The nothingburger of the week was made from James Franklin’s comments on the way an unnamed conference opponent (rhymes with “Witch again”) schedules, er, less than staunch non-conference opponents. A few media outlets twisted the remarks to make it seem as though the Penn State coach was taking a shot at, um, the Jewel Vereens, when in fact Franklin was actually complimenting the program for a strategy he has used consistently since he arrived nine years ago.
Which brings us to Saturday’s game against the fighting Minutemen of Massachusetts, who put up about the resistance most expected (almost none) in a 63-0 loss to the Nittany Lions. When Penn State put this game on the schedule in January 2019, UMass had been an FBS program for only five seasons and had won a total of 16 games in that time period. Since that time, the Minutemen are 4-44, including Saturday’s loss.
In a brief and half-hearted defense of Franklin, and the coach he wasn’t taking a shot at, and basically the heads of all Power 5 programs, I get it. There is no point in going out of your way to schedule difficult non-conference games if A) Everyone else is doing it and B) Your conference schedule has the juice to get you to a playoff on its own.
Among a slew of comfortable, forgettable wins against schools from Indiana, many Big Ten-era Homecoming games have found their way into Penn State history.
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For those fortunate few who call Happy Valley home, the rhythm of life – whether you like it or not – inevitably attunes to the ebb and flow of the campus calendar. As someone who very intentionally chose to take root in a college town, I love it. There are two times of the year in particular – Commencement and Homecoming – that cause me to reflect on how my experience differs from most.
In mid-May, as I watch young graduates who’ve come to the end of their four(-ish) years in the Nittany Valley pack up whatever contents of their apartments won’t be left out on the curb and drive off toward whatever’s next, I always think to myself, “I wonder what that’s like.”
You see, many moons ago, I took a course taught by Steve Manuel, who some alums may remember from his teaching, and many football fans will recognize, even if they don’t realize it, from his years’ worth of game day photography, as featured by The Football Letter among others. Steve is a Marine. Smart, no-nonsense guy; good sense of humor, loves Penn State. In class, he told us Happy Valley was “the Good Ship Lollipop,” a fantasy land largely divorced from the harsh realities of the outside world. He drew the contrast to be instructive and always with an air of cynicism, but I also detected (or imagined I did) a hint of affection accompanying it.
It got me thinking. “If you find yourself lucky enough to be a passenger on the Good Ship Lollipop, maybe the savvy move is to just never disembark.” And so here I am, over 20 years later, and happy as a pig in slop.
While the Penn State defensive coordinator’s ‘line games’ often appear like a jumbled, nonsensical mess, there’s actually a method behind the madness.
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Defensive statistical accolades roll call (trumpet sounds):
Through the first quarter of the 2023 season, Manny Diaz’s Penn State defense stands tall at No. 1 in total defense.
The Lions also rank No.1 in the FBS in passing yards allowed.
More? OK, more: Penn State is No. 3 nationally in sacks per game, No. 3 in defensive EPA, No. 1 in passing dropback EPA, No. 2 in scoring defense, No. 11 in Red Zone defense, No. 2 in first downs allowed per game, No. 14 in third down conversions per game, No. 5 in opponent time of possession, No. 1 in yards per play allowed…
(pauses for a sip of water)
…No. 6 in opponent punts per play, No. 15 in tackles for loss per game, No. 8 in third-down conversion percentage, No. 10 in takeaways, No. 4 in rush yards allowed per game, No. 7 in opponent completion percentage.
Stats are fun. Stats of both the basic and advanced varieties can, if interpreted the right way, tell you a lot about a team. The ways that most sports are played and coached today are as influenced by statistics as they’ve ever been, and that includes football, perhaps the last bastion of the old-school, “go with your gut” mindset that sounds cool but doesn’t really mean anything unless you win the game.
A lack of stats can also be very telling … but not always in obvious ways.
Take the Big Ten defensive statistics, for example. The list of the top 25 leading tacklers does not include a single Penn State player, nor do the lists of leaders in passes defended or interceptions. No Nittany Lion has more than 2.5 sacks, and only Zane Durant (4.5) and Adisa Isaac (4.0) are among the top 25 in the conference in tackles for loss. In fact, Penn State’s leading tackler through five games, Curtis Jacobs, has 11 fewer stops than the 25th player on the conference tackles list, Michigan State’s Dillon Tatum, and 44 fewer than the Big Ten leader, Iowa’s Jay Higgins.
