There were plenty of reasons that Penn State didn’t live up to expectations in 2025 and never broke through to win a national championship under James Franklin. Overrating the roster heading into last year after losing Tyler Warren and Abdul Carter was a big reason, and Drew Allar never taking a leap was another, but a failed wide receiver overhaul belongs on the short list.
After Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington moved on to the NFL, Penn State just never got the position right, and even Washington was more potential than production. It was multiple years of the same problem, and ironically enough, Franklin left his successor with part of the solution: Koby Howard.
Howard is the best wide receiver in the program and the best offensive player on this year’s team. The only problem is that he missed Penn State’s Week 4 loss to Wisconsin with an injury, and without him, it looked like the same old Penn State receivers.
Chase Sowell, one of Campbell’s four Iowa State transfers in the wide receiver room, hauled in six of his eight targets for 70 yards, but no other wide receiver caught a pass. Brett Eskildsen went 0/6 on his targets, and Zay Robinson 0/1.
The wide receiver room was far from the only issue with the offense on Saturday, and maybe not even the biggest. But it’s the longest-standing issue in Happy Valley and probably the most frustrating.
None of it matters if Rocco Becht doesn’t start playing better
Let’s linger on the other major problem first. No matter what Matt Campbell said, Rocco Becht was horrible in Week 4. He was pressured on just a third of his dropbacks, and when kept clean, he still averaged 4.4 yards per attempt. He had multiple passes batted at the line of scrimmage and was regularly off-target when pushing the ball downfield.
Becht is the type of QB who especially benefits from high-level WR play because he’s fearless and is going to give his playmakers a chance. He threw for over 4,000 yards when he had two NFL wide receivers at Iowa State in 2024.
But that horrible outing, with a sub-30% success rate for the offense, wasn’t solely on the wide receivers. If Becht doesn’t get better, then no changes in his skill group will make a significant difference, maybe other than Howard’s eventual return.
Brett Eskildsen isn’t the answer opposite Chase Sowell
Howard is the only complete receiver on this team. He’s just as good a vertical threat as he is after the catch. He can work from the slot or outside, and that versatility allows every other receiver in that room to slot in their specific role more comfortably. Without him, Sowell became the volume No. 1, shrinking his average depth of target to accommodate the increase in balls coming his way.
Meanwhile, Eskildsen, who has good speed, had his ADOT explode to 25.7 yards. However, he couldn’t run away from cornerbacks in the Big Ten the way he could in the Big 12, and he was helpless at the catch point. He was 0/2 on contested catch opportunities, and for his career, he has just seven contested catches.
Ekildsen’s opportunities should scale back. That’s easy with Howard, but hard without him when the next wide receiver up is Zay Robinson, who’s relatively diminutive size relegates him to being a slot-only player. That’s difficult in an offense that runs 12 and 13 personnel as much as any in the country.
Robinson’s targets also come in a much different way, more based around his underneath quickness. So, if Eskildsen isn’t the answer, Penn State will be forced to play true freshman Amarion Jackson or super-sized transfers Karon Brookins or Keith Jones Jr., who have very limited route trees, on the outside. That’s not an encouraging situation.
Then, when you look to the future, it doesn’t look much better.
Penn State needs another WR in the 2027 class
Jackson is a promising young player, and Howard will be around for a few years, assuming he doesn’t transfer, but the 2027 recruiting class currently has just one wide receiver, Landon Blum, who is a four-star but who plays eight-man football in Iowa, so he could have a much larger learning curve upon arrival.
Penn State swung big on the recruiting trail with pursuits of Jamir Dean, who flipped to Georgia, Khalil Taylor, who chose Nebraska, and Deshawn Hall, who went with Auburn. Now, flipping Jamar Taylor from Rutgers is the clearest hope of adding a second wide receiver in the class.
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