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Introduction
Penn State is 3-0 with two wins over ranked opponents! James Franklin’s squad is off to a great start to the year and the Whiteout victory over Auburn keeps the 2021 snowball building. It’s early, but doesn’t this team and this season already feel special? This edition of Penn State football is resilient as evidenced by the fact that the Nittany Lions seemingly had to beat two opponents on Saturday – Auburn and the SEC refs. A team of a lesser caliber would’ve folded after some of the calls (or non-calls), but not this group. They are a team of immense character and are really starting to get rolling. I love that I get to do this every week!
Auburn’s first visit to Beaver Stadium resulted in the sort of back-and-forth, big-swinging bout between two historical college football brutes that made you wonder what the hell it had taken so long to get these two teams together in the regular season. It was a game that came down to the final play but it felt like it would pretty much the whole night, didn’t it?
For all the spectacle the White Out games have delivered during the past two decades, the quality of football and the intrigue of the game script have only rarely matched the atmosphere. Both did on this night, even if the quality of the officiating left you pining for the orderly days of John O’Neill.
We learned a few things about the Nittany Lions during each of the first two weeks and a few more this week. Jahan Dotson applied a few more layers of cement to an already impressive legacy. Noah Cain was quietly brilliant. Joey Porter Jr. and Jaquan Brisker patrolled the secondary with the physicality of linebackers. Even the tight ends showed up! And Sean Clifford served up plenty of dimes and an extra helping of crow for his critics.
If You Can’t Hire The One You Love – Because of a BTS Coaching Search Power Struggle Ripped From the Pages of a ‘Succession’ Script– Love The One You Hired
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Editor’s Note: No Auburn Defense Film at 11 this week because until I slip and fall in the right place I have to keep my 9 to 5 – a job that had me on the road in BFE last week. Planning Offense and Defense Film at 11’s for Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Relationship Tip No. 1: Honeymoon with Akron.
No, not in Akron…unless you got some weird, out-there industrial plight and architectural decay fetish (hey dude, no judgment here). Honeymoon with Akron, perhaps the softest of several OOC schedule-filler marshmallows from the MAC.
That’s what unwanted, unwelcomed, 8th-choice, not-from-‘round-here new Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin arranged Week 1, and 60 minutes and 60 points later Cupid’s arrow pierced the deep-fried hearts of Auburn’s meddlesome, never-satisfied, impossible-to-deal-with boosters…well, for one week, at least.
In the most prolific offensive debut in Auburn history, Harsin and new OC Mike Bobo called plays and pulled levers that amassed 600+ total yards, tallied the most points (60) in a game since 1971, and scored on their first eight possessions. Embattled and often erratic Tigers QB 10-Bo Nix – think Sean Clifford but with better hair – completed 20 of 22 throws vs. the zipless Zips, good for a single-game school record 90.9 completion percentage that really should have been 95.5 percent if Tigers WR 5-Kobe Hudson didn’t Featherstone this dot late in the second quarter.
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Introduction
Ah, Whiteout week. What a time to be on social media. Since Sunday the trash talk has flowed like stock footage of a mountain stream in a 1980s Busch beer commercial (speaking of trash talk, note to Auburn fans: James Franklin has been spouting his 1-0 mantra for years. Get over it). Crowd noise. Stadium size. Speed of athletes. Those trivial topics, and many more, have littered the Twitterverse for days now. One topic, however, that we’ve found to be not only interesting but decently researched has been the Jekyll/Hyde home and away statistical splits of Auburn QB Bo Nix.
The hyperlinked article (above) concludes with the following sentence: Penn State’s pass defense has given up 411 yards in 2 games and ranks no better than 68th nationally against the pass. Let’s see if Nix can take advantage. Fact check: OK that’s technically true. But the context of this stat is lacking. Against FBS competition, the Penn State defense has faced 41 pass attempts per game, which puts them tied for 15th most in the country. The Nittany Lions have allowed 5.0 yards per pass attempt — which is tied for 16th-best nationally — and opposing QBs have posted a collective 95.8 Passer Rating (15th).
So, sure, they’ve given up some yards but – who cares? If Bo Nix throws for 205 yards at 5 YPA, Penn State will win Saturday. That being said, let’s take a real look at the differences between the home and away splits of both QBs spotlighted on college football’s grandest stage – Nix and Sean Clifford. How have Nix and Clifford been in a real context against their opposition? You’re about to find out!
In a Beautifully Boring 44-13 Blowout of Ball State, Penn State’s Offense Kept Plenty of Rabbits Tucked Inside Their Hats for Saturday’s Showdown on College Football’s Grandest Stage
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Wait, that’s it?
THAT’s the dreaded, painful learning curve required to master Mike Yurcich’s high-octane, bombs-away offense — 30 ugly, scoreless minutes in Madison?
You sure? Because when Joe Moorhead piloted this ship back in 2016, it took a good five or six weeks – sans the second-half comeback that wasn’t at Pitt — for the offense to sail straight and find the proper course.
