ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Penn State heads into the bye week with far more questions than answers so far.
The Nittany Lions are 3-4 on the season much like they were through seven games last season, but even more questions remain as they remain on the search for a Big Ten win.
Who is Rocco Becht?
Coming into the season he was heralded as the most experienced quarterback in all of college football, but that hasn’t quite looked to be the case on the field. In fact, he looks exactly like you’d expect a first-year quarterback to look in a ‘new’ offense and program.
“I have complete faith in who Rocco Becht is and what he’s about,” Penn State head coach Matt Campbell said. “Listen, nobody’s more devastated than that guy right now in that locker room. But the reality of it is, that’s the position he plays. He’s got to continue to grow, continue to be the best version of himself because, like we said, the margin for error right now is razor-thin, right? You’re going to have to be your best every time you handle the football, and we’re going to continue to need his best as we move ourselves forward.”
Save for the first three games, the Nittany Lions have not gotten what they need from Becht and honestly, he doesn’t deserve the full blame as the only time the team is successful at running the ball is during the team entrance to the field. His top receiver went down at the end of non-conference play and the offense has struggled save for the tight ends and Chase Sowell.
Becht was tasked with throwing the ball an astounding 44 times in a game where Penn State was ahead or down only one possession for most of the contest.
Yikes.
“There’s plays I want back to be better for my team,” a dejected Becht said after the game. “I got to be better in the details, and you know, we fought. But at the end of the day, whoever’s more detailed wins the game, and unfortunately we weren’t today. But we’re going to continue to grow.”
Growth is a fickle thing and the team has seemingly grown over the past especially defensively, but they’ve not put together a full game yet.
“We’re not giving up on the season or the team. I think we’re a lot closer to the team we want to be over the last eight quarters we’ve played football, and we’ve got to demand a pathway forward,” Campbell said. “It’s great to get into a bye week and have an opportunity to continue to pound away at some of these detailed things that are costing us.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.The devil is in the details and the bye week couldn’t come at a better time. The by can provide a much-needed reset and set the stage for a second half of the season that has some very winnable games, however, the lack of identity can be summed up rather simply, change and lots of it has been the most consistent thing within the program since Campbell took over.
From roster turnover to injuries to the lack of success on the field, it’s been constant and consistent throughout the season.
“The reality of it is, obviously, a lot of change, and guys are starting to really settle into what’s being asked of them,” Campbell said. “I think we’ve got to continue to pound away at the fundamentals and details. There’s a lot of season left, a lot of football left for us to grow. Again, my focus and sole focus is on this team, these seniors, continuing to lay a foundation of the way we want to play football, the style of football we want to play and who we want to become. We have to demand a pathway forward.”
Campbell and company know what they want to be come and what they want to demand right now, but as he said, the margin of error is razor thin in this era of college football where winning and winning now is EVERYTHING.
That is hard to understand for many, but the reality of it is, this is about the long game for Campbell and crew and while the results aren’t there yet, the foundation is being built day by day.
“I don’t think you can flinch right now,” Campbell said. “You’re building the foundation of a football program, and to be quite honest with you, the foundation of a program that needs to continue to showcase that it has the ability when it gets hard and when it gets tough. Again, we’re not there, right? I mean, we’ve proven that. Man, the second half of games, now it was the fourth quarter of a football game. You’re right there with the opportunity to go win the game.”
Campbell is right, they’ve been right there in three out of the four Big Ten losses and that’s probably the most frustrating thing.
“We’re not going to waver from that, and there’s no excuses. We’re not where we want to be,” Campbell said. “But I do believe this group is continuing to pound away, and the way we’ve practiced, the way we continue to grow inside our walls has been huge. We’ll see if we can keep doing it, right? Because that’ll be a challenge.”
Can they find a way to win and not sacrifice the process and long game in the meant time? That remains to be seen, but it does seem as though the team is being built for the long haul and that just might be its 2026 identity.
