Penn State has changed a lot since the start of the 2025 college football season. James Franklin is gone, and Drew Allar is now in the National Football League.
Now, the attention turns to the 2026 season, and for the Nittany Lions, one of the big storylines will be how new quarterback Rocco Becht performs. He came to Penn State with his head coach, Matt Campbell.
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There are plenty of ways to measure a QB’s talent, including the NFL Draft and early projections for college QBs. Jordan Reid at ESPN ranked the top college quarterbacks by round, and Behct got a spot, but it was late Day 3.
“Round 6: Rocco Becht, Penn State. Katin Houser, Illinois. DJ Lagway, Baylor. Demond Williams Jr., Washington,” Reid projects.
Becht places alongside a few other notable quarterbacks, with Lagway the most intriguing one by far, as he was once viewed much higher than this.
Looking around at some of the other quarterbacks in college football, Becht got a round better grade than Aidan Chiles of Northwestern, Brendan Sorsby, Gunner Stockton of Georgia, and Jaylen Raynor, his Iowa State replacement.
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The new Penn State QB is one round behind Josh Hoover of Indiana and Kevin Jennings of SMU. There are 15 other college quarterbacks ranked ahead of Becht, as the Penn State QB likely comes in around 18-22 on Reid’s QB ranking for the NFL Draft.
While there is a difference between NFL Draft value and college football value, it is a good look into which quarterbacks have the highest upside and most intrigue.
Allar last year had first-round buzz heading into the season, but 2025 was a disaster, and he fell down the board.
The opposite could happen to Becht, who could climb this board a bit if he can have a career year with Penn State.
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That would mean he’d have to throw for over 3,505 yards, 25 touchdowns, and have a 63.0% completion percentage or higher while throwing eight or fewer interceptions. Add in eight-plus rushing touchdowns, and a career year for Becht would be a great one.
But at least for now, heading into the 2026 college football season, Reid has Becht ranked as a sixth-round quarterback, late on Day 3 of the NFL Draft. It’s a low evaluation, but the Senior QB who transferred from Iowa State has room to grow.
