Look ahead to the 2026 starting lineups..

[bdroc]

PSU could easily have won 10 games this past season. The losses to UCLA and NW were poor prep by the coaches and Iowa and IU should also have been wins. A team of similar strength should win at least 9 games with a more manageable schedule.
Position by position. I know this is too simple to be scientific, especially this early in the process to assemble the team by Coach Campbell as Spring practices hasn't even begun, but how will the 2026 team compare to 2025 as we look at it now....

QB - Better. Becht has loads of experience and has been effective in directing Campbell's offense for the past 3 years. He is much more experienced that Grunk and a better runner that either Allar or Grunk.
RB - Even at best, likely not as good. Only because of how good we know Katron was down the stretch of the 2025 season. Singleton as a RB I believe can be replaced with any of the top 2025 PSU RB's mainly due to Nick's lack of vision where he ran into his blockers backs too many times when there were holes for positive gains.
WR - Better. Pena was the only playmaker and when defenses took away the quick passes to him behind the LOS he was neutralized during stretches of game. The two ISU transfers look to be better and more experienced playmakers and better down field threats at WR than any of the 2025 starting PSU WR's. If the new WR coach can develop the younger WR's, Howard, Jones, Gonzalez, and Samuel the WR's could be significantly better than the 2025 group.
TE - Even. Dinkins, Reynolds and Rappeleyea were a talented and deep group in 2025, but barring injury Rappeleyea (a potential All B10 TE) together with the ISU transfer Brahmer will be a very high talent and excellent receiving TE duo. The risk at TE is if there is a legit high talent #3 TE with Senior ISU transfer Burkle. Depth beyond those 3 if there are injuries in the ISU RS So transfer Alexander and the RS Fr Kortovich.
OL - Not quite as Good. 2026 has a chance to be good with Donkoh, Cousins, and the ISU transfer Buhl leading the way. Donkoh looks to have a chance to be All B10. Lots of talented olinemen to sort out the couple starting spots in question, Center and L-OT, but the 2025 OL had a ton of experience.
DT - Not quite as good. Beyond losing the very active Durant I don't see that the DT's that moved on as special losses. Gilliam was developing but the new group has more size and a chance to be better against the run.
DE - Not quite as good, but a chance to be as good. DDS will be hard to replace, Fisher was a mature, experienced player, and the losse of Fisher and developing Harvey hurts. But Granville and Kemajou who was the #3 DE as a true freshman last season could be a better pass rushing duo than the 2025 starters. Sorting out the rest of the rotation will be ongoing likely into the OOC games but there are a good many talented DE's that will be in the hunt for the #3 spot and beyond.
LB - As good or better if Rojas stays healthy. Rojas's injury set the LB's back and his injury likely cost the team a couple of games. Rojas coul be an All Big10 player this sason. Campbell played well but the ISU transfesr may be just as good as Campbell. DeLuka's experience will be missed but whoever replaces him may bring more athleticism to the field, and the developing Tatsch along with Arrington and Smith could be positive surprises.
Safety - As good. Wheatly will be hard to replace, along with the contribution from Mack, but the tthree ISU transfers along with Toure are a talented group. Campbell added a couple of lower rated Safety's to the 2026 class but Safety will be a priority for the 2027 class and next off season in the transfer portal.
CB - As good but not a deep. The 2025 group had great depth as the 3 starters that returned were complimented with the talented Harris and Washington. Dixon, Collins and Tracy for a talented starting group but Terry Smith will need Joseph's role to continue to increas and he's also got to develop depth from a couple of the other young CBs, McDaniels, Thomas and Johnson.

The 2025 team seemed to have more depth, more young players developing last season. But the players that take the field to start the 2026 season have a pretty good chance to perform just as good as the 2026 team that was very much in every game except vs Ohio St., with the 2026 schedlule looking pretty reasonable and the passing game having a great chance to be more explosive and able to make come backs if the team gets behind.

PSU could easily have won 10 games this past season:

PSU would have beat UCLA, NW, and IA if Rojas didn't get hurt. That changes 6-6 to 9-3 even without Allar. Of course we should have won those games anyway. Knowles' defense was a mess with lots of confusion. I'm not sure what to say about Indy.

