University Park– Rocco Becht’s Penn State debut went the way everybody hoped.
When a starting quarterback is pulled midway through the third quarter, things have either gone very right or very wrong.
For Becht, just about everything went right Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium against Marshall.
He completed 13 of 18 passes, and almost a third of those (four) went for touchdowns. Becht didn’t throw any intercptions and ended with 271 yards, with all four touchdown passes going to different targets. The first was a 42-yard pass to Koby Howard about midway through the first quarter. The second was a 25-yarder to Becht’s longtime Iowa State teammate Brett Eskildsen, which put Penn State up by three scores with 4:49 left in the first quarter. With 1:18 left in the half, Becht through his third TD pass to another former Cyclone, tight end Ben Brahmer, from 8-yards out to make the game a rout.
On the first possession of the second half, Becht hit a third former Iowa State player, receiver Zay Robinson, for a 39-yard TD pass which proved to be his last play of the game.
With Penn State ahead 31-0, Becht had nothing left to prove on the afternoon, so coach Matt Campbell pulled him and brought in backup Alex Manske.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Becht is in his fifth college football season overall and fourth as a starting quarterback, so he’s played a lot of football.
Yet coach Campbell– who also coached Becht through his whole time at Iowa State— told PSU reporters during fall camp that he felt Becht was “in a completely different space than I’ve seen him really in his career.“
Becht’s Penn State debut reflected that.
“What Rocco brings to the table is a guy that’s already gone through the highs of college football, the lows of college football,” Campbell said.
“If the entire locker room is willing to fight for the quarterback, then you got a pretty special leader on your hands,” Campbell said. “And I think he’s done a really good job in his competitiveness, his leadership, to come in and really demand that respect of the football team, and I think it’s shown by the way he’s played in fall camp.”
