STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – All week, Penn State players and coaches dismissed questions about the Nittany Lions’ 2021 loss to Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.
Your memories and the lessons learned from that dreaded night in Iowa City should now be irrelevant. The booing of injuries and the back-and-forth that followed, from Kirk Ferentz accusing the Penn State players of a flop to James Franklin asking why they would try to slow down an offense that was anything but fast runs, were destroyed. This is a different team with too many new faces. Water under the bridge.
Did anyone actually believe that?
The cat was let out of the bag in the Penn State media room on Saturday around 11:30 p.m. Yes, No. 7 Penn State’s 31-0 win over No. 24 Iowa in front of 110,830 fans at the White Out was indeed personal. This wasn’t just any opponent. This was a program that mocked their former teammates. To quote the most quotable man in college football these days: Iowa’s Deion Sanders made it personal.
“Coach Franklin has hit hard – especially this team – something has been brewing over the last two years since we went to them,” defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said. Dennis-Sutton was a high school student in 2021, but that didn’t matter.
“(Franklin) showed us some of the same things they did in 2021 with the special teams coordinator on the sideline, flopping and stuff like that.” Their head coach said they smelled a rat odor or something like that when some Our boys went down.”
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Underline it. Mark it. Circle it. Mark it with an exclamation mark. Penn State, the master of the 1-0 every week mentality, was looking to deliver a masterclass against the Hawkeyes, who many believe are the best team in the Big Ten West. That’s exactly what it did. Penn State got its revenge, showing everyone watching that this is a damn good Nittany Lions team too.
The Hawkeyes only managed 76 yards of total offense. Penn State played 97 games, Iowa played 33. According to TruMedia, no other FBS team has been outscored by 60 or more games in the last five seasons. The Nittany Lions controlled the clock a dizzying 45:27 to 14:33. Iowa only had four first downs. Drew Allar — who was on the sideline for most of the fourth quarter as backup Beau Pribula stepped in — completed 25 of 37 passes for 166 yards and four touchdowns. Allar remains turnover-free at Penn State.
A word of warning to the rest of Penn State’s opponents: Franklin’s most talented and deep roster to date clearly doesn’t need any additional motivation or bulletin board material. While they certainly found some this week thanks to the fiasco of 2021, this group is dangerous enough to make a lot of noise on their own.
“We’re doing a really good job right now of being efficient and staying on track,” Allar said. “We get into situations with penalties where we’re not ourselves, but I think we’ll continue to learn and grow from the mistakes we make.” But I think we’re doing a really good job at the moment, just take advantage of what the defense gives us and take care of the ball.”
KeAndre Lambert-Smith led Penn State with eight catches and a TD. (Matthew O’Haren / USA Today)
Manny Diaz’s defense has been the security blanket for Allar and this offense as it turns out. The occasional lull is forgotten because of the takeaways the Nittany Lions produce. If you give a young quarterback and this offense a halftime break to make adjustments, you might find him buzzing out of the locker room like Penn State did in the second half against Iowa.
Penn State, like all teams, is still a work in progress, but the more looks we get at this team, the more clear it becomes that the way the Nittany Lions are currently playing – with an offense that’s starting to find its way alongside an outstanding defense – is a recipe for success.
“We emphasize athleticism (on defense),” Franklin said. “There are probably a few bigger defenses, but we are athletic. We are fast and we are quick and we are explosive. We play a more consistent gap-sound defense. Manny is doing a great job.”
Diaz installed a new third-down package with defensive ends Chop Robinson, Dennis-Sutton and Adisa Isaac taking the field together. They grinned when Diaz explained it to them this week.
“No center or guard should be able to block a defensive end,” Robinson said. “…It’s hard for an offense when you see three defensive ends on the field. You don’t know where to slide or where to block. I think it confuses the offense a lot.”
Robinson was a menace for the Hawkeyes, rushing inside and out. He even bull-rushed his way through the interior of Iowa’s offensive line. He had two tackles, a strip sack and two quarterback hurries. Dennis-Sutton ended the game with a quarterback rush and a forced fumble. Isaac had a sack, a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery. Penn State plans to continue to find different ways to utilize Robinson’s speed and strength going forward, Franklin said. It worked brilliantly against Iowa.
As Diaz explained the three-end crease this week, Robinson thought about what he would do if he made a game-changing play. He smiled Saturday night when asked about celebrating on the field after suffering a strip sack on Cade McNamara late in the third quarter.
“I flopped twice,” Robinson said matter-of-factly. “That came two years ago when Iowa played Penn State. … The special teams coordinator stood on the sidelines, I guess, because he said it was a fake injury. We will not tolerate this kind of disrespect.”
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Robinson committed to Maryland two years ago. Still, he knew what this game meant. They all did that. Teammates made sure new and old faces took notice. Franklin did too. Even the Penn State fans who booed the Hawkeyes as they took the field Saturday night sounded like they added a little more oomph to the game.
Penn State continued the kind of loss that kept its season on track and left a former Nittany Lion beaming after a FaceTime call.
In the locker room, Dennis-Sutton and defensive tackle Dvon Ellies reached PJ Mustipher on FaceTime. It was Mustipher, the former Penn State captain, who tore his ACL that night in Iowa City but was booed while he lay on the floor.
Yes, this victory was nice for Mustipher too.
“PJ was happy to be back,” Dennis-Sutton said.
(Top photo by Theo Johnson: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)