Imagine playing in the most emotionally charged environment possible as a Penn State football player. That’s what the White Out is for the No. 7 Nittany Lions no matter who it is against, much less the No. 2 Oregon team they faced last week in prime time after three tune-up games.
That game ended in a result that is all too familiar — James Franklin and Penn State faltering when the lights were brightest. Now, it’s time to turn the page to a different challenge: getting up for a maybe 15% full Rose Bowl against a UCLA team that is now without the head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators it started the season with after an 0-4 start.
The Nittany Lions should beat the Bruins easily (if they don’t, it raises serious red flags about their season moving forward), but assuming they do, Penn State has three questions to answer over the next few games before their next key stretch against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 8 Indiana, provided they can navigate Northwestern and Iowa successfully to close out October.
Watch Penn State vs. UCLA live Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming live on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports App and Paramount+ Premium.
The cold, hard facts don’t care about James Franklin’s feelings — and he knows it
Richard Johnson
The most troubling thing is not only has Drew Allar’s development seemingly stalled, it’s that it has done so in spite of what Penn State has put around him in order to be successful. Allar and the Penn State passing game got all new toys this offseason with Kyron Hudson, Devonte Ross and post-spring addition Trebor Pena from the transfer portal. Mix that with another year in Andy Kotelnicki’s offensive system, and the overwhelming expectation for Allar was improvement, but it hasn’t happened and he’s out of excuses.
In each of Penn State’s games against AP top six opponents — AKA the hump Penn State cannot get over — in which he has started, it is the offense, more specifically the passing game, that has let the Nittany Lions down. The passing game still lacks explosiveness, and it still does not meaningfully attempt to push the ball down the field vertically. Despite new pieces, it still does not pose a credible threat. Penn State is 116th in the country in percentage of passes of 20+ air yards and 74th in air yards per target. It would be nice to just chalk that up to three cupcake opponents to start the season, but he had only one such pass against Oregon out of nine passes 20+ yards down the field.
Penn State’s defense has done all it reasonably could in five of those, excluding the Big Ten Championship Game against the Ducks last season. Eventually, a player is what he is, and despite late-game heroics running the ball to tie the game last weekend, Allar still leaves way too much to be desired in big moments.
Can Nick Singleton get it in gear?
Kaytron Allen has been giving you what you’d expect from the backfield so far this season, but his running mate, Nick Singleton, is just a bit off the pace so far this season. He has five rushes over 10 yards in 52 total carries. All of them came in the second and third games of the season against Villanova and FIU. Especially if Allar and the passing game continue to struggle, it’s going to fall to Allen and Singleton to get things going for the offense. So far this season, he’s been unable to give them the explosive element they desperately need.
Who is the Tony Rojas replacement?
Thankfully, Penn State does have two opponents that aren’t going to test them, because finding a suitable replacement for Tony Rojas is going to be a process after the inside linebacker went down with an undisclosed injury in practice this week. Dom DeLuca is the natural successor; you might remember him from his two interceptions in the College Football Playoff game against SMU. But freshmen Alex Tatsch and Cam Smith may also see the field in what would be the first snaps of their young careers on defense. Tatsch played sparingly against Villanova and Smith is yet to see the field. Both could play against UCLA or Northwestern if Penn State handles business as expected.
This is a program with a proud lineage at the position. The second level will have to be ready for what’s to come in November.
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