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LIVE: Penn State vs. Northwestern REACTION... QB Rocco Becht STRUGGLED

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Penn State just finished another deeply frustrating performance against Northwestern, and we’re going LIVE immediately after the game to break down everything that went wrong.

The Nittany Lions entered this matchup needing a response. Instead, the offense looked disjointed, the execution was inconsistent, and Penn State once again found itself in a game that was much uglier than it ever should have been.

What happened to the offense? Why did Penn State struggle to consistently move the football? Did the defense do enough? What decisions from Matt Campbell and the coaching staff deserve scrutiny? And most importantly — what does this performance mean for Penn State moving forward?

Join Locked On Nittany Lions for instant Penn State vs. Northwestern postgame reaction, analysis and fan discussion.

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LIVE: Penn State vs. Northwestern REACTION... QB Rocco Becht STRUGGLED

Locked On Nittany Lions - Daily Podcast On Penn State Nittany Lions Football & Basketball

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Locked On Nittany Lions - Daily Podcast On Penn State Nittany Lions Football & Basketball — LIVE: Penn State vs. Northwestern REACTION... QB Rocco Becht STRUGGLED. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Every house has a beginning. Our starts with a rebellion. This is not just fashion. This is freedom that worn out loud. A place where individuality isn't a look, it's a law. Perfect is boring. The algorithm doesn't know you, you do. A look is never just a look.

It's a declaration. It's time to step out and into somewhere new. Step into the house and burl and find a burling to near you. I did not think that could get any worse, but it did. It was absolutely humiliating. You are locked on Nittany Lions. Your daily podcast on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Yeah. Yeah. 34 to 13 Northwestern over Penn State. Welcome into a live, another live edition of Locked On Nittany Lions. I appreciate you if you stuck with us through the watch party beforehand to suffer through all of it. And I say, go your host is always he is a brand to feel to associate producer to the show. Helping us out here at a ton. Let us know your thoughts in the live chat.

Oh, we got so many things to debate. We're going to start with just how terrible it was across the board. The offense again did not show up. The defense, which I was worried about, taking a step back here. Northwestern's offense is good. But the defense did not show up. The offense misentacles execution kind of concerned with the way that Dan Lynn was scheming things up. But overall just Northwestern. I mean, Zane, the stats, the stats in this one with 413 yards on the ground. To 48 for Penn State, Northwestern came into this game, allowing 200 yards. Penn State, I was like James Peoples, he could get 100 yards. James Peoples even said it and is not to call him out. But he said, hey, Northwestern's defense is a little vulnerable right in the in the ground.

500 total yards of offense for Northwestern. And the offense just couldn't do a darn thing. Rocco backed. I mean, Zane, where do we even begin with all of this? I mean, I, why didn't we see Alex Mansky at any point in time, especially on that final drive? Do we really need to see the starters out there at that point? It just embarrassing, embarrassing because you were embarrassed against Wisconsin. I know the scoreboard says something different, but if Wisconsin doesn't give you the football three times, you probably lose that game. By three touchdowns, that was that was straight up domination by Northwestern from start to finish. I don't care about the grand opening of the stadium. You can still play a confident football game against Northwestern. And I didn't see a thing where I'm like, oh, the at least there's something to build off of Tony Rojas at a great game. That's the only positive thing I can say about this team right now.

Yeah, pretty much that Tony Rojas, like, I just look at it as a hole in this team top to bottom is pretty bad. It's bad. No, it's bad. There's no, there's no sugar coating it. They're bad. Whether like you want to say it's coaching player town, whatever maybe this team is not good. And like you look at next week and you're just like, can they even kick a few score, feel going next week type of deal? Because I would hope that USC's defense is pretty bad, but doesn't, doesn't matter. North, what? Northwestern was missing. How many starters on defense? Three defensive backs. And again, this defense allows 200 plus yards per game. Penn State should be able to just find its rhythm, right? No, no. That's where I go with like play calling. At that point because it whether it's like, what is play, what is, because you can throw the blame on Matt Campbell and Taylor Mauser. And I say you to you, I say you to people in the live chat that are like fire, Matt Campbell

and all that. What is Matt Campbell supposed to do when Zay Robinson's wide open to walk into the end zone and Rocco Beck just air mail said over him, what is Matt Campbell supposed to do when I think it was chased so well in the slot that would have set them up on the same drive on the same drive. I don't know which throw was worse. Probably the so well one because that one was the, not, but neither. Then we're close. Just give your guy a chance. Give your guy a chance. So and it as well Rocco Beck, because early on early on offensive line. They weren't doing a thing. They weren't setting up running lanes. They weren't there was pressure in Rocco Beck space. So I'm like, okay, I'll be a little more lenient here. You know, Beck's not really having a bad game. Then the offensive line did settle down. They settled down and it's Rocco Beck actually has time to sit back in the pocket. He's hesitating. Why is a veteran quarterback making the mistakes of a first year starter?

