University Park, Pa. – Penn State losing streak reached three tonight after dropping a tough one to No. 19 USC 31-23 tonight in Beaver Stadium in the annual White Out.
With tonight’s loss, Penn State has now lost two White Out games in a row after winning six straight from 2019 to 2024.
Here is everything head coach Matt Campbell said after the game:
Question: Matt, it seemed like you used a lot of three-man rushes on defense, and it wasn’t effective. Why did you think that gave you the best chance against an offense like that?
Matt Campbell: I think we tried to have some multiplicity in terms of what we were doing, especially against the quarterback. From our end, it was: How many different ways could we disguise coverage, especially post-snap and especially when it got under 15 seconds on the play clock?
There was some thought behind being able to do that. There were moments where it put us in advantageous situations. The biggest killers were some of the third-down opportunities that we weren’t able to finish. I think you’re talking third-and-10, third-and-12, third-and-13 — getting them to those points and not finishing. Those were the killers.
We’ll have to go back and continue to look at it, because when you think about the Wisconsin game and this game, it’s those third-and-long situations. You bust your tail to get to that point and then aren’t able to finish. Those are things we’ve got to improve.
Question: Do you have the personnel needed to run the ball effectively against the schedule you’re playing? It seems like it has been a bugaboo in several games now.
Campbell: I would say that tonight, I think we showed the right growth. I thought we played in a much different rhythm. When you talk about the ability to use the run game to set up the passing game — play-action passing, movement passing — I think all of those things were realities tonight.
I thought Carson Hansen had some really great runs in some critical moments for us. I thought James Peoples had a couple of good runs. I think that group will only continue to grow and develop. This offensive line is continuing to grow forward — again, five new guys working together. That group has to continue to grow forward.
But I did think there were some moments tonight when we grew a lot closer to the team we want to be than where we were, especially last week.
Question: At 3–3 at the halfway point of the season, what can you reasonably change at this point in the year? At what point are you simply who you are on the field?
Campbell: I don’t know if you’re going to change schematically who we are. What we have to do is continue to get better. We have to continue to improve what we are and what we’re doing. What are we going to be on defense? What are we going to continue to be on offense? We’ve got to continue to find a pathway forward.
There was some growth tonight in some areas, for sure, and we’re going to have to continue to pound away at it. There’s no wavering. There’s no flinching in terms of what we want to do. We have to continue to get better at what we want to do. Is there a pathway forward? Yes, but there’s a lot of work to continue to do.
Question: You seemed to struggle to make Jayden Maiava uncomfortable. We saw some three-man rushes. What can this defense do moving forward to generate more pressure?
Campbell: Against who those guys are offensively, they spread you out and try to get their athletes in space. From our end, it was: How multiple could we be in the football game? Could we play man but not sit in man the whole game, and try to help our defensive backs? That was really our thought process going into it.
When you talk about the pressure piece, we’re going to have to continue to find ways to get creative. That’s an area for us, especially in those third-down situations. They had time to make plays and extend plays, and I think that’s what you’re talking about with the three-man rush. We’ve got to find a different way to get off the field on third down.
Question: Could you explain some of the timeouts you had to use? There were different circumstances, including substitutions and when USC was punting.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Campbell: On the USC punt, we had our punt-safe group out. They kept the offense out there, and I just didn’t want to screw around with it, to be honest with you. I wanted to make sure we secured the football if we had the opportunity to do it at the end of the game.
There were a couple of goofy moments in the game. On the first one in the first half, we didn’t get great clarity. The official went down, and we got to the point where the ball was in the red zone. They started the 25-second clock, but they didn’t announce it. We took the timeout because we would have had a five-yard penalty there.
I forget exactly what the other one was in the second half when we ended up taking a timeout. I think it was a substitution situation. That was on the coaching side. It was a substitution error.
Question: Marcus Neal Jr. was a very productive player for you at Iowa State. I don’t think he played on defense tonight. Where is he in his development, and what does that say about his role moving forward?
Campbell: Today was such a unique football game. As we went into it, coverage was at a premium in terms of what was going to go on. Collectively, as we continue to put this defense together, Marcus is a critical piece of our success.
Tonight, as the game became a spread game and was played in space, it was a situation where we went with probably more coverage than tackling ability at the safety position.
Question: How would you assess Rocco Becht’s play tonight? He hit some downfield passes, but it felt like he missed a couple in the second half. What did you take away from his performance?
Campbell: I don’t know if Rocco missed downfield in the second half, but I think he missed in maybe some of the short spaces. The growth we made offensively was that we played in a better rhythm tonight. That allowed him to play the style of quarterback that Rocco is when he’s playing great football.
I thought we moved the pocket at times. I thought he was really comfortable in the drop-back passing game, and he used his feet a couple of times to get himself out of trouble. I thought Rocco certainly gave us every opportunity to be successful in the football game.
Again, I thought we found a rhythm that we want to play in and that we need to continue to move forward with, for sure.
Question: This was your first White Out experience. What were your general impressions? From a coaching standpoint, was there information you gained that you can bank — whether it involved sending the team into the student section, communication or how loud it was?
Campbell: First of all, the most disappointing part for me is that we can’t give this incredible fan base, which showed out, the result it deserves. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. It was one of the most impressive environments I’ve been able to coach in or be a part of.
My disappointment is that right now, we can’t give them the result they deserve. But the reality is, we will, and we will find a pathway forward.
I know I’ve said this this week, and I’m going to continue to say it: We do have great humans in that locker room who stand for what’s right. There was growth forward. We’re not where we need to be yet, but we are growing forward, and we’ll demand a pathway forward because we’ve got such a great fan base, and they deserve that.
