Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Home sweet home? Penn State sure hopes so

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - As the calendar turns to October, Penn State's football team gets to spend some extended time at home with two games at Beaver Stadium and a bye week followed by Ohio State's highly anticipated visit to Happy Valley for a "Whiteout" night game.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - As the calendar turns to October, Penn State's football team gets to spend some extended time at home with two games at Beaver Stadium and a bye week followed by Ohio State's highly anticipated visit to Happy Valley for a "Whiteout" night game.

However, the question for the Nittany Lions concerns whether all this home cooking will result in wins to get their season pointed in the right direction. They enter Saturday's game against Minnesota with a 2-2 record after last week's 49-10 rout at Michigan that exposed weaknesses on both sides of the ball.

An examination of the 2016 schedule at the start of the season showed what were believed to be favorable Big Ten home matchups early with the Golden Gophers and Maryland before the bye week. But Minnesota comes in at 3-0 and the Terrapins are favored to get to 4-0 Saturday when they meet Purdue at home.

So things aren't appearing to ease up for the Lions after last Saturday's performance that saw then outgained 515-191. Their season has a chance to go either way in the next two weeks, even though head coach James Franklin's consistent message to his players is putting all their focus on the game coming up.

Tight end Mike Gesicki did allow himself to look ahead during his conference call this week with the media.

"You have to take it one week at a time," he said, "but I also do agree that the next two weeks for our program will be huge for where the season will take us. I think we all understand that and we all kind of see the big picture.

"But right now, we're just kind of focused on what is directly ahead of us and that's Minnesota. We're excited for the opportunity and really excited to be back home at Beaver Stadium and play in front of the home fans, kind of play off the crowd and the energy that you get when you walk in that stadium."

As expected, Franklin didn't bite on talking about the impact of the next two weeks, saying that he "never thought like that every as a coach in this profession or as a player.

"We're excited about playing Minnesota this weekend, really excited about being home, really excited about this opportunity," he said. "That's our focus. Our focus is on Minnesota and we're excited about that."

The Golden Gophers, who are playing their first conference game, entered the season as a dark horse in the Big Ten West to challenge favorite Iowa but right now it appears as if Wisconsin and Nebraska also will be part of the scramble. Minnesota has a strong rushing attack (228 yards per game) and an experienced dual-threat quarterback in fifth-year senior Mitch Leidner.

"He's a big strong quarterback who's willing to run, and that keeps you honest," Franklin said of the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Leidner. "It adds another dimension to your offense and makes him difficult to defend."

Penn State needs to establish the run in their no-huddle offense, and that means the offensive line needs to be more physical and open holes against a Minnesota defense that allows less than 119 yards per game. Saquon Barkley was held to a season-low 59 yards on the ground last week.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq