Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State Football: What To Watch For During The Pitt Game

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Going into the second week of college football, Penn State versus Pittsburgh might just be the most interesting matchup featuring a Big Ten team. It’s debatable, with Colorado versus Nebraska taking place earlier in the day, but the Keystone Classic is the game that features one of the top teams in the nation.

And in a rivalry environment on the road, a surprising result isn’t out of the question. Especially after Penn State’s lackluster start to the reason, a game that will surely give motivation to Pitt after watching their rivals stumble and nearly fall.

What should be expected from this game?

Pittsburgh rolled over Albany to open up their season, allowing only seven points and shutting out the Great Danes once the first quarter was over. They actually managed to run back the opening kick for a touchdown, which could sum up how the game went in general.

Maurice French, who scored the touchdown on the return, ended up adding to the lead with his second non-receiving touchdown of the day. The score came on an end around run, despite French’ being a receiver. It just goes to show that the Penn State team will need to work on their tackling going into this game, because Pitt has more weapons than Appalachian State did and the margin for error is much lower.

If there’s one player in that receiving corps that Penn State fans should be aware of, it’s Rafael Araujo-Lopes. For a player with only three catches, his stat line was very good. 50 yards overall, and two of those three catches were touchdowns. The number matches his total number of touchdowns from last year, showing that he’ll play a large role as a senior.

Pitt is starting an inexperienced quarterback who only played in four games last season, but that inexperience didn’t really show in the result against Albany. Kenny Pickett threw for 16 completions and a great 72.7 completion percentage, with two touchdowns to one interception.

Safety Nick Scott and linebacker Cameron Brown both had sacks in the Appalachian State game, but a stronger and more consistent performance from the defensive line would work wonders in helping Penn State to avoid another scare. One area where Penn State should have an advantage, however, is the running game.

No back finished with more than 100 yards, but the Penn State running backs were good when they needed to be. Miles Sanders had two touchdowns, while Ricky Slade scored in his very first game as a college player and had an average of 6.8 yards per carry with a small sample size. Will Slade get more carries against Pitt?

It wouldn’t be an unwise move from the Penn State staff. While passing ultimately won the game for PSU, it wasn’t consistent and had a sluggish start. Watch for the Nittany Lions to try establishing the run, to avoid putting too much pressure on quarterback Trace McSorley to carry the offense in the absence of NFL draftee Saquon Barkley.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the game is in Pittsburgh, and that the atmosphere will be more intense than a normal nonconference game. Penn State might be favored by just about everybody, but in a game like this, the unexpected always seems to happen at some point.

If you have any doubts that Pitt will be playing this game differently, head coach Pat Narduzzi summed it up himself.

“Anyone who wants to argue and say this is no different than any other week, it is. That’s a fact. If you want to ignore that, you can ignore it, but it’s a big game… I think our kids will be excited. They got a great football team. They’re talented, they have great players, and they have a great program, so we’re looking forward to having them come to Heinz Field again.”

What Happened In The Big Ten On The First Saturday?

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The first full weekend of college football is done, and teams from the Big Ten finally kicked off their seasons with some exciting matchups. Some of them were projected from the start to be great games. Others, like Penn State versus Appalachian State, were simply a case of an underdog turning up and not bowing down to the favorite. And then there were some games that were just strange, like the 108 point clash between Ohio State and Oregon State.

What were the biggest moments from the first Saturday?

Matt Canada starts off with a win as Maryland head coach

Maryland is not the team that most would have picked to pull off an upset. Especially not over a team that should have been at least somewhat wary, after losing to the Terrapins last year. But despite all the drama around the team’s coaching staff, and the fairly recent suspension of D.J. Durkin, the team pulled together and managed an upset win in honor of Jordan McNair.

It was a close game but it was one that Texas trailed most of the time. Maryland kept Texas from gaining the lead until the later part of the third quarter, and even then, they would take it back near the start of the fourth. Their quarterback situation was lamented going into the season, and yet Maryland starter Kasim Hill had a higher completion percentage and passer rating than Texas QB Sam Ehlinger. Additionally, Hill threw for no interceptions, while Ehlinger had two.

Despite the game being stopped for over an hour because of the weather, Maryland was able to hold the lead throughout most of the fourth quarter to secure the win. It’s a win that will greatly help the resume of Matt Canada, a figure that many have mixed opinions about after his failed stint at LSU. Now, however, he has a 1-0 record while acting as head coach.

Penn State beats Appalachian State, but not in the way they wanted

The Nittany Lions did what was expected of them and they dispatched their visiting opponents from Appalachian State, but just about nobody within the Penn State fanbase would like to repeat a performance like that anytime soon. It didn’t exactly make the team look good, after all.

