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Penn State's lackluster showing at Temple reinforced my biggest concern about this year's team and Matt Campbell being new to the Big Ten.
For the record, I do believe Campbell will be successful over the long haul at PSU. He's a good coach and should have the proper resources.
However, I've felt since the day he was hired with him being a new coach at a program this size, with astronomical expectations and playing in a vastly superior league than the Big 12, that Campbell and his gritty band of Iowa State transfers would face a sizable learning curve this year.
Playing Marshall, Temple and Buffalo in the non-conference slate was never going to fully prepare the Lions and Campbell for what they'd see in the Big Ten starting next week. But at least with the 45-0 win over Marshall, we saw Penn State clicking on all cylinders from the get go and dominating a bad team.
That was extremely encouraging.
But against Temple, we saw the Lions come out and lay an egg offensively in the first half, leading just 10-3.
We saw the defense give up an unfathomable 176 yards rushing on the day, hampered by poor tackling.
We saw a starting tailback in Carson Hansen who couldn't fight off contact and went down too easily in the trenches, something that didn't cut it against Temple and surely won't against Big Ten competition.
Let's all rejoice in the fact that Penn State's Big Ten schedule is very easy. There's no Ohio State, Oregon or Indiana, and Michigan doesn't look all that good now.
So, it's still very possible for this team to win nine or 10 games.
Regardless of the weak schedule, these are still Big Ten teams. Campbell and most of these Lions have never faced any of them.
Learning how to play more physical week in and week out likely will be a challenge. Learning how to get up for all of these opponents will be a challenge, because you know they can make their entire season by beating Penn State, so they'll be ready.
Will Campbell and the Lions be ready? I'm not as sure after watching the Temple game.
One thing I am cautiously optimistic about is the defense. Huh? But, what about that terrible tackling at Temple?
I'll be a glass-half-full guy and say the coaches can use that performance as a teaching moment for defenders of how not to play. I do think there are a lot of good players on that side of the ball, and it's not like PSU is playing a bunch of explosive offenses this season, so there will be some margin for error.
I don't see this being a great defense. But given that Rocco Becht is very good and should be able to score points with the offense, the defense only needs to carry its weight in the whole complementary football discussion.
Cory Giger hosts the Blue & White Wrapup postgame show following each PSU game on 101.3 and 107.1 Jack FM.