Penn State After Michigan: A Top 20 Bye (Week) and Sell

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Penn State left the Big House here on Saturday night as the not-so-proud owner of a four-game losing streak. With an upcoming bye week, Matt Campbell’s Nittany Lions won’t get a chance to right the ship for another two weeks.

At 0-4 in the Big Ten Conference and 3-4 overall, Penn State last won on Sept. 19 against Buffalo. That seems so, so long ago. Only because it was.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Still, let’s dig inside the PSU (and Iowa State) stat book, and also provide some plaudits to the team’s two biggest standouts in Big Ten play so far — linebacker Tony Rojas and wide receiver Chase Sowell. And please read all the way to No. 20, when we mention another quarterback turnover this weekend.

1. BIG CROWDS x 2: If you were at the White Out last weekend in Beaver Stadium, then in The Big House this past Saturday, you were part of an impressive two-game attendance mark of 225,150 — 114,419 at home and 110,731 on the road. Campbell even took a few minutes during early pre-game on Saturday to get the lay of the land in Michigan Stadium.

2. THE TOP 10. Michigan and Penn State dominate the top 10 list for highest attendance in college football in 2026. Not bad for a pair of teams that are 7-6 overall and 1-6 in the Big Ten. The list:

1. 114,419 — Beaver Stadium (10/10), USC 31, PSU 23
2. 111,240 — Michigan Stadium (9/12), Mich. 17, Okla. 10
3. 111,126 — Michigan Stadium (9/26), Iowa 20, Mich. 19
4. 110,870 — Michigan Stadium (9/5), Mich. 13, W. Mich 12
5. 110,731 — Michigan Stadium (10/17), Mich. 21, PSU 18
6. 110,668 — Michigan Stadium (9/19), Mich, 21, UTEP 17
7. 108,657 — Kyle Field (10/3), Texas A&M 34, Ark. 17
8. 108,489 — Beaver Stadium (9/5), PSU 45, Marshall 0
9. 108,014 — Beaver Stadium (9/26), Wis. 24, PSU 20
10. 107,782 — Kyle Field (9/5), Texas A&M 50, Missouri St. 0

3. TONY ROJAS — WOW! The veteran linebacker leads the Nittany Lions with 56 tackles (next highest: 40), 10.5 tackles-for-loss (next-highest: 5) and 5 sacks (next-highest: 1…not a typo).

4. CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: Throw away the 34-13 loss at Northwestern, and Penn State has lost its other three Big Ten games by a total of 15 points (4, 8, 3). That’s heartened Campbell, who said post-game at Michigan “we are closer to the team we want to be the last eight quarters we played football…I think you’ve seen this team grow immensely in the last two weeks.”

5. PSU’S 2025 LOSING STREAK REDUX: Penn State lost six consecutive Big Ten games last season — five of them by a total of 16 points (6, 5, 1, 1, 24, 3).

6. AVERAGE LOSING MARGIN? A TD: This may be one of the reasons why Penn State fans are so frustrated right now. The past 21 games have not been good for Penn State. Starting with Penn State’s 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals to end the 2024 season:

• Over their past 21 games, the Nittany Lions are 10-11. The losses have been by: 3, 6(OT), 5, 1, 1, 24, 3, 4, 21, 8 and 3 points.
• That’s an average losing margin of 7.2 points. Toss out the spankings by Ohio State in 2025 and Northwestern in 2026, and the average loss is by 3.8 points. Ouch.
• In that time, Penn State has been 3-10 in Big Ten games. 

7. 2026 BIG TEN STANDINGS: The Nittany Lions — who finished tied for 12th in the Big Ten in 2025 — are at the bottom of the Big Ten looking up at UCLA and Ohio State, both 4-0. Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland are all 0-4 in conference play. 

