What We NEED to See vs Marshall | Matt Campbell’s First Penn State Test Is Here

0:00football is back and this is believed your home for NFL and college football news and analysis all season long. Now let's start the show. First game of the Matt Campbell era at Penn State. We are talking about it here on the big ten huddle presented by fan dual talking about Penn State verse Marshall Matt Campbell's first game. Deanton Lins first game as defensive coordinator coming from USC. A lot of new things going on for Penn State this season in Marshall is a pretty good opponent for this. They have some players that can be dangerous. Going to be testing Penn State a little bit. Of course we have Chris here to talk about it all with us once again. Chris I want to start with the Marshall quarterback Carlos Del Rio. Carlos Del Rio. You and I were talking about him a little bit before we got out here. He only had, you know, 2043 passing yards last season. But boy can he run the football

1:00over 660 yards rushing last season. He actually broke a 43 year old Marshall record for quarterback rushing yards last season for them. So this is not just some, you know, mobile quarterback. This is a guy who can really scoot get out there and he's a huge part of this Marshall running game. Chris when you look at Carlos Del Rio when you look at what this offense can do. What kind of answers do you think Penn State will have to try to contain Del Rio? Del Rio. Chris Well, I mean, you know, I mean, the most common thing that everybody is going to see and no reason to overcomplicate is you got to spy him. I mean, it's that simple. You know, you always hear the quarterback is, you know, the key that makes, you know, the key in the cog of any offense that makes it go. Well, it's especially so with Marshall because he's such a run threat. Like they run him by design a lot. You know, like you said, he is not a hard one. He's not a hard one. He's not a hard one. He's not a hard one. He's not a hard one. He's not a hard one. He's not just an athlete playing quarterback. He could also throw the ball pretty decent.

2:00Like you said, two thousand 43 yards, six hundred sixty rush yards. He only had four point one yards. No, it's for a quarterback rushing the ball by design. Usually there's a little more freedom with them. So he's a good runner. He's not the best I've ever seen, but he's a good runner. And the main thing is, like, you just have to spy him. It's all about, I would think a judge. I'm not going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to be a good runner. I'm not going to do it a little bit more for you yet. I'm not being left over, that не be. I don't know what comes up with it's going to be. I don't already learn to fight. I don't know why, maybe I didn't say it's going to fight cause he's fine. I don't think I can always meet those. Like, I don't know what he does. And they cares. They just want to take an frame. Okay. Guess what the Israeli West seriousness. According to�� pontos why that's going to be out there and broadcast called those Penn State counter with and maybe it's a little bit of a chest magic, but just start off by containing the quarterback. It all starts with just containing the quarterback and just fulfilling your assignments and

3:04playing a good sound football. And his last name is Dohrio Wilson. I forgot this. Yeah, Dohrio Wilson. I hate singing all that. His long name. We'll just call him Dohrio because I kind of lose off the tongue a little bit easier. Yeah, I mean, if you can contain Dohrio, then he's going to have to use his arm. And like you said, he is a capable passer. This is not a guy who is like is unable to pass the ball or anything. He's a good sun belt player and somebody that can hurt you if you give him opportunity to. And he's got some pass catchers. You and I were talking about before he came on here. A tight end and a wide receiver outside. The Penn State's going to have to be on the lookout for who are those guys, Chris, and what kind of options do you think Penn State will have for covering them? Well, one of their top players coming back is they're tied in to be paying yet 37 catches 292 yards last year to touchdowns. Which surprisingly, not great numbers, but he's a pretty good player because that was good enough for first team sun belt in 2025.

