Penn State's Matt Campbell Owns Loss to Wisconsin, Coached 'Not to Screw it up'

Campbell reflected on some key decisions in the Nittany Lions' 24-20 loss to the Badgers.

Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Matt Campbell watches warmups before the game vs. the Wisconsin Badgers at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Penn State coach Matt Campbell on Tuesday owned every bit of his team's 24-20 loss to Wisconsin, particularly a second half in which he described his strategy as not wanting to "screw it up."

"I think a little bit of the football game was, you're playing with such a lead early on that you don't want to screw it up, right?" Campbell said.

At his weekly press conference, three days before the Nittany Lions visit Northwestern for a Friday prime-time game, Campbell didn't field one question about the Wildcats or helping them to open the new Ryan Field. Nor did Campbell attempt to steer questions in that direction.

Instead, he stood at the podium and answered multiple questions about his fourth-quarter decision to punt on fourth-and-1 and his choice to call run plays on two third-and-longs in the second half. His answers followed a theme; Campbell used the phrase "screw it up" three times.

"It felt like there were probably times in the football game where we were leaning into the flow of the game to make sure we didn't screw it up early in the football game rather than maybe attacking in some areas that we could have done a better job," Campbell said. "That starts on the head football coach, and [I've] got to do a great job there."

Explaining the fourth-down decision

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Matt Campbell looks on from the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Wisconsin Badgers at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Campbell explained, and defended, his decision to punt on fourth-and-one at Penn State's 38-yard line in the fourth quarter as situation specific. Penn State led 20-10, had held Wisconsin to 23 second-half yards and would be punting the Badgers back into the Beaver Stadium student section.

"I know what the analytics said," Campbell explained Tuesday about going for a fourth-and-short yard. But he preferred punting at that moment.

"We made the decision coming out of the half to have [the Badgers] play offensive football in the student section in the fourth quarter, and I just felt like that was that was really the decision-making piece of it, and I really didn't want to screw it up," Campbell said. "I think you can debate the heck out of it because I have, to be honest with you, for the last 48 hours.

"But I still feel like, with the flow of the game, what was going on, that's really why I kind of thought, you know what, we're not going to screw around here. We're going to try to make sure we pin these guys back, give our defense an opportunity to go play great defense and get the ball back, which we did."

Which is true. Penn State forced the Badgers to punt on their next series, and linebacker Tony Rojas intercepted Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph on the series after that. But the decision went against Campbell's history at Iowa State.

Penn State Nittany Lions linebacker Tony Rojas (13) intercepts the ball during the fourth quarter against the Wisconsin Badgers at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Cyclones ranked third or better in the Big 12 from 2023-25 in fourth-down conversion success. They led the conference in 2024, converting 80 percent of their fourth-down attempts (20 of 25) en route to making the Big 12 title game.

"I'm always going to support whatever he wants to do," Penn State offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser said, "and he's gotten here because his gut is rarely wrong."

One question that lingered about the fourth-down call, though, involved calling timeout. Penn State started the fourth quarter on fourth down, and Campbell said that he was "50-50" about going for the first down following television timeout.

Wisconsin's defensive formation changed his mind, so Campbell called a timeout instead of taking a delay-of-game penalty and punting from the 33-yard line instead of the 38.

"I didn't want to try to draw them offsides because I didn't want to have a situation where we could go offsides," Campbell said. "... And I didn't want to put ourselves in a crappy situation there. So that's really what I saw, and it's why I ended up taking the timeout there and punting the football away rather than either taking the 5-yard penalty [for delay of game] or trying to draw them offsides."

Playing not to "screw it up"

"Offensively, we just couldn't find a flow in the game," Penn State coach Matt Campbell said about his team's loss to Wisconsin.

Here's Campbell on getting it back.

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Campbell clearly was playing defense-and-field-position football in the second half. He said that outright Tuesday. Penn State twice ran James People on third-and-11 and third-and-12, gaining 7 yards and punting on both series. Campbell defined those as situational decisions but questioned them Tuesday upon further review.

"You're playing with such a lead early on that you don't want to screw it up, right?" Campbell said. "And you're playing such great defense, and you're putting yourself in such a great situation that you felt like the flow of the game, the turnovers, you just wanted to keep playing field position a little bit and continue to put yourself in a great situation.

"I go back to, what's the head coach's responsibility? The flow of the game, and it's like, I don't know if I did a good enough job as the head football coach conducting the flow of the game at times. So I think that's a great reflection. Should we have pushed the ball down the field in some of those situations more? I will say a couple of those runs were close to hitting, and I think those weren't bad calls by any stretch of the imagination. But I just think the flow of the game got weird a little bit in the football game."

Mouser sounded as though he made those third-down run calls grudgingly.

"As cowardly as it feels from my standpoint to do that, which I'm telling you that is the case, and sometimes similar to the fourth-and-one question, it's the flow of the game," Mouser said. "Campbell had some stat for us from the summer [about] whatever percentage of interceptions happen on third-and-long. And didn't feel like we created a great rhythm in the pass game to be able to go and execute a concept that was third-and-12 plus."

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