Penn State football is at a conflicting point in its season.

The College Football Playoff dream died with Wisconsin. Northwestern was one of the ugliest Penn State games of the last decade. USC was… different.

The Nittany Lions genuinely fought into the final five minutes. Whether it was the White Out atmosphere or genuine week-over-week improvement, it still wasn’t enough.

“It’s tough. There’s no other way to put it. We got to be tougher, we got to be better, we got to be more violent,” tight end Andrew Rappleyea said. “We got to be better in a lot of aspects of the game of football. It’s frustrating. You see a lot of good things, though. It felt more good than we’ve had going on the last couple of weeks on both sides, and then just come up short.”

The main difference in Penn State’s offensive play against USC and over the last two weeks was Rocco Becht’s play. Becht easily had his best game since non-conference play, tossing 21 completions for 289 yards and one touchdown.

Situational football once again doomed Penn State. Poor timeout usage by Matt Campbell, a 2-for-12 third-down performance, and a backbreaking Brett Eskildsen fumble late in the game forced the Nittany Lions to the dumps once more.

“USC was the better team tonight. They played better. We need to be better, and unfortunately, that’s happened the last three weeks, where we haven’t played to our standard,” Rappleyea said.

Many of those poor third-down attempts came from Penn State’s devastatingly stagnant run game. There has been little improvement throughout the entire season in actual production.

Carson Hansen and James Peoples were the only running backs to tote the rock against the Trojans. They rushed for a combined 48 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries.

“It’s frustrating because we got to see growth and it’s got to happen,” Hansen said postgame. “It’s frustrating that it’s not, like, we can’t single out anyone. It’s got to be a whole unit, and we got to take accountability for it and keep moving forward.”

Campbell has spoken a lot about the collective running back “unit,” but Quinton Martin Jr. and Cam Wallace have slowly faded away from the game plan since Big Ten play started. They looked explosive in their non-conference appearances. There’s obviously a big skill gap in terms of opponents, but the “unit” isn’t whole if just Hansen and Peoples are running, and running ineffectively, at that.

Every offensive position group has a good argument for why it’s the biggest factor in Penn State’s losses so far. USC proved that no matter if one picks up the slack, another will bring it down. The Nittany Lions are not a sustainable football team.

They can make all of the changes they need to and watch the film, but at the end of the day, this team cannot execute when it matters most. Even with its explosive plays sprinkled throughout the game, Penn State just couldn’t get over the hump.

“This one hurts a little bit more than last week … Last week I feel like we got way more out-physicaled than we did this week,” Chase Sowell said postgame. “It hurt a lot worse this game because I know we’re right there … But it shouldn’t change anything. It shouldn’t put you into panic mode.”

Rappleyea is no stranger to 0-3 starts in Big Ten play where it feels like the world is slowly piling on you inch by inch. Even after going through it in 2025, he’s keeping his head and is focused on the next step.

That “panic mode” spread like wildfire through the Nittany Lion locker room a season ago. While both teams have now started 0-3 in conference play, Campbell still seems to have a good grasp of the locker room.

“I was here last year. Guys pointing fingers, guys turning on each other. It’s all about how you’re going to respond,” Rappleyea said. “We can do that, and obviously that probably won’t go well. And I promise you, that will not happen.”

The season is lost. Penn State can play for another mid-tier bowl game just like it did a season ago. It’s been ugly football.

But Campbell’s keeping it real. And that’s probably worth a lot more than people are giving him and Penn State credit for.

“I love Coach Campbell for that. He stays on us, he’s hard on us, but he basically holds us to an expectation that we did not play up to tonight, and that we need to,” Rappleyea said.