plenty about how hard it has been for Penn State to find consistent production out wide.
Matt Campbell was brought in with a strong track record of developing receivers, and his résumé at Iowa State backed that up. Two years ago, Rocco Becht threw for two 1,000-yard wideouts in Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, both of whom became second- and third-round picks. Before that, Xavier Hutchinson posted 1,171 receiving yards in 2022.
Penn State also arrived with help from Campbell’s old program. Iowa State’s top two receivers in 2025, Brett Eskildsen and Chase Sowell, came with him to Penn State. The Nittany Lions also kept Koby Howard, whom Becht said before the season could get to 1,000 yards.
That group looked like the clear foundation at receiver. Then Zay Robinson became the twist.
Robinson was one of 24 transfers who followed Campbell to Penn State. He had been a member of the 2025 recruiting class and redshirted at Iowa State that season, leaving him with four years of eligibility. At 5-foot-11 and 186 pounds, the Iowa native fits neatly into a slot role, and his game is built around explosiveness after the catch.
He entered the season as a backup in the slot behind Howard, which made sense when Howard opened with 12 catches for 344 yards and two touchdowns in three games. Robinson’s best path to the field seemed limited at first, so Penn State gave him another lane: returns. He became the starting punt and kick returner and has already totaled 327 return yards through seven games.
He has also flashed as a receiver. Robinson caught his first career touchdown on a 39-yard pass from Becht against Marshall, then followed it with a career-high three catches for 34 yards against Temple. When Howard went down after the Marshall game, Robinson’s role was supposed to grow.
It has, just not in the way you might expect. Through the season, Robinson has only eight catches for 122 yards and one touchdown.
The strange part is that he is not exactly being ignored - he is being rotated off the field.
Penn State has leaned heavily on multiple-tight-end formations, and that has squeezed Robinson’s snaps. Through seven games, the Nittany Lions rank second in the FBS in 12 personnel, using one running back and two tight ends on 60.2% of their plays.
They are also third nationally in 13 personnel at 11.8%. In contrast, they use 11 personnel only 22.4% of the time, and they have not run a snap without a tight end on the field.
That setup keeps Robinson off the grass and brings in a second or third tight end instead. It is not a shocking choice.
Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser also coaches the tight ends, and Penn State has options there in Andrew Rappleyea, Ben Brahmer, and Gabe Burkle. The running game has also been a problem, and more blockers can help.
The Nittany Lions are averaging just 130.7 rushing yards per game and 3.8 yards per carry. For comparison, Iowa State finished last year at 174.7 yards per game and 4.4 per carry.
Still, the numbers show Robinson has been involved more than the raw catch total suggests. Over the last four games, he has run 59 routes and been targeted nine times.
But 22 of those routes came against Northwestern and 20 came against Michigan, games in which Penn State was trailing and forced into more obvious passing situations. On the season, Robinson has run 75 routes and seen 15 targets.
The bigger issue is simple: Penn State is leaving an explosive player on the sideline when it could use him. With Howard injured and Chase Sowell questionable for a second straight week, Robinson should be one of the safest bets on the field. Instead, Becht has looked shaky, at times rattled by late interceptions or missed chances downfield.
The fix does not have to be complicated. Penn State could trim a tight end or two, live with whatever is left of the run game, and start feeding Robinson on screens and quick throws. Four-yard passes to Gabe Burkle are not moving the offense.
Against Purdue, with Howard and Sowell both questionable, getting Zay Robinson more involved might be the cleanest way to give this Penn State offense a jolt.
In Other News...
Penn States 2027 QB Search Just Got More Interesting
Penn States quarterback work in the Class of 2027 has already taken a turn, with Will Wood flipping his commitment to Boston College and leaving the Nittany Lions back in the market. The move adds another layer to a position group the staff is still actively sorting through, and it puts even more attention on how Penn State plans to shape that class moving forward.
One of the names now in the mix is Ben Rolapp, a Boston College commit who has drawn multiple offers and followed up a strong 2025 season with a growing recruiting profile. Penn States offer to Rolapp makes the picture a little more complicated, and it underscores how the Nittany Lions are continuing to chase quarterback options even as the board keeps shifting around them. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Faces Real Pressure As Offensive Concerns Keep Growing
Penn State gets Purdue at Beaver Stadium in a spot where the backdrop matters as much as the matchup. The Nittany Lions are carrying a four-game Big Ten losing streak, while Purdue arrives with an 11-game skid against Penn State, and that contrast alone says plenty about where both programs are headed entering the weekend. Barry Odom has already been talking about getting his team ready for the noise and pressure of one of the leagues tougher road environments, which only adds to the sense that this is a game Penn State has to handle with a little more purpose than it has shown lately.
Offensively, the bigger question is whether the Nittany Lions can start looking more like themselves again. Rocco Becht has battled turnover issues, but there is still expectation around him to settle in and clean things up, and there is some added hope at receiver with Koby Howard potentially back after missing four games. For a team trying to stop a slide and restore confidence, those are the kinds of pieces that matter, even if the broader problems have been too stubborn to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State May Need Arrington Back Sooner Than Fans Expected
Penn State has spent much of the season trying to piece together its edge-rusher rotation, and the latest availability report only underscored how thin that room can get. LaVar Arrington II was sidelined for the first seven games after knee surgery, and with Max Granville already out for the year, the staff has had to keep sorting through a group that also includes young players such as Alexander McPherson and Yvan Kemajou.
Against Purdue in Week 9, Arrington was absent from the availability report, a small but notable development for a defense still managing multiple injuries and a crowded injury list overall. For Penn State, the question is no longer just when Arrington gets back, but how quickly the Nittany Lions need him once he does, given the way the depth chart has been tested at one of the most demanding spots on the field. [Read more 🡒]