Regarding positions:

QB: Only slightly better. I understand that Becht has more experience than Grunk but Grunk's stats were very impressive. He completed 69% of his passes and was gaining confidence with each game. I wish we could have kept him.
RB: Worse. Kaytron was really good.
WR: Unknown
TE: Even
OL: Worse
DT: Same
DE: Slightly worse
LB: Better if Rojas is healthy but that's a big "IF"
DB: Even
K: Even. Barker doesn't have much room to improve.
P: Unknown

Team chemistry: Better. It could hardly be worse but these kids haven't played together and it could take time to gel.

My biggest concern is OL & DT. I'm predicting 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Washington, & USC. One thing different from prior years is that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost to an inferior team early on but I also wouldn't be surprised if we beat a team where we were underdogs.

 

[LudicrousSpeedGO!]

PSU could easily have won 10 games this past season:

PSU would have beat UCLA, NW, and IA if Rojas didn't get hurt. That changes 6-6 to 9-3 even without Allar. Of course we should have won those games anyway. Knowles' defense was a mess with lots of confusion. I'm not sure what to say about Indy.

Regarding positions:

QB: Only slightly better. I understand that Becht has more experience than Grunk but Grunk's stats were very impressive. He completed 69% of his passes and was gaining confidence with each game. I wish we could have kept him.
RB: Worse. Kaytron was really good.
WR: Unknown
TE: Even
OL: Worse
DT: Same
DE: Slightly worse
LB: Better if Rojas is healthy but that's a big "IF"
DB: Even
K: Even. Barker doesn't have much room to improve.
P: Unknown

Team chemistry: Better. It could hardly be worse but these kids haven't played together and it could take time to gel.

My biggest concern is OL & DT. I'm predicting 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Washington, & USC. One thing different from prior years is that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost to an inferior team early on but I also wouldn't be surprised if we beat a team where we were underdogs.

That's a reasonable take. I don't fully agree with every position eval but it seems reasonable overall to me.

 

[Frank Lee]

PSU could easily have won 10 games this past season:

PSU would have beat UCLA, NW, and IA if Rojas didn't get hurt. That changes 6-6 to 9-3 even without Allar. Of course we should have won those games anyway. Knowles' defense was a mess with lots of confusion. I'm not sure what to say about Indy.

Regarding positions:

QB: Only slightly better. I understand that Becht has more experience than Grunk but Grunk's stats were very impressive. He completed 69% of his passes and was gaining confidence with each game. I wish we could have kept him.
RB: Worse. Kaytron was really good.
WR: Unknown
TE: Even
OL: Worse
DT: Same
DE: Slightly worse
LB: Better if Rojas is healthy but that's a big "IF"
DB: Even
K: Even. Barker doesn't have much room to improve.
P: Unknown

Team chemistry: Better. It could hardly be worse but these kids haven't played together and it could take time to gel.

My biggest concern is OL & DT. I'm predicting 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Washington, & USC. One thing different from prior years is that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost to an inferior team early on but I also wouldn't be surprised if we beat a team where we were underdogs.

A moderating variable in this model is the head coach and coordinators. Kotelnicki's and Knowles' schemes replaced by simpler, thought-out ones. Play action, a mobile QB, a TE curl, a counter trap with the RB quickly hitting the hole. Picking up seven yards on a third and six rather than an out route that picks up five. That kind of stuff. With BGJ gone, it's now football being designed by football people. Fewer "WTF was that" moments.

 

[GregInPitt]

PSU could easily have won 10 games this past season:

PSU would have beat UCLA, NW, and IA if Rojas didn't get hurt. That changes 6-6 to 9-3 even without Allar. Of course we should have won those games anyway. Knowles' defense was a mess with lots of confusion. I'm not sure what to say about Indy.

Regarding positions:

QB: Only slightly better. I understand that Becht has more experience than Grunk but Grunk's stats were very impressive. He completed 69% of his passes and was gaining confidence with each game. I wish we could have kept him.
RB: Worse. Kaytron was really good.
WR: Unknown
TE: Even
OL: Worse
DT: Same
DE: Slightly worse
LB: Better if Rojas is healthy but that's a big "IF"
DB: Even
K: Even. Barker doesn't have much room to improve.
P: Unknown

Team chemistry: Better. It could hardly be worse but these kids haven't played together and it could take time to gel.

