After Matt Campbell brought Noah Pauley from Iowa State to serve as Penn State\u2019s wide receivers coach in December, it was easy for fans to get excited about the development he could bring to a unit that has underachieved for years now. <\/p>\n
Pauley notably helped produce three NFL draft picks at the position, Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, and Christian Watson, whom he coached at North Dakota State. Unfortunately, Pauley\u2019s time in Happy Valley came to an end before it could even really begin, as he jumped to the Green Bay Packers in February. <\/p>\n
Campbell pivoted to UConn wide receivers coach Kashif Moore, who followed his head coach Jim Mora to Colorado State in the offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Moore was the last guy we interviewed, and I think development was key. [He\u2019s] a guy that has developed his own self into a great wide receiver and had a great playing career,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThen, you saw what he did with those guys at UConn. You watched what some of those guys were able to do at a place where development had to be the key to your success, and I think you\u2019ve seen that early on.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s true that Moore wasn\u2019t necessarily part of the original vision for the coaching staff, it\u2019s clear from his two months with the program that he\u2019s already laid the foundation for the Nittany Lions\u2019 offense to wield a dominant wide-receiving unit in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that group is starting to identify a mentality of how you\u2019re going to block on the perimeter, how you\u2019re going to attack the football, how you\u2019re going to separate at the top of your route,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cAll of those little things have grown immensely and will need to continue to grow if they\u2019re going to be ready to play at the level we\u2019re going to be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But according to Campbell, Moore\u2019s ability to develop the position through instruction suggests a fast-track trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve played it, and then you have the ability to articulate it and teach it, and you watch that teaching progression with your own players, I think those things are really important,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s room consists mostly of underclassmen, with the exceptions of redshirt senior Chase Sowell and junior Brett Eskildsen, both of whom transferred from Iowa State. Arriving late, paired with the need to teach a brand-new offense to players who weren\u2019t in the program the previous year makes Moore\u2019s task difficult. But it\u2019s one he\u2019s devoted to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great opportunity and a challenge. I\u2019m really excited to be able to put my hand in the pile and be a part of these young men\u2019s lives and do something special,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n
That willingness should come as no surprise, given Campbell and Moore\u2019s shared commitment to a holistic coaching style. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about the X\u2019s and O\u2019s,\u201d Moore said. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re here to win games and do something special with the high expectations and high standards at Penn State, but the holistic approach, when it comes to the academics, is holding guys accountable both on and off the field. We\u2019re trying to build future husbands and fathers that are going to be successful people when football is long involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get it twisted, though. Moore means business on the field, too. That starts with curating individual goals for his players, one of those being Chase Sowell. <\/p>\n
Moore said he plans to help Sowell take his game to the next level and achieve a \u201cbreakout\u201d year. Despite spending spring ball recovering from an injury he suffered at Iowa State last year, the Humble, Texas, native shared that it\u2019s easy to buy into Moore\u2019s vision, given his success coaching Skyler Bell at UConn.<\/p>\n
Bell was one of the most productive wide receivers in the country a season ago, totaling 1,278 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns on 101 receptions. He was even nominated for the Biletnikoff Award in 2025, which goes to the best wideout in college football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat there and talked many times about where Skyler [Bell] was last year and where I\u2019m at now. He was also banged up last spring and had a pretty good season, but had some things that he could clean up. Coach Moore told me that they went in, made some goals, and made the process of what they were going to do to get to those goals. He did the same exact thing with me,\u201d said Sowell. <\/p>\n
He also shared that he has his goals displayed on his phone\u2019s home screen as a reminder of the work he still has to put in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a standard he brought that we didn\u2019t have before, and it just holds you to be a great person and a great player,\u201d said Sowell. <\/p>\n
Along with Sowell, wideout Koby Howard is expected to contribute heavily to Penn State\u2019s passing attack in 2026. Moore said Howard\u2019s film stood out to him before even arriving on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cKoby was the guy that stuck out to me. He plays multiple positions, he\u2019s highly competitive, he just wants to be great at football. He\u2019s been doing a really great job this offseason,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n
The sophomore is embracing the challenge of being a young buck who\u2019s trying to take a big leap individually, but also lead the rest of the unit as one of the few returners from the 2025 season in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an interesting spot,\u201d said Howard. \u201d I\u2019m ready to attack it and show the world what I can do. I\u2019m just excited for the season.\u201d <\/p>\n
Moore, Campbell, and offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser all have specifically named Howard as an incredibly hard worker throughout the offseason program, which is something the Pensacola, Florida, native said was instilled in him from a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust having my dad with me, [he] made sure I worked hard at a young age. Coming in [here], I know hard work is going to pay off in the end, so I just try to show off my hard work to the young players now that I\u2019m kind of becoming a veteran in the offense,\u201d said Howard. \u201cHopefully they\u2019ll follow my lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a mix of seasoned leaders, talented young pieces, and a coach with a knack for teaching, Penn State\u2019s wide receiver room has set the table for a bounce-back campaign in 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Matt Campbell brought Noah Pauley from Iowa State to serve as Penn State\u2019s wide receivers coach in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[2786,64015,32965,7,108370,105630,3720,105732,2901,948,2902,118135,118136,2906,3719],"class_list":{"0":"post-871740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-big-ten","9":"tag-brett-eskildsen","10":"tag-chase-sowell","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kashif-moore","13":"tag-koby-howard","14":"tag-matt-campbell","15":"tag-noah-pauley","16":"tag-onward-state","17":"tag-penn-state","18":"tag-penn-state-football","19":"tag-penn-state-wide-receivers","20":"tag-penn-state-wide-receivers-coach","21":"tag-psu","22":"tag-state-college"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116447367896720159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}