Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547107
N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6 51 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM VARSITY VIEWS O ne of Joe Paterno's most oft-cited bits of coaching wisdom was that you're never as good as you think you are when you win and never as bad as you think you are when you lose. The man now in charge of Penn State's football program, Matt Campbell, can only hope the old cliche still holds true, because the Nittany Lions did not look good in their first few Big Ten games. Penn State blew a 17-point lead in a 24-20 loss to Wiscon- sin on Sept. 26 and never showed much fight in a 34-13 defeat at Northwestern the following week. Then came a 31-23 loss to USC, an ominous prelude to the Lions' visit to Michigan on Oct. 17. The problems are myriad. A punchless running game has hindered PSU from the start of the season, and an on-again- off-again passing attack has only made matters worse. The Lions tried leaning on their defense against the Badgers, but it gave out in the fourth quarter, and it still looked gassed versus the Wild- cats, surrendering a ghastly 413 rushing yards. Whenever a team with high expecta- tions falls apart the way the Lions have, the coaches are going to take the brunt of the criticism. BWI's Lions Den mes- sage board was a free-fire zone after the Northwestern game. Most of the ire was directed at Campbell and his coordina- tors, though athletics director Patrick Kraft wasn't spared, nor were the uni- versity's administration or the media. One of the assumptions implicit in the criticism of Campbell is that he miscal- culated by bringing in 24 players from Iowa State, overestimating their readi- ness for the Big Ten. But that argument overlooks a couple of key points. The first is that Penn State didn't have the luxury of using its portal resources to make a handful of targeted additions. It needed bodies, and lots of them. Half of the previous year's roster was gone. Of the returning players, 15 were walk-ons. Also, time was not on Campbell's side. Hired in early December after a mara- thon search, he and his staff had to make a warp-speed evaluation of the roster they inherited. Once the portal opened, they had to find players who fit their ex- tensive needs and were affordable. In the end, the Lions got the players who were gettable, which in many cases turned out to be the ones who knew Campbell best and wanted to keep play- ing for him, even at a discount rate. Redshirt senior tight end Gabe Burkle was one of those players. Asked last summer what NIL considerations he weighed in making his decision, he said they barely mattered. "It's not something that I necessarily was focused on ever," he said. "How the cards fell is how they fell, and I would just accept that. I'm just very grate- ful that I'm making any money playing football in college." One factor that made Penn State's situation uniquely difficult was that its former coach, James Franklin, landed on his feet. Unlike the other prominent coaches who were fired last year — LSU's Brian Kelly, Florida's Billy Napier and Michigan's Sherrone Moore topped the list — Franklin was quickly snapped up by a historically successful Power Four team. His arrival at Virginia Tech presented Penn State players with an intriguing option, a chance to follow their former coach to another quality program. Once he got settled in with the Hokies, Franklin had about six weeks to figure out which of his former PSU players he might like to bring with him to Blacks- burg. Of course, any such additions were contingent on those players entering the portal in January. But until Campbell ar- rived, there was no full-time head coach at Penn State persuading them not to. The results of the subsequent ros- ter upheaval have been on full display lately. On the same night Penn State was getting pounded by Northwestern, its former starting quarterback, Ethan Grunkemeyer, was throwing for 434 yards against Pitt, albeit in a narrow loss. Through five games, Grunkemeyer was averaging 289.2 passing yards per game, with 11 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. His leading receiver was former Penn State tight end Luke Reynolds, and on defense, PSU expat Mylachi Williams had compiled a team-best 7 tackles for loss. Virginia Tech's early-season success did not go unnoticed by disgruntled Penn State fans, but the Lions them- selves have more pressing matters to worry about. There's a season to finish, followed by another portal opening, during which Campbell and his staff will be eager to show what they can do under less frantic circumstances. Looks can be deceiving, as Paterno often noted, and Campbell will have a chance in the coming months to con- vince prospective Nittany Lions that this season's struggles aren't indicative of the program's true potential. There's going to be a lot riding on whether he succeeds. ■ PSU Feeling The Effects Of Offseason Tumult After starting seven games at Penn State last year, quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer transferred to Virginia Tech, where he has been one of the top quarterbacks in the ACC this fall. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL