Penn State is hoping to have a much-improved 2026 season, as it was absolutely horrible a year ago. For Penn State to be the team it wants to be, it will have to stay healthy, which, in fairness, it didn't a year ago.
The season was already a bit off the rails before Penn State dealt with some of those injuries, but had it been a bit healthier, especially with some of its top players, things probably would have been a bit different.
We don't know all the top players on this roster just yet, with all the new faces, but we do know that quarterback Rocco Becht will be one of the better players on the team. Becht has proven throughout his college career that he can be a very good player, and he showed a lot of that during his time at Iowa State.
The young man is currently dealing with an injury, but it sounds like he'll be ready to go with spring practice here. According to head coach Matt Campbell, Becht is almost good to go, and he'll be ready for the season.
“He'll be ready to rock and roll,” Campbell said of Becht, per the Daily Collegian. “I think the fact that we've gotten this much out of him was way ahead of where we thought we would have been. So I think that's really big for him.”
“Every day you pass here at four o’clock and he’s got the entire receiving core, tight end core, meeting with those guys and going over practice,” Campbell said.
Coming to a new school, especially one as big as Penn State, and dealing with an injury early on, certainly wasn't ideal for the youngster.
However, Campbell is actually viewing this injury as a good thing rather than a big problem.
He thinks that Becht got a lot of things under his belt while he was injured, and the leadership role that he's taking on is as important as anything else. All the early signs for the Penn State quarterback seem to be positive, so it’ll be interesting to see how he performs once he’s fully healthy.
“I think the fact that we’ve gotten this much out of him was way ahead of probably where we thought we would’ve been, so I think that’s really big for him, and just to have his leadership out on the football field and in the locker room I think is critical, No. 1, for us,” Campbell told the assembled media at Penn State on Tuesday.