There are five games left in this Penn State football season and maybe only five.
For better or worse, this team will accomplish something by the end of the next five games.
But so far, for a season that was built with so much optimism and positivity, there’s not much to show as Penn State comes out of the bye week. That can start to change with a win against Purdue on Saturday, however.
If Penn State wants to make something, event if it’s not much, of this season, it has to start Saturday.
This season has not gone according to plan – although the plan was less clear than last year’s cut-and-dry national-championship-or-bust plan. And last season went very bust. But a new coach in Matt Campbell and a perceived-to-be easy schedule afforded the ability that Penn State could achieve success in year one. It was somewhere where Penn State could build optimism toward a future.
Penn State started this season with three strong wins over non-conference opponents that it should always beat regardless of who the head coach is. But by the time it reached Big Ten play, it couldn’t fend off Wisconsin, fell flat against Northwestern, seemed rattled by the lights against USC and shot itself in the foot against Michigan.
It feels as though no progress has been made toward the future of the Penn State football program. There is no momentum, only discontent in the stands over rising costs and poor play on the field. If it’s accomplished anything, it’s a whole bunch of frustration that has permeated throughout the bye week and now into the matchup against a team Penn State has not lost to since 2004.
A win on Saturday does not erase the stuck-in-the-mud feeling Penn State has handed itself this year. But a collection of five wins to end the season – which feels like a massive ask for this team – would at least ease parts of the anger.
It’s not that Penn State hasn’t been consistent through the first half of the season – in fact, it’s that Penn State has been consistent that makes it so frustrating. Penn State’s run game ranks as one of the worst at 107th in the country. (Though it’s 3.83 yards-per-carry average somehow ranks only 13th in the Big Ten.) No sign of relief or improvement has been found now eight weeks into the season.
Its passing attack has felt like a moderate improvement over last year’s at times, and statistically that’s backed up by the 6th best passing offense in the Big Ten compared to the 13th best last season. But key turnovers, including Brett Eskildsen’s against USC late in the game and Rocco Becht’s three against Michigan have doomed Penn State. Now Chase Sowell, the first legitimate No. 1 wide receiver at Penn State since Koby Howard was the No. 1 wide receiver earlier this season – who was the first No. 1 wide receiver at Penn State that actually played the position since 2022 – is also banged up as well. That overreliance on the passing game because of a lack of a running game has only increased the pressure.
On defense, Penn State looks sluggish – except at its secondary – and that shows as the Nittany Lions rank 107th in rushing defense in the country but third in the nation in passing defense.
And with that total play comes a four-game losing streak that is just the second time since Penn State joined the Big Ten that it lost four straight games in conference play.
Penn State has not made progress this season on what was supposed to be a year where progress was made. That, in particular, was not supposed to happen in year one of a new head coach.
Now, Penn State has had its opportunity to correct the issues with the bye week – but at some point, this season also is what it is. Unacceptable at times, yes. Maddening, certainly. But in a matter-of-fact manner, until there is something to show – which would likely be a five-game winning streak or at least five wins to end the season – there just isn’t much there.
With five games left, Penn State now has a chance to turn nothing into something. Otherwise, it will be another long offseason of waiting and wondering when Penn State will accomplish something.
vs. 
Time: 4:15 p.m.
TV: BTN
Announcers: Chris Vosters, Anthony Herron, Dannie Rogers
Radio: Penn State Sports Network
Announcers: Steve Jones, Jack Ham, Brian Tripp
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