Penn State football head coach Matt Campbell gave his classic postgame press conference answers following Saturday's loss to Michigan. The Nittany Lions are now 3-4 on the season and 0-4 in the Big Ten after the Wolverines defeated them 21-18 in Ann Arbor, handing them their fourth consecutive loss.
In order to get into the win column, Campbell knows he needs more from his team in all phases. During halftime on Saturday, he told the locker room that he needs to see better execution of detail, as said on the CBS broadcast. It's not just about defense or offense or special teams; it's everyone. Throughout the course of the season, specifically Big Ten play, there have been times when the offense has looked lost and time when the defense looked invisible.
Regardless of what happened on the field, though, Campbell continues giving different renditions of the same message: The team isn't where it needs to be and the players aren't performing to the standard they set in the building.
While that's true, it's time to see things actually change. Campbell's media-friendly answers won't go away, but the mistakes have to.
Matt Campbell's taking it "slow and steady," but isn't winning any race
Part of Campbell's culture building in Happy Valley is how the team responds to losses. The Nittany Lions don't look defeated and Campbell definitely has the locker room invested in him, this program, and his leadership, but the process of getting them where they need to be is taking too long.
It's not like the Nittany Lions were getting blown out by their opponents, either. They lost 24-20 in Week 4 to the Badgers, 23-31 against USC in Week 6, and now 21-18 to the Wolverines. The only game that got out of their control was Northwestern in Week 5 that they lost 34-13.
"I don't think you can flinch right now. You're building the foundation of a football program," Campbell said Saturday.
That's a perfectly fine mindset for Campbell to have, but now he's tacked on a third game that was well within Penn State's reach to win. The way the team practices and the attitude in the locker room might be great even after losses, but that doesn't win championships — and that's the level the Nittany Lions want to be at.
"The second half of games, you know, now it was the fourth quarter of a football game. You're right there, the opportunity to go win the game, man," Campbell said. "We have to work through that and we have to build that from the inside out and that's what we're going to do."
At what point does Penn State actually pull out the win, though? The Nittany Lions enter the bye week without a conference win under their belt, only disappointing losses to learn from. When do they stop adding lessons and ace the test instead? Will they learn from their fourth quarter mistakes only to blow the chance under the two-minute warning?
It's a very slow process happening in Happy Valley now that we're four games into the Big Ten schedule and they still haven't figured out how to play a full 60 minutes.
A foundation-building season in Year 1 is fine for Campbell, but a winning culture means Penn State needs to win.
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