Penn State’s best offensive performance in Big Ten play came without its top two wide receivers in the 31-17 Week 9 win over Purdue. The Nittany Lions were able to establish the run game with a simplified identity, but as a 1.5-point underdog against a much better Washington run defense in Week 10, the health of Chase Sowell and Koby Howard will be a primary focus this week.
To that end, head coach Matt Campbell shared updates on both in his weekly press conference on Tuesday, sharing that Sowell, who missed his first game of the season against Purdue, is “probable,” while Howard, who hasn’t played since he was injured in Week 3 against Buffalo, is still “questionable.”
“I think we’ll, again, have to see where he’s at,” Campbell said of Howard. “It’s the same rhetoric that I guess I’ve said the last couple of weeks: When he’s ready, we’re going to try to make sure he’s on the field, but we’re going to make sure he’s ready to go.”
Penn State is still taking a conservative approach with Koby Howard’s recovery
Last week, when Howard appeared on the injury report as questionable for the first time since going down, Campbell said he didn’t want to put “a shell of Koby” on the field. Penn State wants Howard to get back to 100% before bringing him back, and with so little at stake in terms of postseason possibility down the back half of the season, that’s probably the right approach.
While Sowell 1. Doesn’t appear to have suffered nearly as severe an injury, and 2. Is out of eligibility after this year. Howard is a critical piece to the puzzle for Penn State going forward. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining after this year, regardless of how many games he plays, as the NCAA eliminated redshirting with its age-based eligibility model, commonly referred to as five-in-five.
As talented as Howard showed himself to be with two 100-yard games in non-conference play, he may not be in college that long before leaving for the NFL, but at least next season, when Penn State will be forced to break in a new quarterback after Rocco Becht exhausts his final year.
Whether that QB is current second-year backup Alex Manske or a transfer portal pickup, Penn State will need to have a reliable target to center its passing attack around, and Howard is obviously the No. 1 candidate. Brett Eskildsen can return for 2027, and freshman Amarion Jackson has played well in limited action, including 63 snaps against Purdue, but there’s no other player with Howard’s dynamism in the wide receiver room. And adding one in the portal would not be cheap, if there are any available at all.
Rocco Becht needs Chase Sowell back healthy for Washington
The trip to Seattle this week is likely Penn State’s toughest matchup the rest of the way. The Huskies have been similarly disappointing to the Nittany Lions, falling out of the preseason AP Top 25 and away from the fringes of the College Football Playoff discussion. Still, Husky Stadium is not an easy place to play, and the Huskies are coming off a win over Nebraska in Week 9 when the defense gave up just 10 points and scored seven of its own.
Washington is particularly stout against the run, ranking No. 22 in the country in defensive rushing success rate. So even if Penn State settled on its identity and its new No. 1 running back in Cam Wallace, it’s hard to imagine the offense rushing for nearly 300 yards and controlling the ball for upwards of 43 minutes.
No, Becht is going to have to throw the ball more effectively this week, and Sowell, who had 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown last time out, will probably be his primary target, assuming he’s healthy enough to go. Even if Howard returns, it’s hard to imagine him seeing significant volume in his first game back.
And while the CFP is long out of reach and the 12-team playoff era has made the sport more of a zero-sum game, Penn State’s second-half schedule presents a real path to 8-4. Though it wouldn’t come with any marquee wins, that’d be some real momentum for the program to sell to donors and recruits ahead of a pivotal offense in which they need a real influx of talent.
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