Cleaning up penalties a priority for Penn State ahead of visit from UCLA
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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’ ability to hang around until late in the game.
For starters, on their opening drive, the Illini benefited from a Penn State personal foul that advanced them to the 14-yard line.
Another Illinois drive in the second quarter, which ultimately ended with a missed field goal, was extended due to an unnecessary roughness personal foul on the Nittany Lions.
“You take the penalties out of that game – the ones that we can control — and that game probably wasn’t as hard as it needed to be,” Franklin said.
Against Bowling Green, Penn State racked up 76 penalty yards on seven infractions.
The Nittany Lions were flagged seven times for 65 yards in their rout of Kent State, while in the season-opener at West Virginia they incurred eight penalties for 60 yards.
However, the penalty woes have thus far not been big enough holes in the bow to sink Penn State.
As quarterback Drew Allar said after the Illinois win, “We’re going to need to find ways to win games in different types of fashions throughout the year.”
That in part means overcoming penalties.
Still, Franklin’s position on the matter is clear.
“We’ve got to get it cleaned up,” he said. “We can’t just keep talking about it. (The media), fans don’t want to hear me just keep talking about it. We want it fixed. Ultimately, as coaches, we’ve got to make sure that happens. But also the players have to make sure that that happens.”
Up next for the Nittany Lions is UCLA, which visits Beaver Stadium on Saturday for the first time since 1967 as well as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Penn State is 2-4 all-time vs. the Bruins, with all matchups between the two programs coming between 1963-68.
Coach DeShaun Foster has had a rough go of things to begin his first year in Westwood.
The Bruins are 1-3 and last in the league as they prepare for a long trip to State College.
Granted, UCLA’s schedule so far has been imposing.
After a season-opening win at Hawaii, the Bruins faced Indiana, now ranked No. 23 nationally, followed by the then-16th-ranked LSU Tigers and last weekend, a top-10 Oregon squad, resulting in three straight losses.
“A team that is still kind of trying to find their way,” Franklin said of UCLA. “Offensively, defensively and special teams, you see them do some really nice things at times.
“Obviously, it is going to be a challenge for us with them coming into our place.”
As they prepare to host the Bruins, cleaning up penalties remains a major point of emphasis.
“One of the things that I talked to the team about is the importance of us taking a significant step this week and not having to be one of those teams that you see all over the country that have to have a setback first before they make a wake-up call and take a significant step,” Franklin said. “We need to do that this week.”
Notes: Franklin said he expects linebacker Dom DeLuca, offensive lineman Sal Wormley and cornerback Jalen Kimber, all of whom are nursing injuries, to be available against UCLA. However, Franklin refrained from offering 100% confidence of their returns given the early period in the week. … Penn State’s matchup at USC on Oct. 12 will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will air on CBS.