8. VET COACH NEW SCHOOL-GUT CHECK: Bob Chesney at UCLA is 6-0 overall and 4-0 in his first season in the Big Ten. Conversely, a trio of long-time FBS head coaches are struggling in their first year at their new schools. Michigan’s Kyle Whittingham (181-90 lifetime) got his first Big Ten win vs. the Nittany Lions, while both Campbell (110-74) and Pat Fitzgerald (112-106), in his first season at Michigan State, are 0-4. The three have a combined conference record of 1-10.

9. HALFIES: In four Big Ten games, Penn State has been outscored 48-44 in the first half and 65-30 in the second half. At halftime, the Nittany Lions have led twice, been tied once and trailed once. The difference in the third and fourth quarters? Halftime adjustments, turnovers, pressure of the big stage in tight moments, bad decision-making, conditioning and…a QB change.

10. NOT-SO-HAPPY RETURNS. In four conference games, Penn State’s return game has not been a factor. In the Big Ten, Penn State has had four kickoff returns for 78 yards, with a long of 23, for an average of 19.5 yards. In conference play, PSU has returned six punts for 42 yards, with a long of 16 yards, for a 7.0 average.

11. CMC IS 10-5 AFTER BYE WEEKS. Campbell’s teams at Toledo were 2-0 after bye weeks and 8-5 after bye weeks at Iowa State. In games after a loss and then a bye week, his teams (all at Iowa State) were 2-2. Penn State is off this Saturday; its next game is Oct. 31 vs. Purdue in Beaver Stadium. Trick or treat?

12. HOW IOWA STATE SNAPPED ITS 4-GAME LOSING STREAK IN 2025, winning 20-17 at TCU after midseason losses at Cincinnati (38-30), at Colorado (24-17), against BYU (41-27) and vs. Arizona State (24-19), according to PSU QB Rocco Becht, who was the Cyclones’ starting signal-caller in 2023-25: “Kind of resetting myself, resetting with the team, getting our minds right. I think that’s what we need. “

13. GROWING PAINS: When Campbell took over at Iowa State, an historically bad program, the Cyclones went 3-9 overall and 2-7 in the Big 12 in his first season, in 2016. He quickly righted the ship, with back-to-back seasons of 8-4.

14. STREAKING: Campbell saw his share of losing streaks at Toledo (2012-15) and Iowa State (2016-25), prior to coming to Penn State. He’s had two five-game losing streaks, two four-game losing streaks (counting 2026), one three-game losing streak and 10 stretches of back-to-back losses.

15. BECHT ON THE BYE WEEK, after the Michigan loss: “You can say it’s coming at a good time, a bad time. You could argue both. But I think at the end of the day we’re going to go into this bye week continuing to get better and look at each other in the mirror and just keep each other up. That’s all you can do at this moment, and continue to grow and get better.”

16. PLAYING SO WELL: Since WR Koby Howard was sidelined with an injury after Buffalo, the third game of the season and before the Big Ten schedule started, Chase Sowell has exploded. His numbers over the past four games:

Wisconsin: 6 receptions, 70 yards
Northwestern: 5-68-1 TD
USC: 4-95
Michigan: 11-151-1 TD
4 Big Ten games: 26-384-2 TDs,14.8 ypc
3 non-conference games: 8-126-1, 15.8 ypc

17. WHAT ABOUT KOBY? Howard remains sidelined after starting the season with an elite stat line of 12-344-2 TD, with 28.7 ypc and 114.7 yards per game. With the season going sideways, is there more incentive to wait to come back until he is 100% — not only for his health, but his potential worth in the offseason portal marketplace?

18. THE MAN(SKE). Penn State fans have been clamoring for backup quarterback Alex Manske, who has seen limited action this season. He’s carried the ball three times for 14 times. Here are his passing stats: Marshall, 6-8-57 yards (long of 26) and Buffalo, 3-6-45 yards (long of 31).

19. THE PENN STATE QUARTERBACK ROOM IN 2026:

Credit: GOPSUSports.com

20. BAD WEEKEND FOR QB TURNOVERS: Former Nittany Lion verbal commit Will Wood is now going to Boston College to play quarterback for Bill O’Brien.