4:06Their big player receiver is Adrian Norton, 27 receptions for 363 yards and five touchdowns. As a preseason for a team sun belt, there's really nobody on the team that is a huge threat to Penn State defense or shouldn't be. I mean, I really, you know, they shouldn't be. It's just a matter of containing the reals. Don't let, you know, don't get sucked in. Like, you know, one thing I've seen watching some a little bit is, you know, I remember watching, you know, I'm a little older watching though old Eagles and Randall cutting hand. We used to call it getting cutting hand where, you know, he easily scrambling. He looks like he's going to take off. He lores the safety's up. He lores you know, in some of the DBs and then right over to top, a receiver breaks free. They just got to play sound football. Don't get sucked into that. And you know, that's pretty much it. I mean, athletically, Penn State just, you know, I don't know how much they're going to

5:08play man versus zone. But they have the athletes. I mean, there's no reason that Marshall should be a big threat to them. Well, they made some plays here and there, it's sure they probably will. But there's no reason Marshall should be a big threat to them. Penn State's secondary is, you know, came in as a strength and there's a little bit of concern with some depth issues because of, you know, some players injured and not participating in camp. Their first string supposed to be very good with Penn State, then it's supposed to be a pretty significant gap in what they get to their second string. There's no reason Penn State's first string defense shouldn't be able to contain this wide receiver, this tight end and no reason to have a role. I shouldn't be able to fight Del Rio. Yeah. And I mean, last thing we can talk about here with the defense unless you have anything else like you said when we were doing kind of our defensive talk early on and you know, I say early on, this is probably about a month or two ago when we're talking about Penn State is these linebackers should be able to play more free, you know, Cooper Evel.

6:11Tony Rojas, you know, depends on how much Kayla baking gets back there at linebacker or on the line of scrimmage, obviously, he's kind of a hybrid edge type of situation there. But I mean, with these linebackers playing a little bit more free, they should have some more ability to be able to get out and not have the safety, have to come up and stop Del Rio and they should be able to, you know, play that opportunity. So that way they don't get sucked in and Del Rio hits the big pass over him. Right. And that's part of playing a four to, you know, they're, they're using Marcus Neil, he's kind of going to be like, he's a box safety, but he's, he's always like a sand linebacker in a sense that they're going to be using him. But that's, that's a key point that I'm very interested in seeing like, you know, before doing this show, we're talking about the different things we could talk about. Like players we want to see a lot of people might say Tony Rojas. Well, I kind of an idea where I'm going to get out of Tony Rojas. What I want to see is Cooper Evel. I want to see Cooper Evel, Caleb, Rosina, our shooter, Caleb, Rosina because like you

7:14said, these guys playing at 335 last year and I spoke to Cooper Evel. Like I said, it's one of them. They did not get to play like regular linebackers. You know, all they did is fire it in whatever gap they had to fire it in. They didn't get to like really read and react. Okay. You know, see the play, read it, read your keys, attack that's, you know, they just, they had an assignment of plugging a gap almost like basically that was what they had to do. I know they're excited to finally play like regular linebackers. Cooper Evel is a big guy. He's a big boy. He's a thumper. He's 640. He's got to be like 230 some closer to 40. I would think and he's not the fastest, most athletic guy. And I know there's, you know, issues with some mistackles last year. So how's he going to be in space? You know, how is he going to be being able to flow from sideline to sideline and just how's he going to be in reading recognition, you know, like reading and reacting.

8:15He's going to have good instincts. So that's, that's what I want to see. Like interesting seeing on the defense side of the ball for Penn State. I'm also interested in seeing it, you know, first they could not defense for Penn State. I really want to see what Mass Brand will to do because so much hype around him. We need a path russia this season. It's, it's that simple. That is the one main concern a lot of people talk about. And I think it's about concerned. Mass Brand will, I've watched enough defense event film over the years. I don't care if you're a smaller undersized six, three defense event or if you're a bigger defense event like the night that it's sat in, you need to have some kind of burst and get off. You've got to have some kind of quick burst. You've got to have some kind of twitching to you to get off the ball pretty quick and be able to get to the quarterback. Okay. Grand Hill is as explosive as it comes and he's physical and he's going with his hands.

9:16He's not the biggest guy. I mean, he's jacked up. He's six, three, he's over to 50. I mean, he's supposed to 60. I want he should be able to dominate. He, this is, I know he's coming back from an injury, but by all accounts from where he started in spring camp, through where he's at now, he's just continued to just really rise up and progress. Looking great. He's one of the most improved players in camp and I just want to see him be able to go out there and dominate. Like this is why you get these big time defensive events. His burst is athleticism. His hand is, he should have yelled at beat offense, tackles for Marshall. And I wanted, I just want to see that twitch. I want to see that burst. I want to see that explosion problem. And if I come out Joe doesn't have it to the degree of Grangel, but he has, you know, he's not great in any one area, but he's kind of like good all over. So I'm interested to see what, what come out Joe could do, you know, if he could, if he could progress more, I know he's going to be good against the run.

