Penn State Sports Magazine
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O C T O B E R 2 0 2 6 2 7 with the football team," Campbell said. That sentiment is not new to the Nit- tany Lions. The road trip to Temple in Week 2 served as a milestone, allowing players to see who had earned a spot on the travel roster for the team's first away game of the season. But Campbell has pushed for fierce competition since his arrival, beginning in winter work- outs and continuing through the start of the season. Campbell challenged players com- peting for starting and backup roles to begin preseason camp with a purpose, sustain their intensity through the dog days and carry it into game-week prep- arations. Through their first two games — a 45-0 victory over Marshall to open the season and a 27-9 win against Temple the following week — the Nittany Li- ons continued to battle each other in practice. "We're never relaxed," senior safety Jamison Patton said. "I feel like you're never just relaxed at practice. You're always working, always competing, whether that's running from drill to drill or within the drill. We've got good guys here, and there's a lot of competi- tion. I think that shows at practice." Daily Challenges The shape of that competition has evolved. Patton said the Nittany Lions have had less work pitting the top of- fensive and defensive units against each other, but the scout teams still present daily challenges. Campbell watches ev- ery practice rep, allowing him to iden- tify the strongest and most consistent performers throughout the depth chart. "We're still working and we're still competing our butts off," Patton said. "If you do well on scout team, you're going to get a chance to play and earn your role." The competition extends throughout Penn State's depth chart, shaping the mindset of even established starters. Their effort and approach remain im- portant to the Nittany Lions' success, even when their jobs appear secure. For redshirt senior defensive tackle Keanu Williams, that process begins with players pushing one another to improve. "We've got to just try to get better every day. You want to be a better ver- sion of yourself than you were yester- day," the UCLA transfer said. "I think that's the best way to be competitive with yourself and competitive with my teammates, because they want to bring it every day, and so do I. We've got to get each other better. "If I slack one day, I'm not getting him better, and vice versa. That's one of the best ways we bring competitive excellence." The Right Mindset The challenge for Campbell and the Nittany Lions is to create the kind of environment in which players are asked to do battle with each other every day yet still stay focused on the team's shared goals. Campbell has repeatedly stressed his determination to build a team that is tough, disciplined and to- gether, asking his players to embrace spirited competition while working to- ward a common purpose. Patton has taken that message to heart. "We're football players. We all came here to play football," he said. "We know in between those white lines, we're football players, and we're of- fense, we're defense. "But we're also a team. When we get back in that locker room, what- ever happened on the field stays on the field, and we have to flush it. We're still people at the end of the day." ■ "We're never relaxed. I feel like you're never just relaxed at practice. You're always working, always competing, whether that's running from drill to drill or within the drill. We've got good guys here, and there's a lot of competition. I think that shows at practice." S E N I O R S A F E T Y J A M I S O N P A T T O N Campbell On Travel Roster: 'You've Got To Earn The Right' Matt Campbell grew accustomed to taking buses to road games when he coached at Toledo, and his Iowa State teams also skipped the airport when they traveled to places like Iowa and Kansas that were within reasonable driving distance. So busing to Phila- delphia for Penn State's Week 2 matchup against Temple was nothing new to him. Technically, the only restriction on the size of the traveling party for the game against the Owls was how many players could fit on the buses. But Campbell said there was an internal standard that applied, too. "We're not into dressing everybody," he said. "You've got to earn the right to dress, and you've got to earn the right to go. I think from our end of it, part of that earning it is the ability to get yourself on the travel squad." Campbell framed the battle for spots on the travel roster as part of a broader effort to create a competitive environment throughout the program. "That's one of the real bonuses we have right now going on in our program," he said. "There is a lot of depth, and it doesn't matter really who you are. You've got to come to practice every day and earn the right to start. You've got to earn the right to play in the game on Saturday." Once the Big Ten season begins, travel rosters will be capped at 80 players. The limit used to be 74, but the conference voted to increase it by six players starting this sea- son. The change came on the heels of the NCAA's decision to scrap its previous eligibility rules in favor of a "five for five" model. The new rules eliminate the redshirt restric- tions that dissuaded coaches from using their younger players in more than four regular-season games. — Nate Bauer