This was supposed to be the most experienced quarterback in all of college football. And I have to remind myself he's not a freshman. It's not just a chemistry thing or it's, it's bad quarterback play. I don't know what Matt Campbell and Taylor Mauser are supposed to do in that situation because Penn State, Penn State essentially gave up almost two touchdowns of points that they could have had back. Yeah. And like the end of the day too, it's not like all of the passes are bad and like there's other times to it. You got to take the layups that you can't miss layups. Your bench and your point guard if he's missing layups. But it's not like it's all on him either. Like don't get me wrong. I think he should have been out of the game before half time. And I think he has a lot of way to bear in there not allowing him to accept much responsibility here. And a lot of this is his fault. But also if Taylor Mauser is not making his job easier, Matt Campbell would help him get in rhythm to make those better passes.

Why wide receivers are running wide open though. I don't know. I get, I get what you're trying to say. It goes back to what I said last week because I said last week Taylor Mauser and it falls on Matt Campbell as the head coach at the end of the day. Like it is his responsibility. But Taylor Mauser is calling plays, right? He's the one calling plays. He's going to do a better job to get Rocco back to the rhythm. What is Taylor Mauser supposed to do again when Beck can sit back in the pocket, read the defense and he's late on a timing route. He just flat out. Like I can forgive some of the, okay, you're off on this play, you know, pressuring your face. You don't turn the ball over, but it's the, it's the wide open passes. It's the walk in touchdowns where it's, you got to draw the line somewhere, okay? And the fact that we didn't like, I'm not calling for bed. You're like, Beck should have been on the bench at the end of the first half. But why didn't we see Mansky at all? If he's supposed to be the QB of the future, why, why didn't we see him for?

Eight and they tried to get him in the game last week. So unless he's dealing with an injury that we don't know about, I know they put out the injury report, but unless there's something that's going on that would keep Mansky from really being in the game, there was no reason to have any of the starters out there when it was 34 13 with two minutes to go. No reason. You don't need to risk an injury. You don't, you need to get him some experience. We don't need Penn State take on Roberson against Iowa a few years ago. They don't need that to happen again. But Penn State's not Penn State's not in a situation where there's there's a single condesan. Are they they're not getting I don't know that they get the 500. I don't know the way they look tonight. These are these are average teams in the big 10 at best average at best Wisconsin is average at best Northwestern. I'll give I think Northwestern is better than Wisconsin. So they're slightly above average. If this was Ohio State and Oregon back to back, I'd say, okay, you know, hey, maybe they just need to level the playing field a little bit.

These are teams that Penn State should be able to beat. And they're getting absolutely don't look at the Wisconsin. It's 24 to 20. It was close. It was not close. I was worried that if the defense wasn't going to force a bunch of turnovers or the opposing team wasn't going to give the football away willingly. Something like this would happen. And I somehow talked myself into well, Wisconsin, excuse me, North Western's going to be without this starter, that starter, man, they're missing so many guys on defense. The backups look great. The backups were Northwestern. Look great. You wouldn't have known if you didn't look at the injury report. You wouldn't have known that Northwestern was missing as many players that it did. And again, let's go back to the stats. 400 yards allowed on the ground. Northwestern bullied you for four quarters. And so this is where it falls on Matt Campbell. And we'll continue to talk about Rocco Beck Cooper E Bull, right?

Cooper E Bulls, a part of this conversation here. But Northwestern said we're going to run the football and we dare you to stop it. Let me let me zoom in on that. 55 carries. 55 carries. Agen Childs only attempted 14 passes. There was no balance. There was no trickery. There was nothing. Chip Kelly said, we're going to run the football 90% of the time. And we dare you to stop it. And they couldn't. And it was 413 yards later for an average of seven and a half yards per carry. There was no that there was no fight in this team from start to finish. None. No, that part of it that goes on coaching too. Like you got to get your team ready. You got to get them pumped up. And if they get down because Matt Campbell talked early in the year. He wanted to see how his team would do against adversity.

