Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546586
1 6 O C T O B E R 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 They Said It "I feel like we have a high level of trust on our defensive staff, and that trickles down to the players. It's to the point where we're all Penn Staters now. You can't tell who's been here, you can't tell who's from Iowa State, who came from a different school. We're all Penn Staters now." — Defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn on Penn State's success at blending its transfers and freshmen with the returning players "It's a new era. We've turned the page. To Coach Campbell and all of you in this program, I can't tell you how spe- cial it was to watch you play today and watch you lead, the way that you lead, and the people that you've brought with you on this journey. This is No. 1 of a lot of victories." — Athletics director Patrick Kraft, speaking to Matt Campbell and his team in the locker room after their 45-0 season-opening victory over Marshall "Not much to write home about in a 45-0 win over a solid Marshall squad from the MAC, which is a good thing. A wave of former Iowa State play- ers led the way, including four touch- downs from quarterback Rocco Becht and touchdowns from Ben Brahmer and Brett Eskildsen. Of course, first-year defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn is going to have a lot of fun with playmak- ers like Tony Rojas and Caleb Bacon." — CBSSports.com college football writer Shehan Jeyarajah, awarding Campbell a B+ for his coaching de- but at Penn State "Fifteen minutes. That's all it took — one quarter — for Penn State's new "As a running back, you want as much as you can, because you're a competitive guy, and whatever they bring at you, you've got to be prepared for it, and that's the mindset going into it. If they pack the box, we've got to go run through it. If not, we'll throw it overtop, and we'll get it done that way." — Senior running back Carson Hansen on the Nittany Lions' offensive approach PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS wide receiver group to start to change the narrative about the program's most polarizing position. This isn't 2025. Or 2024. Or 2023. Penn State has several wideouts who can hurt secondaries. These Lions run crisp routes, hold onto the ball and they can all run by defend- ers. It sure looked Saturday like the wide receiver position will be a strength, not a weakness, in 2026." — PennLive columnist Bob Floun- ders on the Nittany Lions' revamped wide receiver corps "The Nittany Lions in recent years have struggled to find a go-to wide re- ceiver. New coach Matt Campbell ap- pears to have one in a holdover from last year's Penn State roster. In Saturday's 45-0 win over Marshall, Koby Howard finished with six catches for 161 yards and a touchdown — becoming the first Penn State player to produce 150 receiv- ing yards in a game since tight end Tyler Warren did it in 2024. The new staff and Iowa State transfer players were buzzing about Howard and his potential in the spring, even though he had just seven receptions under James Franklin all last year. Howard appears to have devel- oped an instant chemistry with transfer quarterback Rocco Becht — and could give Penn State the weapon it has long been missing." — ESPN college football writer Jake Trotter on Penn State's early success under Matt Campbell "If there's one mantra we would like to be, we'd like to be tough, we'd like to be disciplined and we'd like to be to- gether as a football program. You want to turn the videotape on and see that. That's what we've talked about every single practice, from spring ball to fall camp, those three value systems. How are we representing those things? "We've put a lot of time, effort and energy in trying to play to those three values. I thought we did a really good job of being able to do that in Week 1. We'll have to continue to do a great job as we move forward." — Matt Campbell on his priorities for the Penn State football team