Why? Penn State’s defense simply doesn’t spend a lot of time on the field these days.
Despite the insistence of some cantankerous columnists, Penn State hasn’t exactly shied away from facing their former archrival.
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Let’s get one thing out of the way right up front: If any of the charming folks who represent the Pitt fanbase online come across this week’s column, it will undoubtedly provoke some comments that they are living “rent free” in my head.
Don’t get it twisted; invited guests don’t have to pay rent.
I grew up with the Penn State-Pitt rivalry and remain steadfast in my nostalgia for intense battles played out in the late November chill. I’m writing this piece because Pittsburgh columnists setting Twitter ablaze with rhetorical Molotov cocktails and Penn Staters responding in kind is all in good fun.
To me, the gridiron animus between two great Pennsylvania universities symbolizes everything good about college football. If I had my druthers, the teams would play every year, ideally at the end of the regular season. Based on many in-person and virtual interactions with many Penn State alumni and fans over many years, I am confident that this puts me in the minority.
As far as I can tell, the number of Penn State fans who remember or care about a time when Pitt-Penn State belonged in the same conversation with Alabama-Auburn, Ohio State-Michigan, or Florida-Florida State dwindles with each passing year. The Nittany Lions are about to begin their fourth decade of membership in the ever-expanding Big Ten, and the prospect of future games against USC or Oregon generates much more excitement than the memory of dormant rivalries from the analog age. Today’s college seniors were born after 9/11. Games involving Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino mean little to them. Much of Nittany Nation has moved on.
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To quote novelist Charles Dickens, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…depending on what side of the number you were on.
Man, it had been a good 6 or 7 minutes since I saw something rile up and divide the always-sensible, level-headed Twitter/X community the way Penn State’s cleverly-designed, spread-covering 4th quarter TD pop pass from backup Beau Pribula to backup Trey Potts did. Oh boy, you were either BIG mad…
Second time this year James Franklin has run up the score so Penn State covers the spread.. If I'm an opposing player/coach and someone pulls this (fake taking a knee) up 21.. There is going to be a price to pay. Classless! https://t.co/cX6HFH33Ov
— Cʜᴜᴄᴋ ᴅᴏᴜɢʟᴀs ✪ (@ChuckDouglas_) October 1, 2023
Or, um, whatever the opposite of BIG mad is (BIG happy?)…
Me when penn state hit the fake kneel to cover yesterday https://t.co/WJHj8lasa1
— The Franchise (@Kfrancis09) October 1, 2023
As Penn State piled up points and yards against outmatched opposition during a 4-0 start, pundits and grumpy fans who needed to pick nits pointed to the lack of explosive plays from the offense, which didn’t get the Nittany Lions in much trouble against the soft early part of the schedule but did not seem to bode well for the tougher sledding ahead. At the time, especially given those insane victory margins, they seemed just that: nits to pick.
The Lions’ slow-start win at Northwestern, however, revealed the dirty little secret they’d done a pretty good job of keeping through the first month of the season:
This team is going to struggle to generate explosive offensive plays because it doesn’t have explosive playmakers.
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• Thanks to the 4th Estate assigned to cover all the ins and outs/nooks and crannies/snaps crackles and pops of Penn State Football, we learned this week that the Gen Z Nittany Lions are huge fans of cranking the loud speakers up to 11 and blasting Phil Collins at practice. Who knew? Since that’s the case, might we suggest skipping the haunting tones of In The Air Tonight or sick synth beats of Sussudio and instead just play Land of Confusion on a continuous loop this week and next? Because no song title hits the nail on the head better when it comes to describing the current state of the Penn State offense.
• Yes, the Nittany Lions pushed their FBS-best streak of 30+ point games to 12 today. But it wasn’t easy. And it definitely wasn’t pretty. EVERYTHING THE OFFENSE DOES JUST SEEMS HARD. I don’t know how else to explain it. Zero flow. Zero rhythm. Zero consistency. Zero identity. As we wrote in our ‘Dial M For Methodical’ blog post earlier this week, “…like a disgruntled significant other who sat you down for one of those ‘We Need To Talk’ talks, it’s not just ONE thing. It’s a lot of things.’”