Take out Jahan Dotson, take out five Penn State defensive starters, subtract a few injured players here or there. What you’re left with is the team Penn State will take the field with against Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in the Outback Bowl.
A win would push the Nittany Lions to 8-5 on the year, a loss would give Penn State a 7-6 record and a second-straight season ending around the .500 mark. This game will come with a bit of an asterisk if Penn State loses, but a win could go a long way towards rebuilding some lost momentum over a year that was not short on ups, downs and almosts. Here are five things to watch as the two teams take the field to close out their respective seasons.
Do They Care?:
In a lot of ways this might be hard to quantify because losing or getting beat – let alone getting beat because half your defense opted out of the game – doesn’t mean you didn’t care. That being said it is what it is – Penn State has had a bad season by its own standards, will be playing without its best player and half the starting defense. If there was ever a game to mail it in for, it might be this one. That doesn’t mean the Nittany Lions will, but no small part of this game rests of how much Penn State cares about it in the first place. The Nittany Lions have gotten up for the big games but have struggled in ones where they haven’t had the same urgency to be excited. Couple this with Arkansas having much more positive momentum heading into Saturday and it could be a recipe for a quick afternoon. Time will tell.
Introduce Yourself:
Truth be told when James Franklin announced that Olu Fashanu would be starting at left tackle probably two-thirds of the Penn State beat had to do a quick roster look-up to figure out who the redshirt freshman was. While tuned-in fans might have a good idea of who some of Penn State’s replacement players are, a defense without five usual starters is going to include a lot of new names in bigger roles. Time will tell how much this game actually ends up foreshadowing Penn State’s 2022 defense but there’s no better time to make an introduction than a bowl. Can any of the new guys step up?
Start Well:
From the perspective of trying to win the game itself, Penn State will want to start well and give its patchwork defense something to work with. That doesn’t mean the Nittany Lions will need to be leading from the front all day, but Penn State’s offense managing to move the ball and give Arkansas something to think about could help settle some nerves. Go behind early, especially by multiple scores, and it could be a tall order to ask this group to make that comeback. Penn State doesn’t have to score on its first drive, but not going three-and-out sure would help.
Red Zone:
Penn State’s defense was among the best in the nation at red zone defense, but obviously that group is going to be vastly different on Saturday than it was all year. Meanwhile Arkansas has the No. 14 red zone offense in the nation which makes it the third-best that Penn State has seen all year just behind Michigan and Ohio State. The Razorbacks score touchdowns on 65% of their red zone trips which is 41st in the nation, but score 91% of the time overall, that’s the second-best mark in the SEC just behind Alabama by .50 percent. Can this Penn State gets some stops in the red area?
No Time Like The Present:
Sean Clifford hasn’t been healthier since the season started, Arkansas is No. 45 in the nation in scoring defense and the Nittany Lions are going to need to score points in order to stay in a game that will include a whole host of new defenses faces. No, Penn State doesn’t need to run the ball well, but it does need to move the ball and score. Maybe that’s obvious, but after a season’s worth of Penn State’s defense keeping the Nittany Lions in games, Saturday would be the time – and the last chance – for this group to pull its weight in a game and hold up the defense for a change. This is where having a quarterback like Clifford is supposed to help and be a difference maker. Not having Jahan Dotson won’t help any, but Clifford won’t be short on other options if he can find them.
