Penn State has been stuck in neutral for the past decade, and year after year, they come up short. This year has to be the year for the Nittany Lions.
The Penn State Nittany Lions have never been able to take the next step as a program. Each and every year, they are on the outside looking in when the real contenders from the Big Ten are competing for a title.
After the disaster that was 2025, the Nittany Lions have to complete the factory reset and quickly become a competitive team again, and soon.
On3's college football expert JD Pickell made a major challenge for the Nittany Lions. In his clip, he was talking about the marriage of "right place, right time" and how that is operating in a perfect environment.
However, those perfect environments are rare and impossible to predict.
Pickell argues that the right time is probably two years from now, when Matt Campbell has his recruits in, is comfortable with his staff, and is ready to go compete. However, he doesn't have the luxury to wait.
He is finally at the right place. What could be more right than being at Penn State? One of the pinnacles of the sport of college football and the challenge for Campbell is to make this the right time.
The basis of the argument is that Penn State struck absolute gold with their schedule.
In a year that a team like Ohio State is playing Indiana, Oregon, at USC, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan in their Big Ten slate, the Nittany Lions were let off the hook.
Outside of their games at Home against USC and on the road at Michigan, they were truly blessed by their Big Ten opponents. Four of their final five games of the season are against Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Maryland. If they just don't stub their toes, they should win all four of those.
That comes after winning their first three warmup games, leaving games against Wisconsin, Northwestern, USC, Michigan, and Washington left on the roster. In this scenario, they would just have to go 3-2 in those games to all but guarantee themselves a spot in the College Football Playoff.
That is a more than doable task and one that, unfortunately, cannot even be questioned by Matt Campbell.
It is a hard standard to clear, making the College Football Playoff in your first year at the helm, but the time is now. It's impossible in life to know when the right place meets the right time.
For Matt Campbell and the Nittany Lions, they need to make now the right time.
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