Penn State football sustained a disappointing, 34-14 loss to Northwestern on Friday night. The energy of new Ryan Field definitely helped fuel the Wildcats (3-1, 1-1 Big Ten), but so did the Nittany Lions' (3-2, 0-2 Big Ten) weak performance on both sides of the ball.
After losing to Wisconsin in Week 4, which was also Penn State's Big Ten opener, head coach Matt Campbell had quite a few adjustments to make. Instead, he opted to continue with his Iowa State tropes and focus on building and developing a young group of men rather than make the necessary changes on the field.
In fact, the Nittany Lions played worse than they had against the Badgers. In Week 4, their offense had a really tough time and their defense couldn't hang on for the full 60 minutes. On Friday, neither side of the ball knew how to handle what was in front of them. Northwestern ran the ball on Penn State like crazy (413 rushing yards and four touchdowns), and the Nittany Lions didn't know who or what to prioritize when it came to the run game, pass game, and pass-catchers.
Campbell's squad is littered with players from Iowa State who followed him over, and they had to prove they wouldn't be "Iowa State East." They have yet to prove the public wrong on that, and things don't look like they'll get any better, especially with USC and Michigan up next on the schedule.
Not only did Campbell have to overcome the "Iowa State East" allegations, but he also had to prove he wasn't James Franklin 2.0. He's done the opposite.
Matt Campbell is starting his tenure the exact way James Franklin ended his, and that's not what Penn State wanted
In 2025, Franklin went 3-0 in the cupcake non-conference slate, which included a shutout win. With Campbell taking on his first non-conference schedule with the blue and white, his team did the same. Penn State was 3-0 with a lot of promise and also shutout one of its first three opponents.
The Nittany Lions got a slap in the face in Week 5 in 2025 after the bye week when they faced Oregon and lost in double overtime. The national champion-esque identity completely crumbled, and the expectations of going 10-2 or 11-1 looked silly as soon as Week 6 came around and they lost to a winless UCLA team. In Week 7, Northwestern was the final straw for athletic director Pat Kraft and Franklin got the boot.
After these first two 2026 Big Ten games, it looks like Campbell's using Franklin was inspiration, but not in a good way.
Penn State is 0-2 and, realistically, on its way to an 0-4 Big Ten record to start the 2026 season. The loss to Wisconsin didn't crush the identity in that locker room, but the hopes of this team potentially being in College Football Playoff conversations became laughable. The Nittany Lions then got another reality check, and this time, it was to the team that changed the trajectory of Penn State's future a year ago.
Beating the Trojans in Week 6 isn't even a realistic possibility anymore, and the Nittany Lions have to face them in their White Out. USC mimics last season's Oregon game just in a different spot on the schedule. Penn State going 3-3 to start the season isn't what the program wanted out of Campbell. It didn't need a CFP consideration, a perfect record, or even a double digit win season in year one. All it wanted was to be in a better position than it was, and that's not going to happen.
Right now, it looks like the Nittany Lions will be fighting to make a non-playoff bowl game again, which means Campbell has a lot of work to do from year one into year two.
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