And then last year…actually let’s not talk about last year. We’ll leave the subtle jabs at Kirk Ciarrocca’s jalopy, 3-wheel Dale offense to salty Sean Clifford.
You Can’t Go Home Again, But If You Try Sometimes, You’ll Get What You Need
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I will always look back with deepest fondness on Penn State’s 2005 Big Ten Championship season as a reclamation of something we perhaps all took for granted, coming, as it did, so unexpectedly on the heels of four losing seasons in five years that felt at the time like the inglorious end of the Paterno era. One personal memory from that fall, which has stuck with me for over 15 years, came during the afternoon before the #16 Lions’ legendary home upset of sixth-ranked Ohio State.
As I wandered through the soggy tailgate fields, drinking in the the sights and sounds of celebration undamped by the foggy drizzle, I caught sight of a young man – a student or recent grad, mostly likely – wearing a white hoodie that had clearly been frantically cranked out that week to seize on excitement around the team’s first national ranking in over two years. It bore a message that hit like a thunder clap: The distinctive Nittany Lion logo and, in classic block-collegiate font, “We’re Back.”
That’s it. Simple, beautiful, just like our uniforms. “We’re Back.” I will never forget seeing it, because we were, and we knew it. There was a lot of season left to go, but there was something in the air. It was a statement about the program’s return to national relevance, but also about the people who loved it, neatly summing up where we were physically and psychologically, back in our happy place.
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Introduction
Two weeks. Two quality wins.
Throughout the off-season plenty of Penn State pundits circled the Ball State sandwich date between Wisconsin and Auburn as a potential #TrapGame™. On paper, it was a valid concern. In 2020, the Cardinals went 7-1, won the MAC championship, and capped the season with a convincing bowl victory over shorthanded San Jose State. On top of that, Ball State returned 20 starters this season, 14 of which were “super seasons” as the FS1 announcers mentioned at least 10 times on Saturday. So, they had success and experience. But they didn’t have the talent, strength, speed, or coaching that Penn State had, which might explain why the Lions breezed by the Cardinals for their 300th win in Beaver Stadium. It wasn’t a complete performance, but James Franklin’s bunch showed improvements in certain areas (run game) compared to last week and, most importantly, escaped without any major injuries. The Whiteout awaits Auburn next week but before we get into that, let’s dive into some B10/MACtion crossover excitement!
Quick Hitters
Jordan Stout update: On Saturday our do-everything kicker converted 8 of 9 PAT/FGs, punted 3 times for an average of 51.3 yards, which actually LOWERED his total for the season, and forced a touchback on every kickoff. I will accept NO more Jordan Stout hate.
For only the third time in his career, Sean Clifford completed at least 70 percent of his passes – the other two coming early in 2019 against Buffalo and Maryland. In fact, Clifford’s more-accurate-the-usual afternoon – 21 of 29, 72% completion — marks the 11th time in the James Franklin Era that Penn State’s starting QB hit the 70 percent threshold. Lions are 11-0 in those games
In our Mike Yurcich: QB Whisperer blog post back in August, I predicted the PSU QB stats for the year (all PSU QBs). I wrote they’d average 61% completions (currently 63%); 34 passes per game (currently 32); and 8.5 YPA (currently: 7.8). So, thus far, we’re in the ballpark! We also tabbed Penn State QBs to throw 0.6 INT/game (currently 0!!) and 2.25 TD/game (currently 1.5). It’d be nice to see the TD’s click up a bit but, overall, we are right on pace.
Sure, Eastern Michigan – those guardians of the gray turf – isn’t a powerhouse, but even against a weaker opponent Wisconsin’s defense once again proved they’re the real deal. The Badgers allowed a total of 92 yards and 7 points against the EMU Eagles (they should totally be the EMU Emus). Penn State’s struggled last week (especially in the first half) but I would bet a considerable sum of money that Wisconsin finishes with a top 10 defense nationally.
Week One was a nail-biter. Week Two was a nail-filer.
Penn State wasted little time making a very good MAC team look like a very weak MAC team Saturday in front of the largest home-opener crowd in 13 years, finding the offensive firepower to match another dominant defensive performance in a 44-13 waxing of Ball State. The Nittany Lions out-gained the Cardinals 493-295, won the turnover battle 2-0 and didn’t allow a touchdown until the defensive starters had already called it a day midway through the fourth quarter.
For the second straight week, Sean Clifford had a clean game, completing a high percentage of his passes, none to the other team, and accounted for a pair of touchdowns. The run game, stymied last week by a savage Wisconsin front seven, put 43 yards on the stat sheet on the game’s opening drive and nearly 200 more over the next 55 minutes. Ten receivers caught at least one pass and four of them had at least one grab of 20-plus yards.
It was, in almost every way, the sort of afternoon coaches and fans dream about — pristine September weather, a fired-up and live-football-starved crowd of over 105,000, and a comfortable win that allowed the starters to build confidence and backups to get some well-deserved game reps. And it wasn’t against an FCS opponent, either; Ball State brought 18 starters back from a team that had gone 7-1 last year, including its first bowl victory, and had picked up a win in its first game last week as well.
