Following his first Big Ten win as the head coach of Penn State, Matt Campbell admitted that, win or lose, he’s pretty much the same guy. That’s not hard to see.
His postgame press conference was littered with the same messaging he’s espoused all year, focused on improvement, work, and coming together as a team. It’s not just coach-speak 101. Campbell could teach a 400-level course. The man doesn’t give anything away if he doesn’t want to, and you have to imagine it’s the same for his team.
His longtime starting quarterback, Rocco Becht, pretty much said as much. “Just continuing to listen to him and trust what he was building, trust what he was preaching to us, and continuing to buy into it. Continuing to build as a team, and that’s what we did over the bye week.”
For someone on the outside, that message started to get stale after four straight losses. But after a win, it’s sounding a whole lot better. That’s the thing about a results business: when you get results, you can say as much, or in Campbell’s case, as little as you want.
Matt Campbell is serious about earning playing time, and that’s probably for the best
I’ve been leading the charge for Campbell to bench Rocco Becht in favor of his redshirt freshman backup Alex Manske. Not that Manske is necessarily better than Becht, but that the program has a huge incentive to see what it has in Manske before heading into the offseason without an answer at QB.
But Campbell won’t budge, and I’m starting to understand why. Campbell constantly talks about how you have to “earn playing time” in his football program. So benching Becht for Manske for any reason other than Manske is outperforming Becht in practice would undercut that entire message.
I’d still argue that getting an answer on Manske is more valuable long-term, so you know whether or not you have a viable QB or need to grab one from the portal, but I’ve never run a football program. I’ve never built a culture. So I’m willing to concede that Campbell might be right.
And Campbell is true to his word. After hardly playing Cam Wallace all season, he was his RB1 coming out of the bye week, and he ran for a career-high 135 yards and a touchdown. Why? If you’ve listened to anything Campbell has ever said, you know why.
“This guy was the shining star,” Campbell said postgame, speaking of Wallace’s performance during Penn State’s bye week practices. “To not be the guy playing, and to come out and demand to play, and make us play him. I said going into Sunday’s meeting to our staff, he’s going to play. This guy has earned the right to get on the field. Ibn McDaniels, if you saw him tonight, earned the right to play.”
That may sound obvious, but rewarding that type of effort and growth begets more of it in practice. That’s what building a culture looks like. And it’s probably why Campbell has had so much success developing players through his career.
Now, a little coach speak, and a few good practices aren’t enough to win a national championship in modern college football. You better believe I still have my reservations about Campbell’s willingness and ability to do what it takes to elevate a program into that upper echelon. Still, it’s nice to see some proof of concept behind the weekly message.
One win over Purdue doesn’t change everything. Not even close. But after a win, it’s a lot easier to see the vision.
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