Penn State held players-only meeting to get ‘on the same page’ after its loss to Wisconsin
Quarterback Rocco Becht was one of the players who spoke during Monday's players-only meeting and emphasized that it was about understanding another rather than finding a solution.
Penn State coach Matt Campbell and his senior leaders knew they needed to do something after losing to Wisconsin to get the team on the same page.
The solution? A players-only meeting on Monday. No coaches — just teammates hearing each other out and bonding together in the face of adversity.
“Having those player meetings is huge for us because it does bring us closer together,” said quarterback Rocco Becht on Tuesday. “It does [help us] find out about one another, and we just got to continue the grind and move on.”
Becht is one of the key leaders for Penn State, as the redshirt senior has been named a captain for each game this season. He rallied the team together at Temple, and took accountability in the locker room after the loss to Wisconsin.
» READ MORE: Penn State made head-scratching decisions in its first loss. It also exposed glaring weaknesses.
So it’s no surprise Becht was one of the players to speak during the meeting.
“He played a big role,” said offensive lineman Trevor Buhr. “I think overall, we were just kind of making sure we were all on the same page, kind of going over what we had to do, what our goals are getting ready for this week, just making sure everyone’s on the same page.”
Becht said they don’t have regularly scheduled player meetings, but it’s also not the first time the team has met separately. These gatherings come around when the Nittany Lions “feel like it needs to happen,” according to Becht.
But being on the same page means something different to everyone. For defensive tackle Keanu Williams, it means understanding how everyone is feeling, not necessarily having the whole team agreeing on one idea.
“It comes into play in the sense of whatever the problems we’re having, lay it on the table, and we all kind of got to sit here and just talk it out,” Williams said. “Whatever it is we need to talk out, whatever problems we’re having, we need to sit there and be on the same page with that. That’s what I really mean by getting on the same page.”
The players meeting is one example of how Penn State has made an effort as a team to move past the unexpected loss. Running back James Peoples said in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s collapse, everyone handled it differently.
“You don’t want that, what happened last Saturday,” Peoples said. “You don’t want that outcome, but we understand there’s still a lot more ahead of us. So you got to be looking down the line and seeing what you got in front of you to understand, ‘OK, we can’t get stuck in the past.’”
» READ MORE: No. 13 Penn State fumbles a 10-point second-half lead to lose to Wisconsin in Big Ten opener
Starting right tackle Anthony Donkoh, a Penn State returnee, knows what it feels like to have a loss that snowballs into more after last year’s collapse. He doesn’t want that happening this year, but he feels confident moving forward because of how the players have rebounded emotionally.
“I feel like a lot of the guys handled it well this time around,” Donkoh said. “I feel like there’s a lot more emotions last year, and you just felt like a big negative shift, like after a game sometimes.”
“But then like after this loss, everybody is still in good spirits. Like we know that we still have a lot of the season ahead of us. We know that if we just keep our head down and keep working every day, then we’re able to get ourselves out of the situation that we’re in.”
