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After Fourth Loss in a Row, Penn State Running Back’s Dad Apologizes for Ripping Rocco Becht on Twitter
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Temple and Penn State football are in a heated competition right now. Who can be Pennsylvania’s most disappointing football team? Pitt is N/A since they’d probably be 7-0 with a healthy Mason Heintschel.
To provide a snapshot of the current Nittany Lions situation, here’s Quinton Martin Jr.’s dad apologizing to quarterback Rocco Becht after ripping him following the Michigan loss:
Wrote the elder Martin, before deleting:
“This kid is just not good, 5yrs in college and he tries to throw to the far hash, he doesn’t have the arm strength, the height, (why a lot of his throws get batted down at the line) and sad to say doesn’t have the IQ. He just isn’t it. Oh and BTW my son only got 2 carries yesterday…”
Martin isn’t entirely wrong because Becht had a rough outing on Saturday night. He finished 28-44 for 267 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. The one Martin is referencing is pretty bad. Becht is facing a three-man rush with plenty of time to throw, then he tries to sling it to the far side of the field:
He fumbled in the fourth quarter also, with Penn State down 3.
Becht has already thrown the ball 210 times this year, and 146 times in Big 10 play. That’s 36.5 passing attempts per game in conference play and it’s way higher than the 28 passes per game he threw on average at Iowa State.
The main problem is that there’s a lot on his plate. Penn State can’t run the football, just 30 carries for 65 yards in this game after 31 carries for 68 yards last week against USC, in a White Out game. The offensive line has been a disappointment and some of the blocking schemes look like Philadelphia Eagles stuff, i.e. wrong fit for the personnel/asking these guys to do too much, Quinton Martin Jr. is stuck behind Carson Hansen and James Peoples, so you can understand the dad’s frustration, even though going on Twitter to rip the quarterback doesn’t help the situation.
That’s why the talk of changing the quarterback feels somewhat flimsy. What’s Alex Manske gonna do when PSU is going for 2.2 yards per carry against Washington and Minnesota? Is he gonna sling the rock 45 times? He’s 6’3″, taller than Becht, and might look like more of a prototypical Big 10 quarterback, but he’s only thrown 19 career passes, and those were against Marshall, Buffalo, and South Dakota.
The Lions might be lucky to get the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Would love to see them play…. Virginia Tech! And James Franklin.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com