Penn State football mailbag: Do Nittany Lions have tricks ready for Auburn?

Every Wednesday, Nate Bauer, David Eckert, and Greg Pickel of Blue-White Illustrated field your burning Penn State football questions in their weekly mailbag.

This week, the topics mainly focus on areas for improvement and how the 2-0 and No. 10 Nittany Lions will move the ball against Auburn and stop the No. 22/20 Tigers.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Beaver Stadium, and ABC will televise the contest with its top crew of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Holly Rowe. ESPN 'College GameDay' will also be in town for a live broadcast, and the excitement is building three days before kickoff.

Let's get to your questions:

"With how the two games have gone. Do you think Penn State has kept enough of their game plan off the field in order to give Auburn some wrinkles come Saturday? Or do you think we pretty much know what Penn State is on offense?"

Eckert: A few different players have been asked a version of this question by the media over the last few days and they've all hinted at the idea that there is some more for us to see, without saying it directly. So yes, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that there will be some new wrinkles rolled out for Auburn. But let's not forget that the Nittany Lions have already played a high-level opponent in Wisconsin, while the Tigers have begun their season with a pair of cupcakes. If we were to put both offenses on a scale, I would guess that Auburn has seen more of the Penn State offense than Penn State has seen of the Auburn offense. James Franklin said himself that he's not sure how many conclusions can be derived from Auburn's tape to begin this season because they haven't played anyone yet.

Pickel: Mike Yurcich, like almost every other coordinator these days, is always playing chess instead of checkers on game day. That relates to both the present moment and future, as he might do something early to set that particular game's opponent up for a surprise later in the contest, but he's also putting stuff on film to confuse future defenses, too. All that is to say that, yes, I do believe we'll see some wrinkles and new things from the Nittany Lions offense on Saturday, just like we did last Saturday, when two backs were lined up beside quarterback Sean Clifford before he connected on a pretty wheel route with Noah Cain for a big gain. Yurcich is impressive, and he always has more up his sleeve than we'll ever see during one 60-minute contest, especially this early in the season.

Bauer: Mike Yurcich has no shortage of tricks up his sleeve, so I can't envision a scenario in which Penn State doesn't break out some new elements of its offense. Honestly, the players themselves have been saying it after both games that there is so much more that they've done that they can still integrate into a game. Could that be hot air? Sure, but I genuinely doubt it. None of that negates the fact that I firmly believe Penn State continues to be in search of an offensive identity that prioritizes and maximizes explosive play opportunities. Identify the one-on-ones and get the ball to those players, no matter where they are on the field. Against an Auburn program that will almost certainly take more defensive risks in an effort to disrupt Sean Clifford's poise, I expect to see something much closer to second-half Wisconsin than Ball State.

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"The running back room receives plenty of praise and they have performed well. But will this offense be handicapped without a home run hitting threat? Felt like we should have seen more explosive runs against a 5 or 6 in the box against Ball State."

Eckert: I'm not willing to totally write off the big play potential of the Penn State running back room yet, but for the sake of answering the question, I'm not sure that it's a huge problem. Penn State has a few big play threats at wide receiver and an offensive coordinator in Mike Yurcich who has proven at every stop that he's capable of generating big plays for his offense. If you can force the opposition to respect your running game with solid, mid-yardage runs, then you open the door for big plays through the passing game. If you consistently show that you can't create those solid gains in the running game, that's when you start to have problems, and I don't think that's a concern for this Penn State team.

Pickel: This topic actually came up in Monday's 'BWI Live' show with the three of us and T-Frank. I don't think that it will be. Not everyone is going to be able to do what Saquon Barkley and the other top one percent of college football backs can do, but the good news is that they don't need to. Instead, they have to be willing to take what is in front of them, have a knack for taking on contact and turning it into positive yards, and be at least adequate in the passing game. The Lions have that with Noah Cain and Keyvone Lee, even if the latter needs to be more consistent about not losing yards but trying to do too much, but of any worries one has about this team, the running backs shouldn't make the list.

Bauer: I'm not convinced that Penn State doesn't have a home run threat at running back just because we haven't yet seen any of those guys break one 80-yards for a touchdown against a Wisconsin defense that is pretty good and a Ball State defense that sold out to stop exactly that. The fact that the Cardinals were hellbent on keeping everything in front of them didn't mean that there weren't plenty of second and third-level runs for Lee, who notched four carries of 11, 11, 12, and 12 yards, respectively, plus Clifford's 43- and 16-yard carries. Defenses have to make a decision about what they're going to prioritize taking away from this offense. So far, that has looked like an emphasis on stopping the run, and I anticipate that's going to continue, meaning that coordinators are still seeing the potential for serious damage from that group.

"How can this Penn State defense give Bo Nix trouble schematically this weekend?"

Eckert: Pressure and containment. That's it. Penn State's secondary has already proven this season that it is more than capable of keeping a lid on the opposition's wide receivers. If the Nittany Lions can force Nix to make quick decisions and keep him in the pocket to limit his ability to extend plays, they're going to have some success.

Pickel: To me, it's pretty simple: The best way to defend Bo Nix is to fluster him early with a combination of blitzes from different parts of the field that get home and create doubt about the protection in front of him, which should in turn force some bad throws throughout the rest of the game. Arnold Ebiketie had less of an impact against Ball State than Wisconsin, but the end will need to shine in this one, and so will Nick Tarburton and Jesse Luketa. I also think we could see Brent Pry unleash Curtis Jacobs and Brandon Smith to rush more, and don't be surprised to see some early corner blitzes, either. Auburn is going to want to run the ball with its two very talented backs, and by stopping that and forcing Nix to throw, you put him and the Tigers into a situation they'd prefer not to be in, which would be advantage Nittany Lions.