10:18I know he's very physical. I know he's going to be good against the run. I want to see what he could do if he could advance as a pass rusher and Penn State's other, the king of Zuka like to see what he could do. It is he's about all the hype. And I would say he played in that for eye technique. So he couldn't be used as like a true outside or well true edge rusher where he had a lineup more on the inside, almost like a hybrid kind of detackled defensive then. I mean, defensive then, but it's just the way they, they used him. They didn't always have the freedom to rush outside the edge like regular edge rusher and defensive ends. He came in with a lot of hype. He supposed to be the guy he's supposed to be having a break camp. I'm a little wait and see on him. I mean, he's a pretty, you know, he's a big body defensive and similar to what did I then it's sudden was does he have that explode? You know, he has good athleticism.

11:19He has a little bit of explosion in burst to it. It's nothing, you know, it's nothing that's to go crazy about, but he's really hyped up. So we'll see, you know, his power, you know, instead of it being a speed, the power is it going to be more power to speed, you know, we'll see power power wins. Power gets to the quarterback over what Penn State usually did with speed on the edge. All right. Sounds good. That's pretty much the Penn State defense versus martial tag. Switch on over to the offensive side of the ball for Penn State. Obviously, Rocco Beck, you know, Carson Hanson, Quentin Martin, James Peebles. I don't have to go through all the players. Penn State fans know who it is. Who are you watching to have a good game and what do you want to see out of some of these guys for Penn State on offense? So what I want to see on offense, I mean, obviously, I want to see them dominate. I want to see them score a lot of points. But I want to see them be in sync. I want to see them look where it's not a struggle like where it looks right.

12:26Anybody that watched last year's opening game or opening first couple of games against the out of confidence opponents, which scored a lot of points we want to countably, but the offense never looked like it is in sync. Like it just didn't look right. It looked like everything was kind of forced. It looked like it was too much of a struggle to do things at times. So I just want to see everything flow naturally. Our offense line, I'm very big on our starting five guys. I think they should absolutely dominate. I think they are going to be one of the surprise offense lines of the year. And they should own the line of screen. There's no reason that they should not own the line of screen. They should open up running lanes. They should protect Rockle Beth. I want to see domination by this offense line. And you know what they want to say about offensive line play. You know, obviously you need the horses. You need the big powerful strong guys, the athletic guys, you know, tackle.

13:27But so much of offensive line play is just simple execution. It's just getting a hat on a hat. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Penn State offensive lines in the past where it wasn't that they're getting out physical, but it just like to like a guard in the center, a guard and tackle double teaming a D line men where they don't get to the option guy. They don't get to the second level and get the block on linebacker. And a guy comes in free. This good offense lines execute they get a hat on a hat. That's what I want to see out of Penn State. I want to see dominate. I want to see execute the in like I said, just the offense being seen. The other thing I want to see, which I think everybody wants to see is you want to see just a natural downfield passing game for just for for change for the first time in how many years, you know, words not a struggle. You know, there's because let's be honest, like now I'm not in.

14:27Now these guys are having huge, huge games. I'm not going to sit here and say, you're not wearing a shoulder for a year. But if Brad Estosin or Chase Soel, Kobe Howard, if they can't, if one of those guys can't go off against Marshall, you know, these guys should be able to open and get some Marshall. That you know, one of these guys should have a big game or collectively they should have a big game. I just want to see a regular in rhythm in seeing downfield passing game where it's not a struggle. You watch so many other teams in opening day like you watched USC in my eye, well, it just comes naturally. You know, you watch, I just want to see, like I said, just a regular downfield passing game. I would love to see wide receiver go off. We know they're going to get the ball to tie the ends. That's never an issue with Penn State. And it's, you know, tight ends are going to be a big part of this offense as well. You know, you're with the new coaching staff.

