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What to Expect From Penn State Post-Bye Week
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- What to Expect From Penn State Post-Bye Week
| Source: Lastwordonsports.com - Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor
Penn State has clearly not had the season many expected up to this point. At 3-4 overall and 0-4 against the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions look to start clean after their bye week.
Purdue, also 3-4 overall, will head to Happy Valley this week to meet a fresh Penn State squad. The Boilermakers are coming off a 38-26 home loss to Washington after beating Illinois and Minnesota the weeks before.
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The Nittany Lions are fighting to keep their bowl game hopes alive amid this four-game losing streak. Here are a few things to expect from this post-bye-week Penn State team.
What to Expect From Penn State Post-Bye Week
Koby Howard's Return
Penn State has not won a game without Koby Howard this year. The true sophomore took the college football world by storm as the nation's second-leading receiver with 12 catches for 344 yards and two touchdowns in the first three games.
Howard has been sidelined with an undisclosed injury he sustained in the win over Buffalo. Matt Campbell confirmed Tuesday that Howard is back at practice and is questionable to play this week against Purdue.
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If Howard returns Saturday, he'll be paired with Chase Sowell , who has emerged in Howard's absence. Having both receivers healthy should give Penn State's floundering scoring offense a needed boost when that time arrives.
"He's a guy that I feel like brings this swag to the offense," Sowell said over Howard in Tuesday's press conference. "He has the visor, the sleeve, all the accessories and all that stuff. But he also balls out and works his butt off… he's confident in going out there and doing what he does because he knows how much he's put into it."
Sowell is coming off the game of his career against Michigan , where he had a career-high 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown. Sowell has surpassed Howard as the Nittany Lions' leading receiver with 34 grabs for 510 yards and three touchdowns.
Photo courtesy: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images
No Quarterback Change
Penn State is not expected to make a change at quarterback at any point after the bye week. Rocco Becht really struggled in the latest 21-18 loss to the Wolverines, where all three of his second-half turnovers resulted in touchdowns.
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Becht has now thrown for 913 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions during the four-game losing streak.
"We have complete faith in Rocco Becht," said head coach Matt Campbell during the bye week. "Rocco has been able to, obviously, play good football. There's a couple of moments that he would love to have back, and we know that's part of the game."
Second-year quarterback Alex Manske is slotted as Becht's backup with the expectation that he will contend for the starting role in 2027. But for now, it doesn't appear that Manske is ready for starting reps yet.
"We have great belief that he's going to have a bright future," Campbell said. "His time will come, and when that time comes, we'll be excited for that opportunity. But obviously, that time's not right now."
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Pass Rush Still a Work in Progress
Generating pressure from the pass rush has been a consistent issue all season for Penn State. This isn't like years past when the defense front could maul blockers. D'Anton Lynn's defense has to be more creative, and that includes getting all three levels involved with the pass rush.
"I think it's collectively at times a four-man pass-rush, those guys being able to affect the passer, but also times where we've had the opportunity to use our second- and third-level defenders to make an impact," Campbell said Tuesday. "The answer currently with this team, our setup, we're going to need a little bit of all of those things as we continue to move forward to be at our best to create and generate pass-rush."
Penn State has seen productive rushes from the second and third levels. Linebackers Tony Rojas and Kooper Ebel have the fourth and fifth most pressures on the Nittany Lions' defense this year, with eight and seven, respectively. Defensive backs Josiah Zayas and Zion Tracy lead the secondary with five combined pressures.
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The issue is that the pressures aren't resulting in sacks. Rojas leads the defense with five sacks, while the rest of the team has four. Rojas is having an All-American-type season, but he's just focused on improving the defense to win more games.
"All those accolades and whatever, it doesn't really do anything good for me. I just want to win," he said. "I think we have a good plan ahead, and the coaches, they had their bye week. They've seen what we could do better at, and we talked about it as a unit. I think we'll get it rolling."
Main Image: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
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