Back in my Penn State days, I had a manager at one of the jobs one does to make ends meet when one is a poor college student. That manager always said “embarrassment is a choice” as a way to encourage folks to make mistakes and learn. If you embrace the fact that you did something wrong, without letting it eat away at you, the process of learning becomes easier, or so she said.
That phrase, however, can also mean the opposite. For Penn State, embarrassment is also a choice, but in reverse. The coaching
staff has the choice take my manager at her words, choose to not be embarrassed, and stick to their process as if nothing is wrong, and it’s just part of learning. Or, they can choose to feel the disgust the rest of us feel at what they’ve put on the field for the past two weeks, and actually make some changes.
I will not rehash what has been already said, but I will summarize. It’s not Matt Campbell’s fault that he inherited a 2-person class of 2026. It’s not Matt Campbell’s fault that he couldn’t convince over 50 current players to stay. It’s not Matt Campbell’ fault that he had about 30 seconds to put a portal class together, forcing him to stick to what he knew. Those things were out of his hands.
It would be Matt Campbell’s fault if, upon seeing what is not working, he continues to choose to go along with it as a disastrous start turns into a disastrous finish. I’ll add one caveat to this: It may very well be possible that the threat of Koby Howard opens up the rest of the offense in a way it simply isn’t possible with him sidelined. We may find ourselves salvaging what seems to be a lost year when he returns. But until that happens, changes need to be made.
On the game itself, let’s not rehash everything that happened. We all saw it. And for those of you who didn’t, don’t bother. What bears pointing out, however is that there’s something to be said about a defensive coordinator who work under one of the, still, most brilliant minds in college football. Chip Kelly gave D’Anton Lynn his break at UCLA, at least at he coordinator level, so this may very well be a performance that cannot be repeated. Effort aside, Northwestern knew exactly what to do do pick the defense apart, and no matter how good of an offensive mind he is, the task is that much easier when you spent time understanding the quirks of the defense you’re going up against in-house.
One could say the same thing about Lynn, but remember: one is in his third season as a coordinator overall, the other is on his 27th year as a coordinator and head coach, at every level, 36th if you count position coaching. In other words, one has been a coach for as long as the other has been alive. That may be the difference right there. In a week, though, there’s another opportunity to see who gets the familiarity upper hand. Let’s see if going up against someone who’s only been coaching for 19 years proves different.
Back to the embarrassment point. Matt Campbell wouldn’t be the first, and most definitely won’t be the last coach to find himself at a crossroads early in his career. There are three active Big Ten coaches right now, finding success this season, after disastrous starts. Two of them happen to have beaten Penn State in the past two weeks. The other was a candidate for the job we very loudly and very clearly said we didn’t want. You could say a fourth one is Kirk Ferentz, but Iowa is Iowa so they don’t count.
But beyond today’s Big Ten, there are bigger examples to choose from. Nick Saban went 7-5 at Alabama before his reign of terror on the sport. But, closer to home, some rando named Joe Paterno found himself needing to behind half his starters because they weren’t doing the job early in his career. That action alone turned the team around, and the team never looked back from there.
Matt Campbell doesn’t need to bench half his starters in order to turn things around. But will he have the conviction to bench just the one, when the situation calls for it?
