FTB’s Rapid Reaction/Stream of Consciousness After Maryland Gave Penn State a Swirly and Took the Nittany Lions’ Lunch Money.

• To us, it’s not “Prisoner of the Moment” to at least wonder whether this is the worst loss in Penn State football history. We’re not necessarily saying it is, but it’s not a ridiculous question to ask, either. Off the top of our head, Toledo 2000 came to mind….but that Toledo team (which finished 10-1) is probably better than this Maryland team. What other loss would rival this one?

• In our post-Indiana DISPENSING THOUGHTS, we wrote: “A mature team absorbs this and gets better…not sure this is a mature team, though.” Looks like our hunch was spot on.

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Everyone has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth. Well, for Brent Pry and the Penn State Defense That Punch Landed on Play One and Kept the Nittany Lions Off-Balance All Night Long.

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE

First, a little perspective. 

The sky isn’t falling. The Penn State defense we all saw Week 1 wasn’t a mirage. This is still an above-average unit littered with NFL talent and very well could be the best defense of the James Franklin Era by December…assuming we get to December.

But, man, Justin Fields is so damn good. No, not good…he’s great. The GREATEST quarterback in Ohio State history. Anyone who argues otherwise just wants to be a contrarian jerk. 

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Winless After Two Weeks, Penn State’s Offense Can’t Play Out the Season for Pride Alone…They Need to Play Out the Season with Notable and Exponential Progression. 

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE

Not trying to get all Tony Robbins on you – frankly, I don’t have the enthusiasm or enormous teeth to pull off such phony positivity – but let’s start this week’s scout by taking a sip from a glass that’s half-full, not half-empty:

Maybe, just maaaaybe, 2020 Kirk Ciarrocca and 2016 Joe Moorhead are traveling the New System/New Coordinator Learning Curve at the exact same rate.

Because once each of their tenures hit the 90-minute mark, both guys’ offenses turned a major corner.

Hear me out.   

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FTB’s Rapid Reaction/Stream of Consciousness After Penn State Proved to be More Trick Than Treat Against Ohio State.

• I can’t remember a bigger gut-punch first play to start a big Penn State game than Garrett Wilson’s 62-yard run. Set the tone for the long evening and sucked the air out of Beaver Stadium…oh wait.

•  The ease and regularity of elite quarterbacks transferring is the reason why the gap between Tier 1 Programs and Tier 1A Programs is widening in college football – because you’re no longer penalized for “misses” in recruiting. Don’t have a QB you trust? Grab disgruntled Justin Fields, Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray. It’s the ultimate mulligan.

• Speaking of…because I’m gainfully employed (for now, anyway) I don’t spend a lot of time surfing Georgia message boards. But I gotta assume keyboard commandos have been MAULING Kirby Smart for letting Justin Fields slip out of Athens. In 2018, Dabo Sweeney and Smart were presented with the EXACT same scenario: Stick with the established (but limited) winner, or go with the green generational talent?  Dabo chose the latter (Trevor Lawrence over Kelly Bryant), and Kirby chose the former (Jake Fromm over Justin Fields). Kirby chose wrong. Dabo chose wisely.

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One Last Look at Saturday’s Mess – This Time With an Eye on the Nittany Lions Defense – Before We Bury The Ball, Burn the Tape, and Convince Ourselves the Season Can Still be Salvaged. 

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE

Just let this sink in…if Devyn Ford does the right/smart thing and belly flops on the 3-yard-line, Penn State’s defense would have held Indiana to less than 150 total yards of offense.

(Stares into space for 3 minutes…)

I’m too tired/still-not-over-Saturday to type something clever about that stat, so let’s just get to the damn review. 

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It’s Not the Debut We All Expected, but the Show Must Go On. Film Shows Plenty of Room for Improvement and Plenty of Reasons to be Optimistic.

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE 

For those expecting us to spew venom for the next 1,900 words, you got the wrong blog. 

Because for as frustrating as Penn State’s bed-wetting in Bloomington was on Saturday, the offense wasn’t the 1970 Gremlin sporting a duct-taped bumper many message-board Marthas (we’re taking back Karen for all the Karens out there) claimed it to be. 

Kirk Ciarrocca’s Lions gained 488 total yards against a veteran defense. In 2019, Penn State failed to reach that yardage mark in 9 of 13 games. Two of the games they did (Idaho and Maryland) shouldn’t even count. So just calm down and let us offer some perspective. Film review shows the offensive line fluctuated between Very Good to Dominant – despite a lot of negativity heaped on this group after the game, the Penn State skill players were pedestrian at best, and Sean Clifford was Sean Clifford.

