Penn State football head coach Matt Campbell has put emphasis on the culture he's instilling in Happy Valley. He said during fall camp that his starting quarterback, senior Rocco Becht, has been an extension of that as well.
Campbell told reporters that Becht has won the locker room. Players are rallying behind him and want to play for Becht, which is the exact kind of leader Campbell wants. He said he can't be the only one sending a message to the team, and that it's critical for the quarterback to do that as well.
A new message has now swarmed around the Nittany Lions' locker room, which is not changing their mindset week-to-week.
"[Penn State] had a mindset going up against an FCS school, and they had a different mindset going up against a top team in the country," Becht said, according to Nittany Lions Wire. "So right now, what coach Campbell and myself are trying to instill into players is having that same mentality, game in and game out, and acting like you're playing a top-tier program every week."
Rocco Becht says Penn State has a different mindset going into 2026 it didn't have last season
In 2025, the blue and white's toughest opponents were Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio State. Those were the games circled on the calendar and those were the games that were considered "meaningful" in regards to where Penn State ranked in the country.
Turns out, there were quite a few more that determined where the Nittany Lions fell.
Even in non-conference play, they didn't look like the No. 2 team in the country. They won, of course, but there was nothing special about anyone's performances really. Against teams like UCLA and Northwestern, head coach James Franklin already lost the locker room by that point after losing in double overtime to the Ducks in Week 5.
Franklin didn't have his players ready to go, and he lost their support after Oregon, though it wasn't obvious until the game vs. the Wildcats.
Becht and Campbell don't want to lose sight of the end goal, which is winning games regardless of who the opponent is. Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo aren't "tough" opponents, but that doesn't mean the Nittany Lions shouldn't put their best out on the field mentally and physically. The game plan might look different week-to-week and the strength of schedule might increase or decrease, but the mental preparation shouldn't.
Penn State currently sits at No. 18 on the AP Preseason Poll. It's the perfect spot for a team that needs to prove itself with a new head coach and pretty much a new roster. That work doesn't start in Week 6 vs. USC, it starts Week 1 vs. Marshall. There's no way for the Nittany Lions to move up the ranks if they let their guard down for a "weaker" team on paper.
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