That was some ugly football.

Penn State football got waxed by Northwestern in New Ryan Field on Friday night, bringing the Nittany Lions to 0-2 in Big Ten play for the second straight year.

It’s been a rough introduction to the conference for Matt Campbell and Co., and Penn State fans weren’t afraid to take out their frustrations and controversial takes on social media.

Here’s how our football beat reacted to some of them.

Alex Manske Should Start Against USC

Cadyn Gill: No. You cannot wave the white flag already. Rocco Becht gives this team the best chance to win.

Plus, this is Becht’s last season of college football. Campbell has been through too much with his quarterback, so he owes him the privilege of going down with the ship.

Jamie Lynch: It’s never going to happen, so there’s no point in debating it.

First off, starting Alex Manske over Becht would be terrible PR for Campbell. Bringing over his long-tenured quarterback was perhaps the biggest decision of the offseason for him, so benching him after just five weeks would not be a good look.

There’s also no denying that Becht is a winner in college football and has immense experience. The coaching staff owes it to him to go out there and prove the doubters wrong in Penn State’s biggest game of the season. He showed in the first three games of the season that, albeit against much worse competition, he is a playmaker.

If he fails to reignite that trait during the game on Saturday, then we can start thinking about making a change. Let the record show that I am a Manske believer. His time will come, but maybe not just yet.

Oscar Orellana: Hard disagree.

Sure, Becht has been bad, but throwing Manske into the starting role in the game that could turn the season around is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard.

Start Becht.

If he still struggles immensely through the first half, throw Manske in for the second. But this is Becht’s team, and he deserves to lead the Nittany Lions out, even if he hasn’t been good over the last few weeks.

Do I think Becht will play well on Saturday? No. But it’d be silly not to start him.

Penn State Will Lose Out

Cadyn Gill: As bad as they’ve played, I don’t see this happening.

At absolute worst, they should be able to beat Purdue, Rutgers, and Maryland. But I expected them to beat Wisconsin and Northwestern, so what do I know?

Could we have massively overrated Penn State coming into the year, when in reality bringing this many Big 12 players into the Big Ten set it up for total failure?

Jamie Lynch: The haters aren’t going to like me picking Penn State to win on Saturday, are they?

I firmly believe that this will not happen. No, I can almost guarantee it won’t happen. This team has been playing horridly, but so has nearly everyone else on its schedule.

Forget the Rutgers of the world; I’m not even closing the door on USC or Michigan yet.

Oscar Orellana: This doesn’t even enter my stream of consciousness.

Penn State looked horrible against Northwestern, but I think the Nittany Lions will pull out more wins, especially in the back half of the season.

Penn State still has Purdue, Rutgers, and Maryland on the schedule, who aren’t exactly pillars of college football excellence themselves. The Nittany Lions will put the pieces together and end off with things to work with going into next year.

Northwestern Was Penn State’s Worst Performance Of The Decade

Cadyn Gill: Statistically, I don’t hate this take. The 2025 42-37 loss against UCLA also comes to mind, but Northwestern’s beatdown takes the cake since it was a blowout.

Although there are a handful of recent losses that undoubtedly hurt more, including the Nittany Lions’ overtime loss to Oregon in 2025, the 2025 Orange Bowl loss to Notre Dame, and the 2024 loss to Ohio State, at least they were competitive and showcased winning football.

In my mind, Penn State lost to Northwestern before it touched the field, and then quickly rolled over and died in the first quarter.

Jamie Lynch: I happen to think Northwestern is a good football team, and I said that before it dismantled Penn State.

It’s fair to argue that the Nittany Lions looked worse than they have at any point this decade, but UCLA was a far more embarrassing loss. The entire 2020 season was also disgusting, as was the nine-overtime loss to Illinois in 2021.

Oscar Orellana: I don’t know, man … UCLA last year was pretty bad. But at least that was a game.

Penn State was completely dominated from the opening snap. Northwestern let the Nittany Lions know early that it was not going to lose this game. The sheer Wildcats’ dominance and the demoralizing effect of the loss have pushed me to agree with this.

Just bad football all around.

Penn State Fans Should Boycott The White Out

Cadyn Gill: The whole boycotting a team when it isn’t doing well has never made sense to me. I’ve already seen my own friends talk about not going into Beaver Stadium on Saturday night because “we suck.”

It’s a sign of weak mental fortitude and, frankly, it’s embarrassing that a portion of the fan base has already turned on Campbell and the program. So many programs have endured significantly worse strings of outcomes and still remain loyal.

The White Out is also a signature event of college football. Why wouldn’t you embrace that, show out, and holler in hopes of making a physical difference against USC in the form of pre-snap penalties?

Jamie Lynch: You are not a Penn State fan if you boycott a game just because the team is underperforming. This is what infuriates me year after year about people in this fan base who claim they bleed blue and white, but I’ll try to keep it brief.

Overcoming difficult times has become an integral part of Penn State’s identity. In 2012, there was no guarantee that this program would even exist. I will never take for granted the opportunity to watch Penn State football in Beaver Stadium, and neither should you.

Oscar Orellana: How can this team get out of its rut without its fans in the Greatest Show in College Sports? I understand the frustration, but anybody saying this is simply being outrageous for the sake of being outrageous.

The Offensive Line Is Penn State’s Weakest Unit & The Biggest To Blame

Cadyn Gill: I, for one, thought the offensive line would be one of Penn State’s driving forces for success, but they’ve certainly underwhelmed.

However, the statistics don’t support that they’ve been awful, nor do they deserve the brunt of the blame. The unit isn’t allowing many sacks or quarterback hurries in pass protection, but Malachi Goodman, Trevor Buhr, and Brock Riker have all struggled to hold the point of attack and displace defenders off the line of scrimmage.

Ryan Clanton talked a lot this offseason about how his guys would be enforcers and dominate the line of scrimmage. That hasn’t shown up through five games.

Jamie Lynch: If we’re talking about Friday’s game, I would say the front seven deserves by far the most blame. Surrendering 413 yards and four touchdowns on the ground is flat-out unacceptable.

If we’re looking at the season as a whole, there’s certainly an argument to make against the offensive line.

As the three of us have said throughout the first five weeks, it’s not fair to place complete blame on the big men up front for lapses in the run game. That being said, a consistent lack of production by the boys in the backfield and their inability to find space is certainly not a good look.

Nearly all positions have demonstrated shakiness, and Becht seems to have fallen off a cliff. There’s a lot of weakness across the board.

Oscar Orellana: The offensive line was manhandled by Wisconsin and Northwestern. The size is there, but the Badgers and Wildcats had no problem moving all of that weight and making Becht uncomfortable.

Becht has his own issues, but the pressure on him and the crowded line very much hinder his entire operation.

The running backs also have their own issues, but we have seen flashes of individual excellence from James Peoples, Quinton Martin Jr., and Cam Wallace.

It’s pretty underwhelming considering Cooper Cousins and Anthony Donkoh’s return to the lineup. I think Riker and Buhr, specifically, have had a lot of trouble acclimating to Big Ten speed and size.

I’m all for Clanton’s whole shtick, but the offensive line hasn’t exactly played like “DOGS.”