Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544665
2 2 M A Y 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M culty to his transition since he wasn't able to exert leadership on the practice field at first. But as time went on, he steadily increased his workload. He took part in seven-on-seven drills toward the end of the spring, including in the waterlogged Blue-White Practice at Beaver Stadium that wrapped up the team's offseason drills. Becht goes into the 2026 season ranked third among all Power Four players with 2,509 career snaps. He's got 39 career starts on his résumé, including 26 vic- tories, a background that inspires confi- dence. Now it's his job to help unite Penn State under his leadership and write a fit- ting final chapter to his long career. By all accounts, he made a good first impression this spring, and the feeling appears to be mutual. "The people that were here when I first got here made it super easy," Becht said. "Everybody had open arms, including the players that stayed, and now we're just like a family. Those are brothers to me. I'm excited for what we were able to do this spring and how we were able to come together as one team. I'm excited to see us fully go from here." An Internal Focus Campbell and his staff have inherited a team that is coming off a 7-6 finish and saw eight of last year's best players get drafted into the NFL on the same week- end the Nittany Lions finished spring practice. Any realistic assessment of Penn State's playoff worthiness this fall needs to begin with an acknowledge- ment that last year's much-hyped roster didn't get the results anyone wanted, and now it's been overhauled with players who, in most cases, are new to the Big Ten. But when has realism ever mattered coming out of spring practice? At this point in the calendar, nearly every Power Four team can concoct a scenario in which it either meets high expectations or defies low expectations and works its way into the 12-team College Foot- ball Playoff field. The Nittany Lions are surely no exceptions. Coming out of spring practice, the oddsmakers appeared to view Penn State as a borderline playoff team. The BetMGM sportsbook set the over/un- der for PSU's win total at 9.5, which is about as borderline as it gets. The Lions' odds of making the playoff were +310, which ranked sixth in the conference behind Indiana (-300), Oregon (-275), Ohio State (-250), Michigan (+260) and Quarterback Rocco Becht returned to action this spring and took part in seven-on-seven drills during the Blue-White Practice that concluded the team's offseason drills. PHOTO BY BEN BURRELL/PENN STATE ATHLETICS