My biggest concern is OL & DT. I'm predicting 9-3 with losses to Michigan, Washington, & USC. One thing different from prior years is that I wouldn't be surprised if we lost to an inferior team early on but I also wouldn't be surprised if we beat a team where we were underdogs.

Some additional comments:

QB: Only slightly better. I understand that Becht has more experience than Grunk but Grunk's stats were very impressive. He completed 69% of his passes and was gaining confidence with each game. I wish we could have kept him. Yes Grunk had some nice stats and made some nice throws, but as a very young and inexperienced QB the staff called more safe passes than what they would have done with an experienced QB which limited the teams explosiveness and ability to come from behind. Too many passes to Pena behind the LOS that went no where. Grunk also did get bette as the season went along, but Becht has started for 3 years and will hit the ground running from the 1st play of the 1st game of the 2026 season and the staff will have every confidence in Becht to use the whole playbook with the agressiveness the game situation demands for the whole season. Becht is also a better runner. I don't see any reason to believe QB won't be better. Regarding Allar, he was proven to not have the savy to make plays in crunch time. Becht has done that as well.
RB: Worse. Kaytron was really good. Hard to argue about Kaytron. But Singleton didn't have a good year and PSU will have a very tough running RB in Hanson and both Martin and Peoples look like they have a great chance to live up to their top 10 RB recruiting ratings. So I believe that with a better passing game, especially down the field, that the running game can be almost as good as 2025 when some teams crowded the LOS due to the lack of WR talent outside.
WR: Unknown Yes, there is reason to be somewhat skeptical of portal WR's from what we saw overall of the 3 2025 portal WR's. But they were rightly rated in the portal as 2nd 25 portal WR's and their small stature limited the impact of Ross and Pena as well. Hudson was just a bust. The ISU transfers not only have more size and downfield ability but they already are on the same page as Becht having had him as their QB for mulitple years.
TE: Even
OL: Worse Hard to argue with this as PSU lost 4 of 5 starters. But OL is the position where other than CB PSU seemed to return a pretty good number of talented players from the roster. So with Donkoh and Cousins to anchor the unit there is hope for a positive surprise, particularly with how the OL played in the bowl game with many new players.
DT: Same Easy to look at the new DT's as unknowns but they will be more experienced and have more size than the 2025 group where only Durant and Ford had much maturity coming into the season.
DE: Slightly worse Some unknowsn here but there is room for an improved pass rush as the pass rush generated by DDS, Fisher and the freshmen last season was nothing special.
LB: Better if Rojas is healthy but that's a big "IF"
DB: Even
K: Even. Barker doesn't have much room to improve.
P: Unknown

Good discussion. I'm looking forward to the beginning of Spring practices. Hope Campbell is media friendly and gives us some progress reports as the Spring rolls along.

 

[Frank Lee]

In looking at the older, experienced player philosophy now successfully employed at IU with its big stars from places such as JMU and St. Francis (PA), I'm confident that the ISU, UCLA, and UU guys, plus the Texas State center now at PSU will be improvements, especially with the upgrade in coaching.
Age and experience in CFB are primary factors in filling a roster.

 

[bdroc]

In looking at the older, experienced player philosophy now successfully employed at IU with its big stars from places such as JMU and St. Francis (PA), I'm confident that the ISU, UCLA, and UU guys, plus the Texas State center now at PSU will be improvements, especially with the upgrade in coaching.
Age and experience in CFB are primary factors in filling a roster.

A lot of people think Campbell can replicate what Cignetti has done at Indiana. I'm not so confident. If Campbell could do that why didn't he do it at Iowa State? In fact I don't even know if Cignetti can sustain such success.

 

[LudicrousSpeedGO!]

A lot of people think Campbell can replicate what Cignetti has done at Indiana. I'm not so confident. If Campbell could do that why didn't he do it at Iowa State? In fact I don't even know if Cignetti can sustain such success.

