Timing may not be everything.
But when you’re on the road in college football, it does account for something. And often, that sum thing adds up to a loss.
Lately, Penn State has not been getting a kick out of its early kickoffs or late kickoffs, especially on the road.
Take its record in those games. Please.
Since 2012, Penn State is 2-6 in road games with a local kick time of 11 a.m. or noon.
And since 2009, Penn State is 4-6 in all games with a kickoff of 7 p.m. or later, including a 1-5 record on the road in games under the lights during that time. (That sole win was against Rutgers in 2014.)
Those numbers came to mind recently when the start times for five of Penn State’s 2016 games were announced. The Nittany Lions already have a pair of noon games – at Pitt on Sept. 10 and at home against Maryland on Oct. 8.
And they have three night games already on tap – at home in Beaver Stadium against Ohio State (8 p.m., Oct. 22) and Iowa (7:30 p.m., Nov. 5), and on the road against Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J. (7:30 p.m., Nov. 19).
There’s enough recent history with each of those teams to cause room for concern. Ohio State and Iowa went a combined 24-3 in 2015, and despite a herculean effort two years ago, a sanction-weakened Penn State has lost three consecutive 8 o’clock contests to the Buckeyes.
In 2014, Maryland beat Penn State 20-19 for the Terps’ first-ever win in 22 attempts inside Beaver Stadium. And that was a noon kick. And it’s been 16 years since the Nittany Lions played Pitt (won 12-0 by the Panthers in Three Rivers Stadium in a 3:30 p.m. kick).
EARLY BUT NOT OFTEN
The Nittany Lions have gone just 2-6 in early road games since 2012 – with wins over Illinois and Indiana, and losses to those two schools, as well as to Virginia, Minnesota, Northwestern and Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
Hardly a Murderers’ Row. Early kickoffs usually mean weaker opposition. However, that is not the case for the Nittany Lions’ first guaranteed noon road game of the 2016 season, which is against Pitt. There’s a lot on the “Dominate The State” line in that contest slated for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field. So you would think it won’t be a tough task for the Nittany Lions to come out of the gate strong in that one and ready to play.
But, as recent history indicates, it could be. Both Bill O’Brien and James Franklin are 1-3 at Penn State in road games starting at noon or earlier. At Vanderbilt, however, that’s where Franklin shined. From 2011-13, Vandy was 6-2 in games beginning before noon.
Of course, there’s nothing more challenging than playing on the road, in a hostile environment while your circadian rhythms are out of sync.
In its 11 a.m. game at Northwestern in 2015, Penn State started slowly, trailing 20-7 at halftime while punting seven times and earning just six first downs in the first 30 minutes. Penn State dominated the second half, but Northwestern won on a 35-yard field goal with nine seconds left in the game.
Slow starts – admittedly against good competition – plagued Penn State down the stretch last season, as it scored just 20 first-half points in its final three road games combined (10 vs. Michigan State, 3 vs. Georgia). Against Northwestern, it was something Franklin anticipated the week of the game.
“We’re playing an hour earlier in the morning than we usually play, so the game is going to come fast,” he said the Wednesday of that week. “What you have to be careful of is that a lot of times when you’re playing on the road in this type of environment and playing at that time of the day, a lot of people have opened up slowly. They sleepwalk through the first quarter, so we’re talking to our guys about that – about being prepared and being ready.”
Dating back to 2005, Penn State is 13-9 in road games with an 11 a.m. (6-6 record) or noon (7-3) kickoff. During that same time span, Penn State was 29-7 in home games with a noon kick. Often, those home contests featured weaker and/or non-conference competition – although the 2015 Michigan-PSU game in Beaver Stadium started at noon – and were Big Ten Network fodder.
NOT VERY MANY LATELY
The flip side of those early games are the ones that start under the lights at 7 or 8 p.m. Those are the big-name match-ups saved for the prime-time audiences of ESPN and ABC.
Night games have been a rarity at Penn State lately. The Nittany Lions have had just three night games in Beaver Stadium since 2010, beating Michigan 41-31 in 2010 and Rutgers 38-3 last season, while falling to the Buckeyes in overtime, 31-24, in 2014.
Since defeating six-ranked Ohio State 17-10 at home at night in 2005, Penn State has hosted only five night-time contests at Beaver Stadium. Since then, the Nittany Lions are 6-8 in all games beginning at 7 or 8, including a 2-3 mark at home. And it won’t get any easier in 2016.
