Matt Campbell Dissects Penn State’s Loss to Northwestern, Supports QB Rocco Becht

EVANSTON, Ill. — The newly installed, cutting-edge scoreboard at Ryan Field displayed just 33 seconds remaining in Friday night’s game, with Northwestern leading Penn State 34-13 — and no, it wasn’t malfunctioning.

Underneath the purple glow of that scoreboard and surrounded by the buzz of a rowdy student section, quarterback Aidan Chiles lined up in victory formation and took one final knee to cap off the resounding upset victory.

Nittany Lion head coach Matt Campbell went through the typical post-game pleasantries before jogging off the field in front of that student section, and back into a locker room directly beneath it where he undoubtedly heard their continued celebration as he delivered post-game remarks to the team.

Then, Campbell crammed into the front corner of the visitors’ media room inside the bowels of the stadium, sitting at a makeshift setup including a microphone propped up on what appeared to be a battery pack to answer half a dozen questions from members of the media who made the trip.

“First of all, let me say this. I’m going to give Northwestern a ton of credit,” Campbell said. “They played a style of game that obviously we would like to play and they really beat us, where it was really hard to find the rhythm on both sides of the football. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. I think the frustrating thing for me is the standard of what this program plays football with, the attitude, the effort, the toughness — we lacked it in every way, shape and form tonight.”

The questions, deservedly so, were critical, digging into the team’s flat start — plus the flat middle and flat end as well. Campbell’s answers reflected an understanding that may have been lacking a week prior when he praised quarterback Rocco Becht’s performance in an upset loss to Wisconsin. This time around, there was little to spin positively.

“Put a lot on me because somehow, some way I didn’t get this team prepared to play the physical brand of football that we need to play, and that’s something that showed up on both sides, especially on the line of scrimmage,” Campbell said. “I do think there were a lot of missed tackles on defense tonight. I think we had a lot of opportunities to make some plays and missed tackles, and again, we got to find solutions, and it starts with me as the head football coach.”

Campbell continuously took blame, as most coaches would, for the uniquely horrific showing produced by a squad that, one week ago, was ranked No. 13 in the country. And while he didn’t sugarcoat Becht’s performance, he reiterated trust, saying there had been no consideration of turning to backup Alex Manske during the game.

“Rocco, we have great belief in, just like I have belief in all of our players, and really, I have great belief in our coaches because we got to find answers and we got to get it fixed fast,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s explanation for Becht’s back-to-back inadequate showings included critiquing the struggling run game, which had been viewed as the bigger issue for most of the season.

“I think you got yourself in both games to a situation where you’re playing dropback football, right?” Campbell said. “And to be quite honest with you, the lack of complementary football in the offense without a running game that’s consistent … it’s a really hard way to live.”

It’s also been really hard to watch. But Campbell has seen Becht go through tough stretches before. As the active leader for most career starts in all of college football, the fifth-year has experienced his fair share of bad games and losing streaks.

Last season, while Becht was dealing with injuries to both shoulders, Iowa State went on a four-game losing skid before rattling off three consecutive wins to close the season. It wasn’t all that dissimilar from Penn State, which followed a six-game losing streak with four straight wins.

“Rocco’s worked through hard before, and he’s proven he’s got the great ability to do it,” Campbell said. “And you know, the fact of the matter is, Rocco’s a winner. He’s won a lot of football games, and he’s had to work through really hard situations. And we’re kind of in one of those right now. And so his leadership and his ability to navigate, you know, the rough waters right now will be, I think, a testament to him as we get ourselves out of it.”

As the saying goes, the most popular player on the team is the backup quarterback. Whether or not the Nittany Lions work their way out of this slump remains to be seen, but Campbell isn’t changing his stance on Becht even as losses pile up.