Through five weeks of the season, No. 7 Penn State is undefeated, climbing steadily in the weekly AP Top 25 poll and achieving results befitting a College Football Playoff contender. The Nittany Lions faced their toughest test of the year last Saturday and came out on top, dispatching Illinois, 21-7, in a ranked matchup at Beaver Stadium.
But underneath the surface of that win and Penn State’s year in general have been a handful of concerning trends that coach James Franklin is eager to rectify, namely slow starts and penalties. “I don’t want to be one of these teams that waits until you have a loss for the wake-up call to happen, and now you start doing all the little extra things and getting things corrected,” Franklin said. On Sept.
7, before rallying to defeat Bowling Green, the Nittany Lions (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) trailed the Falcons, 17-7, early and 24-20 at halftime. Last weekend, the Fighting Illini delivered an early punch to the Nittany Lions, beginning the game with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. In both games, self-inflicted wounds contributed to unfavorable starts for Penn State.
“The obvious one that we haven’t got corrected yet is penalties,” Franklin said. “That’s just making things harder than it needs to be on offense, it’s making things harder than it needs to be on defense. .
.. We need to get that fixed.
” Versus Illinois in particular, Franklin saw the Nittany Lions’ six penalties for 63 yards as a major factor in Illinois’ abil.