Trace McSorley is one of the Heisman favorites this year, and Miles Sanders should be a good enough replacement for number two overall draft pick Trace McSorley, but none of Penn State’s stars really looked like themselves for this game and the offense was sluggish for much of it. The 45 point output doesn’t tell the actual story of the game, because Penn State only did as much as they needed and not even a tiny bit more.

They only managed ten points in the first half, after all. The third quarter went Penn State’s way, but allowing 28 points in the fourth quarter isn’t going to fly when playing against conference opposition, especially elite opponents like Michigan State and Ohio State. On the bright side, the team showed a good amount of resilience to take over during the OT period and put an end to the game.

But everyone, both fans of Penn State and fans of their rivals, know that it never should have reached that point. If the Nittany Lions want to keep their spot in the rankings, they’ll certainly have to avoid letting lower ranked opponents play up to their level as the Mountaineers did.

Michigan State gets past Utah State… Barely

Penn State isn’t the only highly ranked Big Ten team to have some trouble with a nonconference opponent that everyone overlooked. Michigan State was picked by Vegas as the second most likely team to win the Big Ten East, but they had a scare at the hands of Utah State regardless.

Like Penn State, the Spartans did enough to win the game but didn’t do enough to please their fans and critics, their pass defense failing to close out Utah State and quarterback Brian Lewerke throwing an interception that would be returned for a touchdown. The running backs didn’t have the best game either, with top back L.J. Scott finishing with less than 100 yards on 23 carries.

Furthermore, the winning run didn’t come until there were about two minutes left in the game. That kind of close margin just isn’t what any top team wants out of a nonconference game like this, and you can be sure the Spartans will make some tweaks going into their next game.

Will they have a better defensive performance over an Arizona State team that put up 49 points in their season opener? That’s a question that will loom large going into their west coast road trip this Saturday.

Penn State: Herbstreit Favors Nittany Lions In Preseason Predictions

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The Penn State football team has a decent amount of hype going into the 2018 season, and not all of it is coming from the fans of the Nittany Lions. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who is notably a former Ohio State quarterback, was high on PSU when making his preseason predictions. He backed them several times over other teams who are higher in the polls, multiple times in his picks.

It started with picking Trace McSorley for the Heisman trophy. “He’s the Baker Mayfield of this year as far as intangibles, what he means to this team, attitude, how he plays with a chip on his shoulder,” said Herbstreit, drawing a comparison to this year’s number one draft pick. While the two have different playing styles, anyone that’s followed McSorley’s career knows that it’s accurate in that both players are the type who can provide a spark to their team.

Herbstreit elaborated on the attitude that Penn State could have this season, saying that the team could play with an added chip on their shoulder as a response to much of their success over the past couple of years being attributed to Saquon Barkley. With Barkley gone, Penn State has taken a hit in the rankings and even some of their own fans enter the season with less confidence than they had last year.

While he picked Alabama to defeat Clemson in yet another national championship game between two of the dominant teams of the 2010s, Herbstreit did pick Penn State to make the College Football Playoff. “I’m going to go Alabama and Clemson… And then I’m going to go Penn State and Washington.”

According to the AP Poll, Penn State is currently the tenth best team in the country. They narrowly edged out Michigan State and Notre Dame to make the top ten, but they sit below Auburn and Miami. Will Penn State make the playoff this season? We’ll see. But at least one well known member of the media has faith that they will.

Penn State Football: Linebacker Manny Bowen Offers Big Addition For Defense

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The Penn State Nittany Lions have a big addition for 2018, as linerbacker Manny Bowen will return after previously being kicked off of the team.

What happened to Penn State Football’s Manny Bowen in 2017?

Bowen was suspended last season as Penn State prepared to face Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, and was then dismissed entirely without a specific reason being released publicly. Bowen “violated team rules,” and unlike some other cases in college football, the details of those violations didn’t manage to reach the press. The popular rumor is that either academics or drugs were involved.

However, Bowen is back on the team and was listed on the roster during Penn State’s media day, which was held at Beaver Stadium last week. His addition will be important for a Penn State team that loses linebackers Jason Cabinda and Brandon Smith to graduation. With those leaders gone, much of the pressure to lead the position unit will fall on Bowen, who is a senior this season.

“I don’t want any decisions that we make to be need based… I want to do things because they’re the right things to do,” said head coach James Franklin, on the topic of Bowen being allowed back into the team. “We didn’t make it easy on him. I was surprised when he said he wanted to grind this thing out. The easy thing would have been to transfer.”

Franklin also stated that Bowen’s role on the team hasn’t been decided just yet. “I can’t tell what his role on the team is going to be like… I don’t know how this whole thing is going to play out,” he said.

Whatever his role is, Penn State fans will find out on September 1st, when the Nittany Lions host Appalachian State for a mid-afternoon game on college football’s opening weekend. With past 21 starts and plenty of experience, Bowen will surely fit right into a 2018 defense that needs the veteran leadership.