Big 12 Coach Slams Penn State's Rocco Becht While Dissing Own Conference
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The Penn State Nittany Lions and Oklahoma State Cowboys are two wild experiments to watch in college football this year.
New PSU head coach Matt Campbell brought over 24 transfers from Iowa State. First-year OSU head coach Eric Morris added 17 of his former players at North Texas in the transfer portal.
How 24 former Big 12 players perform in the Big Ten remains to be seen. Morris will hope 17 of his former American Conference players can contend with Big 12 talent.
A defensive coordinator in the Big 12 isn't hopeful of what Penn State quarterback Rocco Becht can do this season via a quote he gave Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. The coach took a shot at his own conference, suggesting Becht and Penn State would have a hard time dealing with the strength of Big Ten defenses.
"He'll be so protected in what they do," the coach said. "I don't think they're going to be very explosive on offense. Physically, the Big Ten's a little different animal."
That last sentence of that quote belongs on a Big Ten billboard. It's a good thing the quote is anonymous, because that's certainly not the message the Big 12 wants to put out after an 11-2 BYU program was left out of the College Football Playoff last season.
Another defensive coordinator who faced Becht in a previous season had more optimistic things to say about the quarterback, though he noted it was a high-risk move for Campbell and Penn State.
"He'd certainly have to be the driving force between Matt trying to change the culture there and get things right, if you can bring a quarterback with that type of experience, but that can go in two different directions," the coach said of Becht.
"If it doesn't go the way it should go, he's going to be the one that's going to fall on the sword."
Becht led Iowa State to an appearance in the Big 12 championship in 2024. With a favorable Big Ten schedule, he should do enough to keep the Nittany Lions in the conversation to be ranked.
A Big Ten championship seems out of reach for Becht. However, a motivated transfer group could further blur the lines between the Power 4 conferences.
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