This weekend won’t mark the anticipated matchup between Big Ten blue bloods that many were expecting before the season started.
But that will be the reality when Penn State travels to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Saturday afternoon in a game that will pit two teams that were ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll but now are unranked and struggling under their teams’ first-year head coaches.
Penn State (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) enters the matchup on a three-game losing streak, all to conference opponents. The latest defeat was 31-23 at home to then-No. 19 Southern California last Saturday, after the Nittany Lions fell 34-13 at Northwestern on Oct. 2 and 24-20 to Wisconsin on Sept. 26.
Although quarterback Rocco Becht went 21-for-32 for 289 yards and a touchdown against the Trojans, the losing streak certainly isn’t what Penn State supporters had in mind when Matt Campbell was hired away from Iowa State of the Big 12 Conference during the offseason.
Campbell brushed off assertions that he and his staff have struggled to adjust to the physicality of Big Ten play.
“We’ll see another really physical football team again this week,” Campbell said of Michigan. “We’ve got great respect for the opponent that we play, but the reality of it is we have really good football players that have the ability. We have to do a better job fundamentally and structurally to get our guys in the best position to be the most physical group they can be.”
Coming off a bye week, Michigan also is going through hard times under coach Kyle Whittingham.
The Wolverines (3-2, 0-2) are coming off back-to-back losses — 20-19 at home to then-No. 17 Iowa on Sept. 26 after giving up a touchdown on the last play of the game, and a 20-14 defeat at Minnesota on Oct. 3.
Michigan sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood, a much-hyped, five-star quarterback making a reported $3 million a year in NIL money, has struggled mightily. Against Minnesota, he completed 10 of 21 passes for 101 yards, with two interceptions, and has thrown for only 881 yards and five TDs this season, against four interceptions, over five games.
However, Whittingham said Monday that he will stick with Underwood and also pledged his support for offensive coordinator Jason Beck.
“Bryce is still starting,” Whittingham said. “Jason will call plays, and Bryce is our guy, and we move forward.”