Well, they faced a whole lot of adversity against temple. A lot more against Wisconsin. A whole lot even more against Northwestern now at halftime. So what in the world are they doing? Why can't they bounce back? And that's the problem here is they do. They can't whether that be coaching talent. This team is just not a good team. Top the bottom. You can say like I agree Tony Rojas is a good player and stuff. A great player. He's the only exception because you look at like the stats want to tell you. Cooper Ebel had the second best day because he had one less tackle than Tony Rojas. Well, we saw with our own eyes that that wasn't the case. He could have had another like five plus tackles if you would just tackle the guy right in front of him. Yeah, do not let the oh, do not let the box score fool you. I had no idea that Cooper Ebel was responsible for 11 tackles. That is not the that's not the game that I watched. And it wasn't another five plus. It wasn't just him. Other guys were I think Xi on Tracy missed a tackle or Marcus Neil or.

But again, it was because those running backs were getting to the secondary more often than not. They were in the second they were in the third level every single play it felt like. Northwestern could do whatever it wanted. And they said we're just going to run the football. I still buy there was there was voodoo magic or something in that stadium grand opening because the some of the plays that Northwestern was making. But yeah, Penn State missed the layups and they did not bounce back after this team looks shell shocked. Well, we'll pick back up with that like they just they look absolutely stunned that this is an Iowa state anymore. Not Iowa state and we're not in Kansas anymore. We're not in Iowa state anymore. We're not the big 12 anymore. They're like they look stunned that they're playing against better competition. They have like they had no idea that they were going to play better teams. Well, we'll get we'll get into that next year on this live edition of Lockdown, Nettany, Lion Sticker, round.

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The solution that I would want on defense Tony Rojas moves to the mic and you play Alex Tasha at the will or if tattoo whoever's more capable Tasha still Tasha still young. Right. He's a second year linebacker sophomore. So I am comfortable with Tony Rojas because he can do so much more as a as a will linebacker. He's important to stay at that spot. But when evil's not. Evil supposed to be your thumpin mic middle linebacker. And he got thumbs right he got ran through more often that's your big mic linebacker getting run through. Every single play. But let's let's start with I think the elephant in the room is the Rocco Beck situation because at what point does Matt Campbell make a decision because I don't think I don't think they're going to bench him. You're paying him X amount of dollars and NIL. He knows the offense. They write all the every reason you can think of. He's the experience. He's the familiarity. Well, you know, the offensive line hasn't helped him out.

It's just a couple of bad throws, whatever, whatever way you want to frame it. But if this continues, when when is enough? I don't I don't like saying, oh, so and so should be bench. So and so, uh, shouldn't be playing. But a veteran QB like that can't be missing wide open touchdown passes. Yeah, and like it didn't the day like. Does it matter about your loyalty to the guy or does it matter about winning games? Because surely you can't put somebody else out there and they can't be like, it can't be worse equal. Like, does it matter how well he knows the playbook inside and out if he can't make the throws? Because like Sean Clifford. I guarantee he knows the whole entire Cincinnati Bengal playbook. But he's not better than Joe Joe burrow out there. So like, surely Alex Manzki can be slightly better if not equal to rock. That's why why didn't we get a drive? Why? Yeah, drive. Surely that'd be pretty doable. Late in the game, you got less than two minutes. Just see what happens. Yeah.

If he gets cooked and throws an interception, he throws an interception, rock him through two of them today. And Penn State can afford for that going into games that like they need to win. Now, obviously they're not making the playoffs at this record, but surely they could still have a chance to make a bowl game. But if they want to do that, they can't the performance. I don't know. I don't know. That's that's that's not even a foregone conclusion at this point. Because again, if you're getting blown out by Northwestern, you would have been blown out by Wisconsin. Had they not made a million mistakes. Those are middle of the pack teams. So Minnesota. Maryland, Maryland, do you even know for a fact? I don't like lockslee will be fired. Who know? You know what? Right. But we shouldn't have to pray for a program to be in shambles for Penn State to basically get a sympathy victory. And yeah, Purdue, like this, this schedule was so favorable. It was so manageable. A Washington looks bad this year.

