Penn State improved to 2-0 on the young 2026 season with a 27-9 victory against the Temple Owls on Sept. 12 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Coach Matt Campbell’s team got off to a slow start with just 10 first-half points as a heavy favorite, but quarterback Rocco Becht stepped up with three touchdown passes. The defense, meanwhile, held Temple to just 283 yards. The Owls didn’t score a touchdown until 1:56 remained in the game.
Next up for Penn State is a visit from the Buffalo Bulls in one final tune-up game before the Nittany Lions enter the Big Ten portion of the schedule.
Here are some questions facing the Nittany Lions as they prepare
for their Buffalo matchup on Sept. 19 back at Beaver Stadium.
When will Penn State's run focus pay off?
Penn State has handed the ball off 79 times for a total of 311 yards through two games: a turgid average of 3.9 yards per carry against mostly overmatched competition.
Becht and his backup quarterbacks, by contrast, have thrown just 54 times this season, albeit with significantly more efficiency. Becht averaged 9.9 yards per attempt against the Owls and has seven touchdowns with no interceptions. He has demonstrated encouraging chemistry with tight end Benjamin Brahmer and receivers Koby Howard and Chase Sowell.
If those trends continue, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser will face increasingly urgent calls to cut it loose more often. Especially if sequences like the ending of Penn State’s final drive of the fourth quarter continue to play out.
Penn State ran the ball three consecutive times for a total of three yards inside Temple’s 10-yard line. Campbell chose to go for it, but Becht missed on a fourth-down throw. The result was a turnover on downs that followed a missed field goal to culminate a scoreless first quarter.
Penn State can get away with that kind of stubbornness against a team like Temple. It may not once the conference slate begins in a couple of weeks.
Is Carson Hansen deserving of his heavy workload?
The transfer who followed Campbell from Iowa State this offseason has taken a commanding share of the touches. Through two games, he’s averaging 4.4 yards on 30 carries. James Peoples has 15 touches for 73 yards. Cam Smith has 12 for 44. And former top James Franklin recruit Quinton Martin Jr. has 10 for 48.
It makes sense for Campbell to lean on the guys he knows best early on, but fans are already grumbling about the lack of explosiveness. Last season, lead back Kaytron Allen averaged 6.2 yards per carry, and the bulk of that came against Big Ten-caliber defenses in what was a disastrous season for the program. Hansen has underperformed that pace against non-power conference teams so far.
He was especially ineffective on Penn State’s two thwarted red zone threats in the first quarter against Temple. He took three carries inside the Owls’ 10-yard line for a total of seven yards. Penn State missed a field goal on one drive and turned the ball over on downs the next.
If those trends and frustrating sequences continue, the calls for more looks for Peoples, Wallace and Martin will only grow.
Which pass rusher will step up amid Max Granville injury?
For the second year in a row, the highly touted pass-rusher will miss most of the season due to injury. His decision to stay at Penn State was a big early win for Campbell’s staff, and he was expected to be the player who stepped into the shoes of Dani Dennis-Sutton, who’s off to the NFL. Alas, Campbell confirmed that won’t happen after the game.
Tony Rojas has been sensational in his return to the defense after his own 2025 injury kept him out for nearly the entirety of the Big Ten conference schedule. He has a pair of early sacks and leads the team in tackles.
The rest of the team, however, has combined for just two other sacks against two of the weaker opponents on the schedule.
Yvan Kemajou and Ikenna Ezeogu have six pressures each through two games, per Pro Football Focus data, and have one sack between them. They’ll be two to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 3 Penn State questions: How can Matt Campbell get more from Nittany Lions run game?
