UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State exits non-conference play at 3-0, fresh of a commanding 55-13 win over Buffalo at Beaver Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Big Day on the Ground Propells Penn State in Laugher Over Buffalo
Is head coach Matt Campbell happy about the way the first quarter of the season has gone?
Maybe a few layers beneath the surface. But outwardly, he’s adamant PSU isn’t quite where it should be.
“But I think a team that has certainly grown in different entities each week, and still a team that, in my opinion, has got so much ability and growth to go,” Campbell said. “We’re showing at times in some things that were focal points for us today, and then we grew in some areas that were really critical for me.”
If Campbell were 100% pleased, it would certainly be a cause for concern, but of course this is only the third week of the season and this is a team and season that is far from a finished product.
The easy part of the schedule is now gone and conference play begins next week against Wisconsin which is where the true identity of this team will start to show.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“This is college football, and I think our ability to go from Week 3 to Week 4 will be really important,” Campbell said. “As a team that I appreciated their urgency and the way we played, with a sense of physicality, our detail in some of those penalties are obviously really disappointing in football game.”
There wasn’t a lot to be unhappy about in the game, but it was clear Campbell wasn’t overly thrilled about the penalties that were essentially the best part of the Buffalo offense.
“The penalties are are really disappointing, right? I mean, those are things where it’s a fundamental technique at the point of attack, and really all of those were other than one selfish penalty at the end of the football game, which can’t happen,” Campbell said. “I think again, when you’re talking or playing the way physically we want to play, you got to be elite at the finish. We weren’t back today, and those are things that are going to have to demand a pathway forward to grow.”
It wasn’t all a disappointment in the blowout. In fact, there are quite a few things Campbell is pleased with as the team moves forward.
“I think we’ve got really good players. I think our kids really believe in special teams and the value of that,” Campbell said. “Ball security. I think the turnover mark. I think we’re now at plus five on the season, which is trending to where we need to be.”
Can Penn State continue its upward trend into Big Ten play and beyond? That remains to be seen, but for Campbell there’s certainly a path forward for growth as a unit moving forward.
“We’re doing some really good things, but as you would want, and I think as we all want, there’s got to be a pathway forward, and you see a bigger vision for where this team can go, and we have to go forward,” Campbell said.