Michigan's just not at its best. USC is clearly not at its best. Like everything was in front of you. I go back to the fact that I just don't think the Iowa State group. Matt Campbell, Taylor Mauser and the players. I just think they've been punched in the face by the level of competition in the big 10 and they're completely surprised by it. That's what this in a vacuum. That's what this is. I just don't think they're prepared for the jump in the level. They're like, they're surprised that they didn't my point is, okay, oh, they're not up to, they're not up to par with the big 10. That might be the case, but it's the fact that they're so surprised by it that they're surprised that they're playing better teams and going up against better coaches. Yeah, like you said, like that can't happen, but the thing is it has happened now. And so it's hurting Penn State and there are bad team now at this point because they brought in those guys and that's not sustainable.

But here is the thing down the road. That's not always going to be the case. That's not always going to be guys that were currently at Iowa State. Matt Campbell, he knew the players and he brought them with him, which was just fine and all. But going forward, you're not like he's obviously going to recruit his own guys and this the town will get better. You would think you think the coaching will be able to help them get better, but the coaching wise is like can you can get better players can tailor them as or can he get better. Can he become a better coordinator and that's where I had the biggest trouble with like that jump of the levels because he might be he might have been a good offensive coordinator at Iowa State. But can he compete with big tank coaches? No, that's a bit. I mean, that's what we've talked about with the offensive staff here is you look at all the inexperience between everybody. It's not just Taylor Mauser. It's the they collectively plan throughout the week. Mauser, saven Huggins,

Kashif Moore, Jake Waters, all those guys are in the room together. Hey, how do we how do we game plan for Northwestern? And they're they're getting out coached because relative to the big 10 they have no experience. They're rookies in this case. I said that last week and I've been saying it throughout this week. Like, hey, this is the big thing here is compared to some of the older staffs that have been in the big 10 for a while. It's next to nothing when when you compare and contrast the experience. So a lot of a lot of layers to it. Cooper Ebel. So the the Rocco back question is it's not so much it's went when does Matt Campbell like how much does Matt Campbell endure through through bag quarterback play before he says I'm going to turn to Alex Mansky. I'm going to look towards the future and start building that way. Is it another bad game against USC? Is it in the middle of the game?

Right. And I'm I'm curious to know if Matt Campbell even thinks there's that major of an issue because last week he didn't put it on Rocco back. He said he said, oh, we thought he made some good plays and tried to keep us in the game. I suppose there were some ins like if we're really we're really split in hair is the same thing tonight. Oh, there was some plays where he picked up the first down with his legs. I but that doesn't move me. It's the fact that Zay Robinson looks great. And I want him one situation can walk in for a second career touchdown. And you don't even give him a chance. And so it's when do you turn away from when is enough enough when do you turn away from if you do it all you're a veteran quarterback who's played a lot of games for you. And this is different. And Iowa State where your cube because there's no loyalty here from Penn State to Rocco back. Penn State fans clearly like the idea of Rocco back, but there's no there's no loyalty. He's essentially a free agent that's here for a year.

So there's not going to be any love lost with the fan saying we want we want to bench him. We want to see Alex Mansky. And that's the nature of college football because of where we are with the portal and NIL and everything. But that's also again, that's a consequence of getting paid millions of dollars that your performance matters that much more and is going to be scrutinized that much more. So if Penn State, I mean, Alex Mansky, if Penn State doesn't do the unthinkable and upset USC. Then and I don't know how you do it without Kobe Howard. I want them to start building for the future. Because again, there's there's Rocco bett isn't here for another year. It's like, I will give him the season and a little bit of growing pains like, no, this was supposed to be the guy to lead the team for a year and then pass the baton to Alex Mansky. And then the clock started now. If we know this team is going to be that bad and they're trending towards three and nine or four and eight instead of eight and four or nine and three.

