Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545675
W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 1st The 2026 season will be the first since Penn State began Big Ten play in 1993 that does not in- clude a matchup against Ohio State. The PSU-OSU series is on a two-year hiatus and will resume in 2028 when the Buckeyes make their first visit to Beaver Stadium since winning 20-13 on Nov. 2, 2024. 4 Head coaches in the 50-year his- tory of the Penn State men's vol- leyball program. Longtime PSU assis- tant Colin McMillan became the latest on May 20 when he was named to the position by athletics director Patrick Kraft. McMillan succeeds Mark Pavlik, who retired in May after 32 years in charge of the program. Before Pavlik, the Li- ons were coached by program founder Tom Tait (1977-89) and Tom Peterson (1990-94). 6th Rocco Becht's place on ESPN's list of the top newcomers in college football, which encompassed both transfers and fresh- men. The redshirt senior "arrives at Penn State as one of the most expe- rienced quarterbacks in the country," writer Billy Tucker noted. "Becht's operational consistency makes him a steadying presence capable of maxi- mizing Penn State's supporting cast." New Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover topped the list, followed by Texas wide receiver Cam Coleman, LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, Miami quarterback Darian Mensah and LSU offensive tackle Jordan Seaton. 8th Penn State's spot among the top 10 storylines in col- lege football heading into the 2026 season, per ESPN. The Nittany Lions' coaching change shares the No. 8 spot with Virginia Tech and its new coach, James Franklin. ESPN notes that the PSU and Vir- ginia Tech jobs are "linked by Frank- lin's shocking downfall in State College last year, being fired in mid-October after playing in a College Football Playoff semifinal the season before. [Matt] Campbell, the winningest coach in Iowa State history after 10 years in Ames, was finally poached after several schools made runs at him, and now he starts over on a bigger stage." 12 Pounds gained by freshman defensive end Jackson Ford ac- cording to Penn State's updated roster, which was released on June 11. Ford, a four-star edge rusher from Phoenix- ville, Pa., was listed at 252 pounds dur- ing spring practice but is now at 264. He made the biggest jump of any player on the team. The biggest weight-gainer on of- fense was redshirt sophomore running back Quinton Martin Jr., who added 8 pounds since the spring and is now listed at 212. 16th Campbell's place in CBS Sports' ranking of the top 25 head coaches in the Power Four conferences. The first-year Penn State coach was down six spots from his ranking a year ago, when he was coming off an 11-3 finish at Iowa State in 2024. CBS's 10 panelists had him ranked as high as 11th and as low as 22nd. Campbell was fifth among Big Ten coaches, trailing Indiana's Curt Cignetti (first), Ohio State's Ryan Day (third), Oregon's Dan Lanning (fifth) and Michigan's Kyle Whittingham (10th). He was three spots below his predecessor, James Franklin, who came in 13th ahead of his first season at Vir- ginia Tech. +2000 Penn State's odds of winning the Big Ten in 2026, per the BetMGM sports- book. The Nittany Lions have the league's sixth-best odds, behind Ohio State (+180), Indiana (+250), Oregon (+300), Michigan (+1000) and USC (+1500). 6 , 200 Tons of steel erected as part of the Beaver Stadium renovation project. On June 10, Penn State held a "topping out" ceremony to celebrate the placement of the final beam atop the structure, which stands 195 feet tall. Such ceremonies are used to mark important milestones in the construc- tion of new buildings. As of mid-June, more than 750,000 man-hours had been spent on the proj- ect, with workers pouring 11,953 cubic yards of concrete. Each of the elevated seating sections atop the reconstructed west grandstand weighs 188,000 pounds. By The Numbers A U G U S T 2 0 2 6 15 Athletics director Patrick Kraft spoke at the June 10 "topping out" cer- emony commemorating the placement of the final steel beam atop Beaver Stadium. MARK SELDERS/ PENN STATE ATHLETICS