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Editor’s Note: Each Saturday FTB will release rapid, unfiltered stream on consciousness notes after every Penn State game. We picked a helluva day to debut this segment, huh?

• I really don’t know how that last 2-point conversion (ruled a successful try) isn’t overturned. YOU COULD NOT HAVE A BETTER CAMERA ANGLE! If I was an Indiana fan, and I saw the initial replay, the first words out of my mouth would have been, “Ugh, we lost.” If Sean Clifford was the one carrying the ball, the first words out of my mouth would have been, “Ugh, we lost.” What exactly am I missing here?
• Franklin’s running back rotation continues to make absolutely NO SENSE.  Caziah Holmes gets benched for a fumble that isn’t a fumble. Keyvonne Lee flashes a hot hand in the 2nd quarter then he’s exiled until the 4th. BUT Devyn Ford makes a completely bonehead and SELFISH play, and he’s out there to start overtime.
• I hated the play on 2nd and inches with 11 seconds left in regulation. Hand the ball off and get 3-5 yards! Penn State was out of timeouts, but a first down pauses the clock temporarily, leaving more than enough time to spike and send the FG team out. The line to gain is literally inches away. Instead Ciarrocca calls a play with .0001 percent chance of success. Stout kicks a FG 2 yards shy of being good. Seems like those extra yards via the handoff might have mattered.

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Editor’s Note: Each week during the season, the FTB Staff will release its scouting report on Penn State’s upcoming opponent. Normally, these blogs will be posted at 11 a.m. EST Thursday and Friday…but we’re a little premature this week. Hey, happens to the best of us. 

Before Indiana caught up with the Joneses and finished construction of its new football facility in 2018, the coaching staff had their offices buried on the ground floor of Memorial Stadium. I know this because work took me there in 2004.

Though dated, the place wasn’t bad. It had chairs and furniture and a pleasant receptionist. Down the hallway, to the left, was a trophy case. It contained what you might expect. Lot of Randle-El stuff. Lot of Anthony Thompson stuff. If there was a second trophy case, I don’t remember it.

Across from there, large framed team photographs of every Indiana bowl team hung on the wall. John Pont’s 1967 Rose Bowl Team. Lee Corso’s 1979 Holiday Bowl team. Bill Malory’s final bowl team – the 1993 Independence Bowl squad. Then, there was another picture frame…except it didn’t have a picture. No, it had a question mark. The gold-plated placard at the bottom read, “Indiana’s Next Bowl Team,” or maybe it said “Indiana’s First Bowl Team This Century.” Doesn’t matter. Point is, the frame was empty…and let’s face it, a little cringy.

More than motivational – which I assume was the intent – the “Next Team” frame felt more like a stark reminder that there’s always going to be a low ceiling of expected success at Indiana.

Although, if there’s ever a year Indiana could bust through that low clearance, it’s 2020.

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Fox 8 New Orleans Sports Reporter/AP Poll Voter/Friend of the Blog Garland Gillen Spoke With FTB About the Big Ten’s Place in the Rankings and the Tough Task of Picking 25 Teams When Everyone Isn’t Playing 

FTB: How have you handled placing Big Ten teams in your Top 25 considering the on-off-then-on-again nature of the conference’s season?

GG: It’s been difficult. Initially, the AP preseason poll came out before the Big Ten’s decision to cancel the 2020 Fall season, so you saw a lot of Big Ten teams in the poll. To be honest, before COVID forced conferences to mess with all the schedules I had a Big Ten team, Ohio State, as preseason No. 1 in my poll that I submitted. 

Then, they told us to take the Big Ten out when they decided they were going to punt on the season. So for a lot of September, I didn’t have any Big Ten teams in my rankings…not until they changed their mind and decided they’re playing again. So I have Big Ten teams in my poll right now, but there are some AP voters who are only including the teams playing on Saturdays – so no Big Ten. That’s their right. They can do that.

FTB: So if not every AP voter is including the Big Ten currently, do you expect Big Ten teams to shoot up in the polls after this Saturday?

GG: Probably. If you look at the latest AP poll, you have all these Cinderella teams – teams like BYU and Cincinnati – ranked higher than they normally are in mid-October because 2/5ths of the Power 5 conferences aren’t playing yet. Are the darlings like Coastal Carolina going to hang around in the poll once the Big Dogs start rolling this weekend?

You look at Ohio State. If they smoke Nebraska by 40, they’re probably going to catapult a team like Notre Dame who has looked shaky, and a one-loss Georgia. If Wisconsin does what they’re supposed to do against Illinois on Friday, then they probably leapfrog No. 12 BYU. The Big Ten is the new shiny thing this weekend, so you’ll see a real bump for those teams in the rankings assuming they look good. 

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