Yeah, there needs to be some responsibility there held on Rocco. You said he's held a different standard. It's big 10 play. Big 10 competition, everything that's at Penn State, but at the end of the day, like, like don't get me wrong. He's not good, but like he's not the only issue with this team. He must a lot more problems with that. Like you can't. He, like I said, he wasn't good, but you can't give up like over 400 yards on the ground and expect him to win because they did score two touchdowns. So it's not like it's terrible, but like, granted we want him to get like three, four, whatever that may be, but sometimes to your defense needs to be a little bit better and help you. Just because like they're on the field a lot. Don't get me wrong because offense isn't great, but there's a balance to this offense has to sustain the drive. Like I get I seriously do get the defensive issues, but part of the reason the defense, like the offense. The offense scored 13 points against a Northwestern defense that had four of its starters missing and lost guys periodically throughout the game.

Oh, the defense, the D. Yes, it was Danton Lins worse called game. It was the D because we didn't even we have still haven't gotten a Cooper Eble. So I understand that well, if the defense did better, it is it is on the offense. The offense has to be able to sustain drives the defense can't go out there. Make a get go down the field and they they turn Northwestern away and give the football back to right. They said that it's that for I'll give you an example. It's that fourth down stop, right. And you give the football back to the offense. Okay, sustain a drive here. Just just at least keep Northwestern's defense on the field and you can't even do that. Like the defense isn't impervious to fatigue and getting tired and all that right Northwestern played a physical game. So you had to you had to play physical ball back and they didn't and again, I think that's the the surprise of it that oh man they're hitting harder than us.

Yeah, yeah, they are. So we'll keep the conversation going so many comments so many comments. I've lost track, but we'll try to get through some of the general ideas here from the live chat and continue to talk about where Penn State goes from here and again defensive changes. Yeah, they they need to be made as well. But I put more of it on the offense out. We'll talk about it next year. Unlocked on the lines. Hey, and today's show is brought to you by game time college football is full of games that you plan for all year, but sometimes the best memories come from the games that you almost missed. Game time makes it easy to find tickets to college football matchups that you actually want to see with prices that include the fees so you know the total cost up front. You can browse games, see a panoramic view before you go to buy your seats and get tickets and just a couple of taps plus you got zone deals where you choose the section and then let game time choose the seats and that will help you save even more money.

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I'm going to talk to you about the game time. All right, we'll talk through the we'll talk through the live chat and we'll continue. We know that Cooper Ebel had had a bad game. I am all in favor of playing Caleb or Zena a little more to and they and they tried they rotated them in right. I thought he was making more plays it's just Cooper Ebel had such a bad game. Now why wouldn't Penn State move Tony Rojas over to Mike and Alex Tash into the starting will in theory they could but those are your only two week sideline backers and we know how super important Tony Rojas is so. It's ultimately dependent on what Penn State wants to do if they're desperate on defense and they say yeah we we got to move somebody we got to move Tony Rojas out of position we got to put him at Mike and bring Tash in just to give them something but there's no backup to Alex Tash OK, there's cam Smith but cam Smith's dealing with bumps and bruises so even if he's available I don't know how much how much playing time they they would give him they were really excited to get Tash back to backup Tony Rojas so.

So major depth issue and going to be a weakness moving moving forward there because the linebackers are the defense it Cooper Ebel was there to fill the gap how many times and he just got ran over he just got ran over so I know that I know there's people in the comments thinking i'm crazy for saying that the offense they bear a lot of lot more the responsibility and the defense gave up 500 yards it really boiled down to. One player at times and then just late in the game that they they ran out of energy they ran out of gas here. So big pictures and well there is no big picture it's there's no picture at all. You you got blown out by Northwestern you you would have been blown out by Wisconsin had you not got three in has you not gotten three interceptions. So what people are saying bowl games.

I don't know about a bowl game because USC you're not you're not beating USC you're not beating Michigan let me see if I can find the find the schedule after that because. Purdue at home I would hope they would win that game. Washington on the Washington on the road Washington looks bad by Minnesota at home Rutgers and then on the road at Maryland. The six and six is kind of the best case scenario with Purdue Rutgers and Maryland being your your three most favorable games. Yeah this Penn State team is just kind of bad so you win maybe a couple is just. Just how it goes I think the only silver lining I can even find for this team is that Penn State will have an idea of how bad they are that hopefully they can learn where they need to get better for next season. And because outside because sometimes what happens you don't realize how bad you are something until it's max you're right in the face and that's kind of what happened to Penn State now.

