Penn State’s trip out of the bye week brought a cleaner, tougher-looking offense, and the biggest evidence showed up on the ground in a 31-17 win over Purdue.
The Nittany Lions, who had been searching for answers in the run game, found them by stripping things down. Head coach Matt Campbell said the staff made a point of stepping back and focusing on what the team does best instead of trying to force too much into the plan.
“I think sometimes as coaches, and this is where I’m as at fault as anybody, you’re trying to sometimes overscheme to put yourself in the best position in the moment,” head coach Matt Campbell said. “And I think when you’ve got the ability to really sit down and digest it all of, ‘OK, this is what we’re best at, and let’s try to really make sure we’re fundamentally teaching and we’re growing at what we can do best,’ and then we’ll see as we grow ourselves forward.”
That reset showed up in the way Penn State attacked Purdue. Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser said the bye week was used to hammer the basics, with the staff leaning hard into repetition, physical play and a limited set of schemes.
“We’re gonna get together, and we’re just gonna freaking yell at these guys and get sweaty and put our face into people for a long, long time until these guys feel really good about what it looks like,” Mouser said. “And with those three or four schemes, we did it [against] different looks - over, under, bear, blitz, block it, rage, violence, water. And we did that for two weeks.”
The result was Penn State’s best rushing performance of the season: 269 yards on 51 carries. The Lions consistently moved Purdue off the line and controlled the game with a run game that had looked stuck before the break.
There’s a personnel piece to this, too. Center Brock Riker was playing his best football of the season, and running back Cam Wallace got his biggest snap share of the year while turning in a season-high 135 rushing yards.
Campbell made it clear the production matched what he had seen in practice.
“Man, how this guy practiced - what you guys saw Saturday is what was on the practice field for the last two weeks. It was cut and dry. It was easy,” Campbell added.
Penn State also had to adjust at receiver, with Chase Sowell and Koby Howard both out against Purdue. That opened the door for younger players, including true freshman Amarion Jackson, who Campbell said made the most of his extra work.
“I think you look at the two big runs. His blocks are at the forefront,” Campbell said.
“Push crack on the safety; they’re both coming off his big blocks. I’d start there.
Obviously, I thought he did a great job in terms of his opportunities. He made the most of them.”
Jackson may not need to carry as much of that load this week. Campbell said Sowell is probable for Saturday’s game against Washington, while Howard remains questionable after the injury he suffered against Buffalo in September.
No matter who is available, Mouser said the approach stays tied to the personnel on hand.
“We always cater it to the people that we have from a personnel standpoint, whether that’s the running backs or wide receivers or tight ends,” Mouser said. “It’s not like necessarily this is the system that we run and we just plug new people into it. It’s, how can we ‘formation’ to things to help ... be able to run the scheme so those guys can execute?”
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