Koby Howard's Week One Masterpiece Was a Product of His Offseason

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Koby Howard exploded onto the scene in week one against the Marshall Thundering Herd. For a player who, all of last year, had seven catches for 133 yards and no touchdowns for the entirety of 2025, his game on Saturday should have come as a surprise to nearly everyone.

For head coach Matt Campbell, it wasn't a surprise at all.

Howard finished Saturday's game with six catches, 161 yards, and one touchdown in Penn State's 45-0 victory over Marshall. 

Campbell was asked about the performance on Saturday and, of course, his answer was incredible. He said, "You (fans) get to see today what I get to see is 5:15 in the morning, and (he's) the first guy in the facility catching the JUGS (machine) is Koby Howard. That's been that way since Spring Ball, every day in the summer, and that hasn't wavered as we have gotten to the start of the season."

There is no magic pill in sports. Success is on the other side of hard work. It isn't found through taking shortcuts or the easy way out. It is all the work that is put in before the sun is up, in front of zero people.

If that work is done, genuinely, it makes it feel easy when there are 108,000 people in the stadium, and he is slicing up opposing defenses. 

There seems to be a really great relationship between Howard and Campbell, as Howard himself posted after the game on his Instagram story a thank you to Campbell for giving him the opportunity that he has.

Now, context is always important, especially early on in the season. We aren't going to be prisoners of the moment, realizing that Penn State did what they were supposed to do yesterday against a far inferior opponent. 

This isn't crowning them champions, but it is identifying that they properly used a weapon that was on last year's roster and now has been unlocked under the new coach and the new team.

More importantly, Saturday exposed the personality of this year's team. Penn State fans have been yearning for an explosive team and an explosive program. They have been wanting to be able to compete with the big boys in the conference, and to do that, you need to score points.

The days of the slow, methodical, hard-to-watch offenses are gone. The era is here when Penn State is going to have the ability to turn a football game into a track meet. The main runner in that meet will be Koby Howard; he has earned that right.

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