I'm going to ask a couple of games and now Matt Campbell has an idea he's like okay we got holes at XYZ positions. You can go in the transfer portal get some guys recruit better at those positions and hopefully. Be a more competent team next year and outside have a better record because I understand the schedules difficult next year. Hopefully have a more confident team team that just looks better all together because right now this team is like almost impossible to watch if you start watching the game you're like what are they doing. Defense looks bad off and looks bad special team struggle today it's like. Like what do you do at the end of the day it's a bad football team. The coaching needs to improve because that's where it stems from and that's the way I look at this Penn State team is. I'm a believer in Matt Campbell not on the fire Matt Campbell tree and but you got to start with him and it's got to go down from him into the coordinators and figure some things out even if it's just a Matt Campbell saying we said Rocco for a possession or we take evil out once you want you.

Once you bench Rocco back there's no going back. Yeah but he's got to make a decision somewhere along line because you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results it doesn't. That's it and that's the debate here going forward at what we like Matt Campbell is going to be put to the test right this this isn't Iowa state anymore where you have a bad game or a player has you know hey it's just it's just been a bad month man. It's just been a it's just been a bad month you'll get over it and you'll be better in November. We don't have time to wait until November like that's not that's not how it works. The ground see we didn't even get to the ground game the ground the ground game I got to go back to the. Like again 48 yards and I know that Penn State's playing from behind so they have to throw the ball more like I understand I understand the game script.

Early early in the game you weren't getting anything and I was so convinced that the James peoples was going to have a bounce back game the offensive line. Offensive line was not good early on they they settled down a little bit in the passing attack. But early on and that's the and that's the group that. The offensive line group was. One of the better ones because you kept Malachi good men at least I thought so right because you can say well those like that's not an Iowa state offensive line that's Malachi goodman former five star Trevor Burr is an Iowa state carry over but I mean I thought he was good. Now without a water bottle. You got out of the portal from Texas state but he was being recruited by SECs schools in the portal and he's dealing with an injury so but he's still had another bad game if he's that banged up you gotta bench him.

If he's that banged up. It's like well don't put too much of that on brock cracker if he's hurt take him out. and then you're letting pressure right up the middle on those given instances. So the off and there's really there's nothing you can do about the offensive line. I'll be honest with you. They, there's not a player that I say like, oh, you could make this change or you could move this guy around. There's there's nothing they can do on like you're stuck with the offensive line if you're Penn State. Yeah, and that's the thing too. So you look at all these guys and it's just like, oh, they're putting the best guys out there. So it's like, okay, well, then what's the depth like that in that position? But I don't know. The rock right could really frustrate me. Like a surely vi-eco-co-co-look-a-be as decent if not better. So I'd like to see that kind of change,

but Penn State needs it's it's just too many things I feel like. If if if Brock is banged up at there's no there's no point in playing him. You give you give Ica-Cola try and see how it goes because Riker was Riker was severely struggling at times in this game and and I'll chalk it up to the to the injuries. Just Kobe Howard coming back giving us give us any sense of hope, right? Can that Zay Robinson looked good in a small sample size there? So chase so well, if he could add the toe tap I would have been so I've been I've been let's glass half full be positive, right? And instead of just dunking on the team left and right, but we should it's kind of warranted. Chase so well as look good and would have looked better with some better passes his way. Andrew Aplier was more involved. Zay Robinson one on one great double move and Kobe Howard. So

if there's any positives the wide receivers are finding ways to get open, but you got to find ways to also get them to football or it doesn't matter if they're open. Yeah and that's just an excuseable then on Rocco's part because wide open play you got to make it happen, but I at this point just had no words just the team just has so many issues with it right now between Rocco and the defense and the offensive line play calling at this point I'm just not sure where Penn State goes from here they got to make changes of some kind and like that starts with Matt Campbell making changes and saying this guy we need to change this this isn't working and it doesn't mean fire people it just means or benching people completely necessary unless it's like Rocco Beck because he can't do that every week but there has to be a change of some kind to make this team have some that's what works so well a steer for Terry when he came in

