Story by
The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
Penn State overcomes early miscues as Becht shines again
- Story byThe Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
- Penn State overcomes early miscues as Becht shines again
Since the day he took the Penn State job more than nine months ago, Matt Campbell said one of the things he was most looking forward to was how his team responded to some adversity.
After breezing through the first quarter of the opener and never really facing significant challenges against Marshall, it didn't take long for the Nittany Lions to learn something about themselves Saturday at Temple in an uncomfortable 27-9 win.
Advertisement
Penn State missed three chances for points in the first quarter Saturday — including coming away with no points on a first-and-goal at the 5 following a Tony Rojas interception.
Still, two missed fourth downs inside the 5, and even a missed field goal from Ryan Barker — 18-of-19 a year ago — led to some early jitters.
The Nittany Lions trailed 3-0 after Temple pieced together a good drive to start the second quarter before Penn State woke up, scoring the next 27 points to take control.
"There's no real explanation other than we didn't play very well in the first quarter of the game offensively. I think it has to start with the head football coach, our detail," Campbell said. "And then it goes to our coaches, and then our players, and our accountability. We were off. I felt like we really gained some opportunity to grow in the second and third quarter. I didn't think we wavered and flinched. I give a lot of credit to our players."
Advertisement
After the slow start, Penn State built a 27-3 lead before allowing a late touchdown against the reserves.
Ticking clock
With a pair of timeouts still in their pocket, Penn State fans might have been a little jumpy when veteran quarterback Rocco Becht methodically marched the Lions down the field in a two-minute drill just before halftime, seemingly letting valuable time tick off.
In a 3-3 game — in which Penn State was favored by more than three touchdowns — Penn State drove from its own 17 to just outside the red zone when tight end Benjamin Brahmer was tackled in bounds at the 23.
Rather than stop the clock, Penn State let the clock tick, snapping it with 13 seconds remaining. Becht rifled a pass to a wide-open Brahmer for the go-ahead score with 8 seconds left in the half.
Advertisement
So why not call a timeout?
"It was kind of like, man, do we take the timeout or do we get the play off that we think we're going to get versus the coverage we're going to get?" Campbell said. "So it was dicey. You know, obviously it worked out in our favor. I felt really confident in the play call that we had, and that was great execution by those two players. They certainly made the head coach look good."
Spreading the ball around
Through two games, Becht has looked like someone with more than 40 collegiate starts, especially after an erratic beginning Saturday. He threw three more touchdown passes, hitting 21-of-26 passes for 268 yards.
Advertisement
He opened the game with a 56-yard pass to Koby Howard, then found Brahmer for two scores and fellow Iowa State transfer Chase Sowell for another.
Becht's seven touchdown passes — against no interceptions — have gone to five different players. Over 13 games in 2025, seven different Nittany Lions caught TD passes.
Penn State had five completions of more than 20 yards on Saturday and now has a dozen over two games.
Missing in action
After the game, Campbell confirmed that sophomore defensive end Max Granville will miss the rest of the year after he was injured in practice last week.
Granville, who reclassified as a high school senior to come to Penn State for the playoff run in the 2024 season, missed all of the 2025 season with an injury. He played in last week's opener before his injury in practice.
Advertisement
"It's a really tough blow for our football team, tough blow for Max," Campbell said. "He's been a pillar for the unity of our football team over the past nine months. Hoping he will come back better than ever."