Campbell didn't arrive at Iowa St when there was a transfer portal and NIL. It's a totally different "college" football now. Back then, when you showed up at a historically bad bottom feeder, you couldn't import half a roster and suddenly become a very good team. But make no mistake, he did bring the absolute best that Iowa St football has ever experienced. It just took more than 2 years. I think he can be excellent at PSU. He certainly has the opportunity to eventually take us to where Franklin could not.

 

[bdroc]

Campbell didn't arrive at Iowa St when there was a transfer portal and NIL. It's a totally different "college" football now. Back then, when you showed up at a historically bad bottom feeder, you couldn't import half a roster and suddenly become a very good team. But make no mistake, he did bring the absolute best that Iowa St football has ever experienced. It just took more than 2 years. I think he can be excellent at PSU. He certainly has the opportunity to eventually take us to where Franklin could not.

Of course I'm rooting for him to succeed at PSU. I just think it's a pipe dream to think any coach can recruit classes outside the top 30 and consistently make the playoffs by coaching them up and adding a couple of portal transfers.

 

[Frank Lee]

A lot of people think Campbell can replicate what Cignetti has done at Indiana. I'm not so confident. If Campbell could do that why didn't he do it at Iowa State? In fact I don't even know if Cignetti can sustain such success.

He doesn't need to replicate. Becht, Grunk, and Allar are/were not Mendoza. He just needs to apply a rational, blue collar ISU approach to a better roster. He won't ignore the importance of the LOS, LBs, and WRs like BGJ. It'll be more the lines of Rourke as IU QB. Still, not bad.

 

[GregInPitt]

In looking at the older, experienced player philosophy now successfully employed at IU with its big stars from places such as JMU and St. Francis (PA), I'm confident that the ISU, UCLA, and UU guys, plus the Texas State center now at PSU will be improvements, especially with the upgrade in coaching.
Age and experience in CFB are primary factors in filling a roster.

Yes, "the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores", by JVP

But high level talent that plays and plays at a high level early in their college careers is also important. IU struck gold which will be hard to do in such quantity and at that high of a level from the portal in coming from no where to the top. Mendoza, the projected NFL #1 pick, was the key. Lots of other teams brought in transfer portal QB's that on paper looked similar to Mendoza. But they weren't.

So I'm in the camp that believes the majority of playoff teams that earn their way in (i.e. not mickey mouse conf. champs) will have a mix of home grown talent, some of which will be young 4 and 5 star players that show up as freshmen and are ready to play and excel, supplimented with key transfer players that fill in key positions both as starters and as key backups.

Cambell will have his first chance at putting that mix together in the 2027 season as long as he can make up the ground on the PA 2027 top players (a bumper crop) that PSU lost with the coaching change and suppliment them with some top talent from across the country, maybe more so in that class than what we'll see going forward due to the players from out in the midwest that he was in on before he came to PSU.

 

[GregInPitt]

A lot of people think Campbell can replicate what Cignetti has done at Indiana. I'm not so confident. If Campbell could do that why didn't he do it at Iowa State? In fact I don't even know if Cignetti can sustain such success.

I don't believe Campbell will even try to do it the way Cignetti did it as Campbell still has the advantage of the PSU facilities, the PSU game day experience, the PSU recruiting footprint, and the PSU football history and lettermen to help him recruit at a higher level than Cignetti will have at IU.

I believe that for Cignetti there is no where to go but down. He'll get good players, and good QB's, but he had a once in a generation QB that made plays that won games he won't win going forward. The catch to beat PSU was one such play.

Of course I'm rooting for him to succeed at PSU. I just think it's a pipe dream to think any coach can recruit classes outside the top 30 and consistently make the playoffs by coaching them up and adding a couple of portal transfers.

Yep, and Campbell will likely not have any classes outside the top 30 and will have more classes in the top 10 than Cignetti will while they are both coaching where they're at now. Campbell for sure still has a big advantage over Cignetti in assembling talent, so if he can coach almost as good as Cignetti including player development which Campbell talks about relentlessly he should surpass Cignetti in on the field performance by 2027. But at this point Cignetti has done it and Campbell has not........