he made changes it's like oh it gave Kobe the ball more so like maybe when Kobe comes back that's great it's a sparkle life it's a change or maybe it's just putting a new quarterback and maybe it just brings a new spark to this team because Mansk is gonna be like oh if I play bad there and go back to Rocco so maybe he's playing with a chip on a shoulder and brings some new energy whatever that may be or in the defense of side two maybe switch some guys and maybe that's why like Vabu Tori was playing more today I don't know but there has to changes they get made to give this team some kind of sparkle life to make it look like they have a rhythm out there and somebody doesn't need to perform CPR and call an ambulance because right now they're like flat lining and it's going to continue to get worse unless they make a change well let me let me say this to kind of just a not to close the show we're not quite there yet because I think this is worth trying to hash out Matt Campbell is five games in they're three and two overall they're o and two in conference and there's not a lot of hope

optimism anymore if you really want to really do the mental gymnastics to try to say hey this this this will turn itself around even with even with Kobe Howard right I kind of say that is a joke the offense might look slightly better but that's the the bars so low what Matt Campbell through five games the fire Matt Campbell stuff look that that just I'm not on the fire Matt Campbell train whatsoever and I and I think the people that are saying at some of them anyway are just kidding or just to just to try to make fun of the situation because oh you let go of James Franklin for Matt Campbell and it got significantly worse I don't put all of it on Matt Campbell because of how the I mean Pat Kraft takes response it needs to take responsibility for this because Campbell came in late and he was late for the 26 recruiting class for the transfer portal as well for even the 2027 recruiting class yes being hired in mid-December puts you that far behind now

that's not the entire reason why Penn State is struggling here but you essentially put Matt Campbell behind the eight ball in the the toughest conference in football and you expect him I mean I had high expectations because I thought this was a favorable schedule clearly it's not for Penn State so it's what Matt Campbell's put to the test early and I this is this is a major point of cope but nobody probably remembers James Franklin's first meeting with Northwestern when he started at Penn State it was a 2029 to six result and Penn State was a 10 and a half point favorite going into that game and Northwestern did so that just must be it must be an initiation type of thing in order to coach at Penn State where you have to get blown out by Northwestern in your first season and get absolutely humiliated by by the wild cats but for what it's worth James Franklin lost back to back

James to Northwestern to start his tenure and I remember exactly how the James Franklin era went 2014 2015 people were doing the same thing calling for his job he's in over his head he's no good and you need to fire him after one season two seasons at most and it wasn't until the third season he turned the corner and that led to a big 10 championship and then obviously we know how the next you know eight nine years went where Penn State was always in the upper part of the big 10 but could never get over the hump of winning a big game so I am willing to absolutely give Matt Campbell an adjustment period especially since Pat Kraft fumbled the hiring process and was lucky I think was still lucky to get Matt Campbell as the head coach because they could have done a whole lot worse they could have done a lot a lot worse and I don't even think Matt Campbell was a bad

higher I'm just saying it could have been a disaster situation where you're getting unnobody head coach and you're scrambling and then you know this guy wasn't the right hire and you don't want to give him five years I am willing to give Matt Campbell that kind of timeline where you give up on him after two years especially when you got a late start is just not fair like what what was the point of that move to move on from Franklin if you're just going to kick Matt Campbell out after a year or two so anybody that says fire Matt Campbell is completely unserious that's what it is bottom line at least three years five year if you don't see any tangible movement going into year three that's where I'm going to be significantly concerned okay if you don't see the recruiting improve if you don't see the results improve by year three in the middle of year three then we can start having the conversation of hey maybe Penn State got this wrong yeah and it's an eight year contract that Campbell signs so like they understand that it's not going to happen instantaneously now saying

you should take eight years but like you said like three years down the road or whatever that's when you should start seeing some momentum release some trending in the right direction you got guys already out in class of 28 who are already committing and so there's people who see the future down the road like high school kids that see the future down the road so while I think it's this is lowest the lowest right now for Penn State as far as like playing football there is a future down the road that we just have to kind of have to wait and be patient and see what happens because like you said like Matt Campbell like he's here and whether people accept him not he's here he's not going to get fired instantaneously it's just not going to happen and so kind of to stick it out even if it hurts right now and see what happened and like who knows maybe down the road they fire Matt Campbell but right now he's the guy Penn State needs to roll with him trust the process because like you said Franklin struggled early on other coaches have struggled early on it's just it hurts because

