Penn State football suffered its third consecutive loss of the 2026 season after USC beat the Nittany Lions (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten), 31-23 on Saturday night in the White Out at Beaver Stadium.
They remain winless in the conference, which is exactly how they started the 2025 season that saw Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin get the boot after three losses. Now, head coach Matt Campbell is in a different position given it's his first season coaching Penn State and first season coaching at the Big Ten level. There are some growing pains for him, his coaching staff, and players he brought over from Iowa State. While a bit of grace is given to Campbell in year one, especially considering both sides of the ball lack talent in areas, that's not the case for athletic director Pat Kraft.
The Nittany Lions' head coach search in 2025 after firing Franklin took 54 days and a slew of names around the country were considered in the public's eye. Some unreasonable ones surfaced, like Indiana's Curt Cignetti, and others seemed like they were just one step away from landing them, like BYU's Kalani Sitake. There are some coaches, though, that popped up, but no movement came from it. One of them was new UCLA head coach Bob Chesney.
Per The Athletic, Chesney was one of 10 coaches the outlet identified as those the Nittany Lions were either interested in or contacted. Chesney has Pennsylvania roots, having grown up in Kulpmont, Pa. and attending school in the state at Dickinson College. He ultimately landed the job open with the Bruins on Dec. 6, 2025. Campbell was hired two days later on Dec. 8.
Chesney didn't have the FBS experience Campbell did, having just two seasons of head coaching experience at that level (James Madison) before UCLA. That doesn't mean one is the better option than the other, and Chesney is proving that one game at a time.
UCLA is accomplishing with Bob Chesney what Penn State expected out of Matt Campbell
The 2025 season finished with both programs, Penn State and UCLA, in the bottom half of the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions finished 7-6 overall with a 3-6 conference record (12th in the Big Ten), and the Bruins were 3-9 overall and 3-6 in the conference (13th).
Now following their Week 6 contests of the 2026 season, Chesney is in a much better spot than Campbell is in Happy Valley. Penn State is 13th in the Big Ten with a 0-3 record in the conference while UCLA is No. 3 with a flipped record to the Nittany Lions.
Both teams started in-conference play with two lighter opponents. Penn State faced Wisconsin and Northwestern, experiencing a lot of challenges transferring skills into the Big Ten and finding itself kicked out of the AP Top 25 Poll. The Nittany Lions were the No. 18 team in the preseason poll and were ranked 13th entering Week 4. While they looked better vs. No. 19 USC on Saturday, the game still resulted in a loss.
As for the Bruins, they worked their way into the Top 25, first putting themselves on the bubble throughout the non-conference slate. Two wins later, over Purdue and Maryland, UCLA slotted itself in at No. 21 in the AP Poll. Regardless of FBS experience, Chesney is turning the west coast program around for the better. Only one thing could make this even sweeter for him, and it happened in Week 6: Defeating Oregon.
The Bruins beat the No. 13 Ducks, 17-15, on Saturday. Oregon is a weaker team than it was last year, but a win over a ranked opponent is huge for Chesney and his UCLA team. It's the kind of result that a program wants when it hires a new coach. It's the kind of result Penn Stated wanted with Campbell, but has yet to get.
It's easy to say in hindsight what Kraft and the Nittany Lions should've done. Whether it was a lack of fight or lack of total interest, though, Penn State should've had more of both when it came to Chesney.
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