15:29Just want to see the wide receiver play because the biggest question mark on this year, in obviously there's, there could be a lot of them because we don't know what we're going to get yet. We haven't seen it. But assuming everything goes according to how we hope it will go, the main question mark is, do they have enough talent? You know, when I mentioned this on the last show, they don't, Penn State doesn't necessarily have that one big time game breaker. You know, they don't have it running back. They don't have it at receiver, but they do have very good receivers. So you want to see them. Some of these guys show out, you know, I always think back to like the 2005, 2006, 2007, and Penn State teams, they didn't have like all these stud, they didn't have like a thousand year receiver, but they had collectively had a good group of receivers in Derek Williams and Jordy Norwood and Dion Butler. And even if they could get something, even though these receivers are completely different

16:30style receivers, just give me something like that, you know, like, but do they have that one game breaker? Well, Chase saw, well, take the next step. Well, Eskelson's take the next step. Rocco about things, Kobe Howard could be a thousand year receiver. So receivers is just across the board is who I really want to see. Well, I want to see play, you know, that's there to guys who I am most, most want to see on offense. And I want to see the offense of line dominate. I'm pretty confident. Rocco Beck should have a good game. The other thing is, you know, they had, you know, across the board, I would say Beck and the receivers last year, they kind of had it down here. I mean, it's been talked about. They all played hurt. I mean, Beck was hurt. Yeah, you know, both shoulders, he played through pain. Chase so well was banged up. But now that you have an offense of line, that gives you more protection. How much better does that make Rocco Beck?

17:31How much better does that help the receivers give them an extra second to get open, you know, because Beck had a stat. He's, he's one of the best quarterbacks thrown the ball deep, but he was so, so intermediate and short passes. And he was not good under pressure. Like his completion percentage under pressure was below what the average was for power for quarterbacks. So I want to see Beck improve in that area. And I would hold playing behind a Penn State Alchemist line, makes him that much better. And that, that's pretty much what I want to see on, on Penn State's offense. And on defense, I forgot to mention a few things is just minimize the mistakes. Just minimize the mistakes. You know, it's a new defense, a new system they're learning. I get that it might not be perfect game one, but I just minimize the mental mistakes, minimize mental mistakes, play sound football, fulfill your assignment and control the game.

18:36There's no way with these big, you know, these big defense attack was Penn State brought in by all accounts. They're not just big bodies. These guys are playing well. Like they're showing out like cano Williams was supposed to be the top dog and he is one of them. But say out to Pocky is he was a big talk of the camp. Our strong no dean, another guy powerful is can be he's got a burst for a detackled. That guy is pretty explosive for a big guy could move. You know, these are real players like these are just big bodies. I know in camp there's quite a few, there's I know one week and a few cans a few days of practice. Penn State could run the ball at all in his defense. So they should be all shut down the run at minimal, contain the run, be good against the run, contain the quarterback. And they they should have they should they should win this game comfortably. That they should. I had a score predicted 42 to 14 Penn State win covers the the spread here on Fandall.

19:40Penn State favored by 24 and a half the over under set at 42 and a half. So I have Penn State covering and I'm taking the over on that one. Chris, what's your score prediction? I was going to go 38 to 10. I mean, you know, they could easily get the 40s, but I just going to go 38 to 10 because I'm sure I want to get some the third quarter. I are SQL the four court. Excuse me that though, you know, they're uncomfortably they'll pull the starters in. So I'll go on I'll go 38 to 10. There you go. All right, that's what you get expect for Penn State versus Marshall, kind of some things to watch and stuff like that. Obviously, like we said, very much so expect Penn State to win this game. If we come back here next Thursday and Penn State does not have a win. I don't I don't want to know what Chris is going to be like if if that happens. You think you've seen Chris critical of the team. I think there might be some extra criticism that might happen. I'd call that to see it. Man, yeah. So all right, everybody.

20:41Thanks for listening watching this episode of the Big Ten Huddle presented by Fandall here talking Penn State. We'll be back again next Thursday at noon talking Penn State football with Chris once again. Thanks everybody. Have a good one. See you guys later.