Penn State football sustained its first loss of the 2026 season on Saturday as Wisconsin upset the Nittany Lions, 24-20. This defeat knocked Penn State out of the AP Top 25 Poll and exploited flaws on both sides of the ball.
While it was a tough blow for the Nittany Lions, head coach Matt Campbell isn't concerned about the response from his team. On Tuesday, he met with media for his weekly press conference and shared his confidence in how he, his staff, and his players are going about this early loss.
"The positive I take is this was an attitude and effort issue ... I think a lot of these things are correctable issues," Campbell said Tuesday.
Head Coach Matt Campbell Press Conferencehttps://t.co/llANE6rNtu
— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) September 29, 2026
Identity isn't the problem at Penn State, it's consistent execution
One loss won't define the Nittany Lions, and that's the attitude this team needs in the Campbell era. There's a strong culture in Happy Valley, and coaches and players alike have rallied around it. Now, it's executing at a high level and living up to their performance standards.
Campbell added that there could be various things at play: Coaches preparing the players the right way, players preparing for games the right way, and using that preparation through the full 60 minutes on Saturdays.
Penn State's on a short week with its next contest slated to open Ryan Field at Northwestern on Friday. It's not a severe turnaround time where corrections are tough to fully make, but there won't be a fully refreshed Nittany Lion squad in Week 5.
Campbell said that early on in the season, the team will go through a growing period. All those factors at play can be improved on and the only way to find out what needs changing is by seeing the results on game day. The Badgers were the first real test, despite how they compare to the rest of the Big Ten on paper, after the non-conference slate. Who Penn State is wasn't going to be determined by playing Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo. In the future, a tougher non-conference schedule can help speed up this growing process, but for the 2026 season, Campbell and Co. must focus on the present.
"Here's what I really appreciate about our staff and what I really appreciate about our kids: I don't think there's one person that left the locker room Saturday night and felt like, man, we (did) enough," Campbell told reporters.
The morale isn't low in Happy Valley, even with the coaches and players knowing they didn't leave everything they could out on the field. That's a good thing and the right direction Campbell should take this team, but a strong culture won't win games alone.
The execution has to be there. The defense showed it can live up to standards, but 30 minutes won't cut it. Playing to not lose in the second half forfeited Penn State's lead and win. On offense, the Nittany Lions have some figuring out to do.
"I think the gut check is that's a game that you had the opportunity to win, you had every opportunity to go finish the football game and we didn't do it."
Add us as a preferred source on Google