STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Matt Campbell knew his first season at Penn State wouldn’t be easy, but he also wouldn’t have guessed the Nittany Lions would make it this much harder on themselves.
After cruising through non-conference play, the Nittany Lions (3-1, 0-2 Big Ten) have stumbled mightily in their first two conference games. They let Wisconsin claw a win away from them and were booed off their home field in the conference opener. Last week, they were bullied by Northwestern nearly a year after the same Wildcats handed former coach James Franklin a third-straight conference loss that led to his firing.
The poor start coupled with conservative coaching calls in both losses have riled a loyal fan base. Patience is wearing thin in Happy Valley, where plenty of tickets are still available for the usually sold out White Out game against No. 19 USC on Saturday.
“To be quite honest with you, the frustration from my end is you want to give our players, our coaches, and this community something to be really proud of and what it represents and we’re not there yet,” Campbell said. “The reality of it is I’m not surprised.”
And Campbell isn’t sure how long it’ll take to get to where they want to be.
First, the Nittany Lions have to establish some semblance of a rhythm and find an identity. Scoring just four touchdowns while allowing 58 points and giving up 533 rushing yards to two middling Big Ten teams isn’t it.
“The reality is we’re five games into building standards and expectations,” Campbell said. “As we continue to build this, adversity was going to be a part of this, and we are in it and we needed to be in it to be able to grow forward to be the team we want to become.”
Another reality is the piecemeal roster.
Campbell was hired on Dec. 5, 18 days after his predecessor became Virginia Tech’s head coach and just six days before former Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles took the same job at Tennessee. Twelve players, including starting quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer and tight end Luke Reynolds, followed Franklin to Virginia Tech while three defensive starters stuck with Knowles.
Fifty players remained when Campbell arrived. He filled out the roster with players from 16 programs, including 24 that followed him from Iowa State. So far, Penn State starts 12 former Cyclones combined on offense and defense.
“I think the uniqueness of last offseason, when timing, all that stuff, I think you always are learning and growing. But at the end of the day I think we did everything in our power to get the right team and the right humans in this building for the situation at hand,” Campbell said. “I certainly wouldn’t second-guess what we did there.”
He knew it would take time to build chemistry.
There’s also the fact that few of them have experience in the rough and tumble Big Ten. Iowa State played Iowa every year during Campbell’s tenure. The Cyclones went 3-6 against the rival Hawkeyes, though they beat their only Big Ten opponent each of the last two seasons.
“At the end of the day it’s football and we’re playing football at a really high level,” linebacker Cael Brezina said. “The Big Ten is an elite conference and I would say the Big 12 brings a lot of really good stuff to the table too. So you felt a little bit of a difference, but at the end of the day, we’re playing football.”
The Trojans (5-1, 0-1 Big Ten) will try to extend Penn State’s losing skid on Saturday.
Former USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn now runs Penn State’s defense. He knows better than most what Penn State’s standard on his side of the ball has always been having played for Joe Paterno.
When he watched the film from the Northwestern game, Lynn saw where the Nittany Lions might be able to develop the identity they need in the trenches.
“I don’t know if we won the line of scrimmage once,” Lynn said. “We didn’t lose every time, but we didn’t win at all.”
——
