James Franklin’s goal was to create more offensive plays. The outcome in Penn State’s 56-0 win over Kent State was that and then some. The three keys to offensive dominance — third-down execution, diversified involvement and quick defensive sets — were all checked on Saturday. It was exactly the performance Franklin had hoped for.
But the legitimacy of the Nittany Lions remains ambiguous. Their resume includes a win at West Virginia, a narrow victory over Bowling Green and a blowout against the Golden Flashes. Now that Penn State has followed through, for a game, on all that Franklin asked, is it ready for red-hot Illinois? Next weekend against the Illini, ranked No. 24 before they defeated Nebraska on Friday, should speak volumes about how good this team truly is.
“We went on the road and played in a tough environment and had a win. We played well enough to win last week, but probably not up to our standard, which I’ll admit. And then I thought this week, we did what we needed to do,” Franklin said. “So we got to take all three of those different experiences and learn from them, and then get better this week.”
It wasn’t always pretty. The Nittany Lions threw an interception — an ill-advised Beau Pribula pass underneath — on their first drive and punted on their third. But, soon enough, they stepped on the gas and didn’t look back. Drew Allar played what was maybe the best game of his college career, throwing for 309 yards on 17 of 21 passing and scoring four total touchdowns. Meanwhile, the defense returned to dominance after a dud two weeks prior.
Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton, who were expected to maintain a dominant presence at defensive end, each tallied their long-awaited first sacks of the year. Five players registered pass breakups, two of whom were freshmen, and Penn State controlled the time of possession better than it had in each of its previous two games.
“Everybody’s doing their job, securing tackles, just playing up to our standard. We know what we can do,” Carter said. “We know we can come out here and dominate week in and week out, as long as we play to our standard.”
Everything revolved around total plays, a stat category Penn State won 81-43. With quicker defensive possessions came more opportunities on offense that led to a plethora of receivers seeing the ball. It played out almost exactly how Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki drew it up.
Liam Clifford entered the day without a reception. He caught three for 64 yards and a score. Julian Fleming had touched the ball just once this season, but caught two passes for 60 yards. Omari Evans eclipsed 100 receiving yards for the first time in his career, and Luke Reynolds, Tyseer Denmark and Anthony Ivey all registered their first career receptions.
“I think it boosts everyone’s confidence, especially us as an offense, just seeing how everyone can impact the game in their own separate ways,” Fleming said.
It also adds significantly to the list of receivers the Fighting Illini will have to game plan for. That, and the fact that Kotelnicki has some tricks up his sleeve that can only leave a defensive coordinator scratching his head.
There’s an argument to be made that Kotelnicki shouldn’t have gotten fancy against Kent State, especially after Pribula’s first-quarter interception. But there’s a reason he did. It was completely tactical, another layer to a simple offense filled with quirky gimmicks that make it appear complicated.
The Golden Flashes could only call a timeout after the Nittany Lions moved four of their linemen to receiver, a play originally formatted to appear like a jumbo package they ran against the Mountaineers. It was called almost specifically to give Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry “a lot” of headaches, starting right tackle Anthony Donkoh said.
“He wants everybody to be on their toes,” Donkoh said. “So because we were on the right side, they thought we were just gonna run whatever play we ran last time, and then we shifted over there. So it causes a whole lot of stress on the defense, and they had to burn the timeout because their people were on it the wrong way.”
It’s Henry’s guess what Kotelnicki will call next weekend. And that’s just the way Franklin and his offensive coordinator would like to keep it.
Penn State’s offense is clearly more explosive than it was a season ago. It’s just a matter of putting the ball in Allar’s hands that could be the deciding factor of this team’s fate. On Saturday, it did just that by controlling the time of possession, converting on third down and getting a number of players involved.
The question remains, can the Nittany Lions check those three boxes when it matters?
“We got a really good opponent coming in. I got a ton of respect for them. It’s going to be a heck of a game, but I do think we’ve done what we need to do up to this point,” Franklin said. “It hasn’t always been perfect, but there’s a lot of places in the country right now that would love to be 1-0 this week and 3-0 for the season.”
