Penn State heads into the weekend looking to go 4-0 on the year after a difficult opening three weeks with road wins over Purdue and Auburn. The Nittany Lions will spend the next three weeks in State College before heading to Ann Arbor for a big time meeting against the Wolverines and look to improve to 5-0 over that span. While Penn State will need to upend Central Michigan and Northwestern in order to make that trip undefeated, that challenge is far more palatable than the opening three weeks and ostensibly far more manageable as well.
Saturday may not have the drama in the cards to the same extent as last Saturday, but here are five storylines to follow all the same.
Can Singleton And Allen Carry The Load?:
For the most part Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen have become Penn State’s two-man running back system but with Keyvone Lee potentially out of the mix this weekend that will leave the door wide open for Singleton and Allen to be the primary backs without much or any real interruption to the young rotation. Junior Devyn Ford figures to be part of the rotation as well in this scenario and that could be an interesting wrinkle as he looks to find his place among a ton of young talent. There’s no reason to think the dynamic freshman duo can’t take care of business without Lee, but Saturday is still noteworthy if he is spending the day watching in street clothes.
Penn State’ Defensive Front Repeat Performance:
Penn State pretty much had its way on Saturday against Auburn and will look to do the same this weekend taking on the nation’s No. 19 overall passing attack. Central Michigan averages just over 311 yards per game through the air and will need to do a bit of both running and passing to knock off Penn State. This will be a good test for Penn State’s defensive front as it looks to not only get pressure on the quarterback but slow down running back Lew Nichols III who led the nation last season in rushing yards. Nichols is No. 37 in the nation in rushing yards per game as it stands today so he’s not quite on the pace he set last season but not exactly struggling to find running lanes either. All the same Penn State will need to be gap sound and be able to pressure the quarterback on Saturday. While Central Michigan might not pose the most intimidating threat compared to Purdue and Auburn, it brings a balanced attack to the table and that means stopping it will require balanced defense.
Slow Down Lew Nichols:
As mentioned above Penn State will get the unique chance to face last season’s national leader in rushing yards Lew Nichols. While Central Michigan has leaned a bit more on the pass this season than the ground game you don’t end up with a back getting nearly 2,000 yards in a season by mistake. The Nittany Lions have generally fared well in recent years against talented running backs – Auburn’s Tank Bigsby the latest – and while Nichols is good he certainly isn’t anything Penn State hasn’t seen before. That being said it’ll be a good day to practice tackling form and an even better day for the Nittany Lions to work on controlling the trenches. Nichols won’t beat Penn State on his own but he sure can extend some drives.
More Time For Allar:
There’s a decent chance if things go well for Penn State that freshman quarterback Drew Allar is going to see the field for a fourth-straight week which seemed almost unheard of a few months ago. Nevertheless Allar has been a regular second half staple since the year began and if Penn State can get the score and time taken care of there’s no reason Allar can’t see some snaps. A thing to watch: Allar has yet to really make a mistake during his time on the field – and there’s nothing saying that will happen Saturday – but it would be interesting to see him have to bounce back from a mistake and have to handle things after a miscue. We’ve pretty well established that Allar can make all the passes, question is how he responds to the not so good moments.
Don’t Put It On Autopilot:
Central Michigan nearly beat No. 12 Oklahoma State but then proceeded to lose to South Alabama before blowing out Bucknell. It’s a bit of a challenge to figure out which one of these things is the best representation of how good Central Michigan is – or isn’t – but Penn State can makes its like easier if it simply takes care of business on Saturday and sets its sights on next week’s meeting with Northwestern by roughly 2-3 in the afternoon tomorrow. There’s no reason to think Central Michigan is going to win, but Penn State can help, or hurt, the likelihood of that occurring. If this is over by halftime things are headed in the right direction.
