Penn State’s season has gone from preseason playoff buzz to a straight-up rescue mission.
What looked like a College Football Playoff run under first-year coach Matt Campbell has turned into a fight just to stay bowl-eligible. The Nittany Lions are 3-4 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play, and with five games left, they need to win at least three of them to qualify for a bowl game.
They’re on a bye week now, which quarterback Rocco Becht described as a chance to regroup after four straight losses.
“I think at the end of the day, we're going to go into this bye week continuing to get better and look each other in the mirror, and just keep each other up,” Becht said after the 21-18 loss to Michigan last Saturday. “That's all you can do at this moment.”
The good news for Penn State is that the road ahead isn’t brutal on paper. Its final five opponents are a combined 15-18 entering the Week 7 schedule, and one of them has already fired its coach. The bad news is that nothing in this season has come easy, and several of these teams have enough offense or enough chaos to make life messy.
Purdue opens the stretch, and the Boilermakers have already beaten preseason expectations. Picked to finish last in the Big Ten media poll, they’ve responded with back-to-back conference wins over Illinois and Minnesota before falling to Washington. They’re 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten, and they’re also on a bye this week.
Ryan Browne has been the engine of Purdue’s attack. He leads a passing game that ranks third in the Big Ten in conference play at 278 passing yards per game, and he’s completed 65.6 percent of his throws for 1,822 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions.
Purdue is scoring 32.3 points per game in Big Ten play, but it’s also allowing 30 points per game against conference opponents. That sets up a chance for Becht and Penn State’s offense to clean up a number that has been flat-out ugly: 18.5 points per game in Big Ten action.
The trip to Washington comes with a major question mark at quarterback. It’s unclear who will start for the Huskies when they host Penn State after Demond Williams Jr. suffered what Washington coach Jedd Fisch called a “significant rib injury” in the Oct. 9 loss to Iowa. Williams started the first six games, but Elijah Brown took over in last week’s 38-26 win over Purdue and went 21-of-27 for 302 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Williams was reportedly booed during the Iowa game, with fans believing he was struggling on the field. Washington is off this weekend, so there’s no answer yet, though the Huskies do play Nebraska on Oct. 31 before Penn State arrives.
Minnesota brings a different kind of challenge. At 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten, the Golden Gophers own the second-best passing defense in the conference, giving up just 166.3 passing yards per game in league play. If Penn State can’t generate much on the ground, Becht may be forced to attack through the air against a secondary that has already taken the ball away from Washington’s Williams and Michigan’s Bryce Underwood twice in wins over those teams.
The one exception for Minnesota came against Purdue, which gashed the Gophers for 305 rushing yards in a 41-13 win. That matters because Penn State’s run game has been stuck in neutral, averaging 2.5 yards per carry in Big Ten play. The formula for a win there isn’t obvious.
Rutgers, meanwhile, has been a mixed bag wrapped around a shaky season. Greg Schiano has been under pressure all year, although a 37-30 win over Maryland last week may have eased that heat for the moment. The Scarlet Knights are 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten, with receiver KJ Duff standing out as a major bright spot thanks to 42 catches for 741 yards and nine touchdowns.
Running back Antwan Raymond has also chipped in with 105 carries for 498 yards and five touchdowns, though he is listed as questionable for the upcoming Northwestern game. That said, there’s still nearly a month before Rutgers visits Beaver Stadium, so he could be fully healthy by then. Even so, the defense has been a problem all season, allowing 39.7 points per game to Big Ten opponents.
Then there’s Maryland, which became the latest team to make a coaching change this week after parting ways with Mike Locksley. Defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim has taken over as interim head coach.
Locksley’s firing wasn’t exactly a surprise. He was already on the hot seat before the season began, and Maryland’s only FBS win so far came in a 38-14 victory over UConn.
Quarterback Malik Washington has completed 59.4 percent of his passes for 1,615 yards, nine touchdowns and six interceptions, but the Terrapins have been leaking points badly during their four-game losing streak to open Big Ten play, giving up 46 points per game. Of Penn State’s remaining trips, this looks like the clearest shot at a road win.
In Other News...
Penn State Just Won A Recruiting Battle Ohio State Wanted
Penn State has added another piece to its 2027 recruiting board with the commitment of Jordan Hall, a three-star running back from Princeton High School in Cincinnati. Hall had been committed to Miami (OH) before reopening his recruitment, and the move quickly drew more attention as Power 4 programs lined up with offers, including Missouri and Ohio State.
For Penn State, landing Hall matters not just because of his upside at a position the staff always tracks closely, but because the Nittany Lions won out in a battle that had plenty of competition attached to it. Ohio States presence in the mix gave the recruitment an extra edge, and Halls decision gives Penn State an early win on the trail for a class still years from signing day. [Read more 🡒]
Former Penn State QB Is Suddenly At The Center Of A Huge ACC Win
Ethan Grunkemeyer has become one of the more interesting quarterback stories in college football this fall, and Penn State fans have reason to notice. The former Nittany Lion is now at Virginia Tech, where he has helped push the Hokies to a 6-2 start while piling up more than 2,140 passing yards and 17 touchdown throws in eight games.
His latest spotlight moment came in Virginia Techs win over Clemson, when he delivered the game-winning touchdown pass. It is a significant turn for a quarterback who once stepped into the Penn State starting job after an injury to the quarterback ahead of him, and it adds another layer to a season that has suddenly put him near the top of the national conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Recruiting Just Took Another Hit On Defense
Penn States 2027 recruiting board on defense took another setback when three-star linebacker Blake Betton flipped his commitment to Wisconsin. The Shakopee, Minnesota, prospect had been pledged to the Nittany Lions since April, but he chose to stay closer to home and head to Madison instead, leaving Penn State with only one linebacker commitment in the class.
Blake Bettons change of heart comes on the heels of another recent flip, this one involving quarterback Will Wood, and it adds another reminder that the early work on future classes is never secure. For Penn State, the loss is more than just one name changing direction, because linebacker depth remains one of the spots the staff will keep trying to build out as the 2027 cycle develops. [Read more 🡒]