you go from being like winning E plus games every year and now you've already lost two so yeah I get I get that it's things but if Penn State wants to get to the bottom like sometimes you have to you have to fall down and take a different route to get to the path to get back to the top because the path they're on before wasn't getting there and so sometimes you have to back track a little bit and go up a new way because Penn State knew there needed to be changed changes is hurting right now but until they get through that sometimes you got to go through the trenches if you want to end up on top it's not always happy and beautiful the way Indiana made a look the the analogy that I've been using if Penn State's going to tear down the house right they tore down the house that Franklin built it's going to take time to to build it back and Campbell getting a late start and and well it's just I again trying to peek into the

comment section when I can it's going to affect recruiting it says no recruits going to want to go play at Penn State that that's not how recruiting works because they see an opportunity to play that how how you mess up recruiting is by putting Campbell on this proverbial hot seat because then players don't want to commit if there's instability at the program if you know Campbell's going to be there your entire time then that's the difference in recruiting not well they lost a game to Wisconsin in northwestern so now I'm not going to want to play at Penn State because no you're the answer to that problem supposedly right that's the that's the pitch is that hey we get you on the team then you can help us win football games so that's how recruiting works it's not that not even close to what what you're what we're talking about in the live chat with well recruiting is going to take no no there that's not it's not going to make that change it's it's all relationship

and and Matt Campbell just needs to keep building relationships with the high schools within the region so all right we're getting to the point where we're starting to talk about the ins and outs of of recruiting I want to thank everyone for stopping by for the live show to watch to either hate watch the show or because you like Penn State and want to know what's going on with the team and how it just unraveled so so quickly so badly Penn State loses again 34 to 13 to northwestern yeah reset your expectations I don't know that 500 we'll see we'll see if they get the 500 now because even the games that seem like hey these are these are winnable ones everything's become a toss up and yeah Penn State's got the white out I've never I have never not looked forward to a white out like this and and so long so uh U.S. hopefully that road trip is not is not fun for USC

that's the that's the thing that Penn State has going for it is that USC's got to travel all the way across the country but we'll talk about that throughout the week we still have more analysis coming to you through Saturday through the weekend to put put wrapping paper on this was Scott or excuse me northwestern Penn State games aim appreciate the time appreciate everyone joining the live show subscribe to the YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts for the latest daily conversations around Penn State football recruiting wrestling you name it all right here on Lockdown on Netany Lions. Hey sports fans it's JD the host of Lockdown Cardinals and did you know with the Discover Cashback Card it's payback time when you earn cashback on everyday purchases activate and earn 5% cashback in different categories each quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases that's 5% cashback at different places each quarter like grocery stores on gas and at restaurants it pays to discover terms apply see discover dot com slash five four to tails on cow she you're trading

against peers in a live market meeting there's no house and as the probability changes you can buy in and out of your position for a limited time download the cow she app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade 10 KAL S H I cow she trade on anything 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors prices values and available markets may differ from those mentioned for more information see cow she dot com slash regulatory law transforms agreement into reality a word becomes an agreement an agreement becomes a contract a contract becomes law today Harvey the AI platform for legal work is writing the next chapter more than 200,000 lawyers and 80% of the Amla 100 are building with Harvey accelerating review sharpening negotiations and more this is how the future of agreements is being crafted now Harvey learn more at harvey dot AI Harvey does not provide legal advice users should always independently review and verify any output from Harvey I'm pro football holo famer Brian Dawkins and I live for a long time with something I did not know the name

of major depressive disorder I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone but I couldn't now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there if you're experiencing similar symptoms talk to a health care professional visit mdd allies dot com to watch my story paid partnership with johnson and johnson Brian Dawkins is not prescribed caplite a luma teperon I needed more from my antidepressant so my doctor added caplite a luma teperon proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone building on my progress without starting over caplite is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only individual results may vary in clinical trials late game was not common elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke caplite is not approved for dementia related psychosis call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes behaviors or suicidal thoughts right away antidepressants may increase these risks report fever

confusion stiff muscles which may be life-thrilling or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent high cholesterol and waking may occur as can high blood sugar which may be fatal monitoring is recommended common side effects are sleepiness dizziness nausea dry mouth feeling tired and diarrhea these aren't all the side effects ask your doctor about caplite learn more at caplite.com or call 888-2524824 call as football is back so hilton called him me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality need a room to match your lucky number we got you want to make sure our team doesn't wash your lucky jersey oh that smells lucky hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition even a marching band wake up call at 555 and 55 seconds hit it when you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day it matters where you stay hilton for this day

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