For Penn State, a Few Wrinkles Are Always Part of Trying to Pull Off Upset

When Penn State faced Central Michigan earlier this season, head coach Jim McElwain almost certainly knew that his team wasn’t going to beat the Nittany Lions doing things business as usual. So the Chippewas pulled out all the stops, a few trick plays here, a few unexpected motions there. In the end it wasn’t enough to beat Penn State, the Nittany Lions still winning 33-14 with relative ease, but Central Michigan had its moments thanks in no small part to the unexpected.

As Penn State faces Ohio State this weekend the dynamics are not all that different than what Central Michigan faced. The gulf between the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes might not be quite as wide but the challenges for James Franklin and his staff are not all that dissimilar. How do you beat a team that is better than you? How do you find success when you might not be able to do everything that you want? Sometimes the answer is do things you haven’t done before.

“You’re going to have to do some things this week on offense and defense and special teams that are going to give Ohio State pause. [Make them say] what are they doing here? That’s not what we expected,” Franklin said after practice on Wednesday. “Whether that is a different formation to run the same play or a different motion to run a play or a different personnel group or whether that’s a different scheme that we run this week that we haven’t shown out of a similar formation per personnel group.”

Of course there is a delicate balance to all of this. Make things too weird or too unique and you end up getting away from what you’ve been practicing for months on end. As Franklin noted, having tenancies usually also means you have things that you’re good at. Get too far away from those things and suddenly you don’t know what your strengths are anymore.

But wrinkles, or new ways of doing things, sprinkled in with new ideas all together can sometimes be just enough of a special sauce. Especially against a quarterback in C.J. Stroud that Penn State will need to throw off his Heisman favorite game.

“Defensively a different front or different blitz package,” Franklin added. “You’re definitely going to try and do some things that give them pause as a coaching staff and give them hesitation as players. Hopeful the quarterback you can do some things pre snap that he’s not as confident with what you’re going to do post snap. That’s when people talk about at quarterbacks but it’s really at every position, when does the game slow down for them, when they’re able to anticipate. They’ve got a pretty good idea pre snap what you’re going to do post snap.”

When it’s all said and done a few new looking plays or unexpected wrinkles might extend a drive or two, but if Penn State will want to pull off the upset this Saturday, it’ll have to do it with good ole fashion execution. Because like Central Michigan found out earlier this year, a few good plays here or there will only get you so far.