Bauer: Ditto Dave and Greg. Quarterbacks don't want to feel confusion and the one element that I don't think gets quite enough credit from this Penn State defense is the ability of its linemen to drop into coverage, most notably pulled off by Jesse Luketa last weekend with his pick-six, but something that you're seeing more and more of from the first two weeks with Nick Tarburton having a near-interception at Wisconsin and Ebiketie also dropping back at times. It's a powerful asset to feel like you have versatile pieces that can bring an effective blitz in addition to a normal four-man rush, all while maintaining integrity defending the passing game. It's still early, but through at least the first two weeks, that's what I've seen out of this Penn State defense and I expect it to continue.

The spread is now Penn State -6. Who are you guys betting on?

Eckert: If I were a bettor looking at the college football slate this weekend this is a game I wouldn't touch, to be honest. We don't know what Auburn is yet. I'm not willing to draw a single conclusion from two games against Akron and Alabama State. That said, if you're going to force me to make a pick, I would lean toward Penn State. The Nittany Lions have shown you that they can win a big game already, and Auburn is walking into one of the toughest environments in college football — with a quarterback who we know has a few mistakes in him — to play their first road game in almost two years. That, to me, means advantage Nittany Lions.

Pickel: The spread has bounced around a bit from as low as Penn State -4.5 to almost a touchdown. I have my eye on the total, which is listed at 53 as of Wednesday morning. Both teams want to run, which should keep the clock moving, and I'm not sure I see Auburn coming into a Whiteout environment at Beaver Stadium and putting up a bunch of points. I expect the Lions to be in the 30s, but this feels like an under all the way to me.

Bauer: I'm picking Penn State to win but a touchdown feels a little bold to me right now. However, I do think that there are a handful of pretty demonstrable advantages for the Nittany Lions in this matchup even presuming a relatively in-the-ballpark alignment of talent level between the two programs. The first is obviously that Penn State is playing this at home in front of a psychotic fan base that Auburn almost certainly hasn't had much experience facing. The second is that Penn State already has the confidence of toppling a serious opponent in Wisconsin, at Wisconsin, in the first week of the season. Nothing is static in this game, and if experiences are the foundation of future performances, Penn State has a clear edge when it comes to the preparation for this game.

"If PSU added a neutral site game to the schedule in a few years who would be your top choices for opponent and location?"

Eckert: It seems like the real benefits to a game like this for Penn State would be unlocked by holding it in a state rich in high school talent. Florida is an option, and Penn State has certainly achieved some real success recruiting there recently. Texas and California could make sense too if the staff wanted to make headway into a region where they have less of a base. As for an opponent, I would just want to see somebody different. It sounds like we're going to see plenty of ACC and Pac-12 opposition in the coming years due to The Alliance, so I'll pick out a few SEC — or soon to be SEC — schools. Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas A&M, Georgia and Florida would all be fun. I would stay away from Alabama though, just ask Miami how that went.

Pickel: That's a fantastic question. If we set aside things like finances and already-booked non-conference schedules and so on, Penn State playing a Florida, Florida State, or Miami at a neutral site like Charlotte would be pretty interesting. The Nittany Lions already do plenty of strong recruiting work in Florida, but something like this, and a win, of course, wouldn't hurt. Texas or Oklahoma in New Orleans or Jacksonville or Tampa would be fun, too, and if we're talking west coast, how about Oregon or Washington in Dallas as part of some kind of huge college football opening weekend kickoff event?

Bauer: Guys, let's not let a little innuendo and pearl clutching leave out the obvious pick here: Southern Cal! In Chicago or New Orleans or Atlanta or New York! Duh. I think there are plenty of traditional powers that make sense in that space, but I would just caution that I don't think James Franklin is being totally honest when he advocates for that. More of a situation where if Penn State *has* to play a marquee non conference game, that's the way he'd prefer to attack it, but every indication through his tenure with the program has been that he believes getting through the Big Ten is hard enough and, at one loss against a conference foe, the Playoff is still a realistic possibility. But, 2016 helped shape that narrative that Penn State gained absolutely nothing by playing and losing to Pitt and in fact precluded itself from what otherwise would have been a sure CFP invitation had the final tally been a singular loss at Michigan with the Big Ten Championship in tow. If it's an opportunity cost proposition, the answer is clear at this point: Avoid marquee non conference games.

"Why can’t James Franklin just say he isn’t interested [in USC]?

Eckert: I'll partially defer to Nate and Greg who have been doing this a lot longer than I have on this one. I would just point out, though, that if Franklin is interested in using it as a negotiating tool, then it would be silly to just cast the opportunity away by declaring himself uninterested publicly.

Pickel: He could, but we know that rumors like these can be used as leverage to get more out of the athletic department and/or school, but beyond that, it's a no-win situation. If he says he's not interested, but an offer comes that is too good to pass up, then it can be used against him as an untruthful statement in recruiting. If he says he is, it leads to immediate chaos. So, the way he has and does answers these questions makes plenty of sense, and the players aren't worried about it, and that's all that matters.

Bauer: I hate to answer a question with a question, but I think this one demands it:

Would you believe him if he did say that? Would it eliminate the speculation? Would reporters stop hypothesizing about the possibility or the potential fit?

Can't make this up, literal case-in-point:

I just think there is a certain level of naivety about how this all works and this inability to acknowledge that highly motivated people don't unnecessarily close the door on opportunity or tools handy to keep pushing forward. The one bottom line reality that has to be pointed out is that the parking lot outside of the Lasch Building isn't filled with construction equipment right now were it not for the fact that Franklin is constantly being pursued.

The coaching carousel and the spectacle it has become aren't going away, and I'm not sure that there is necessarily a right answer about how to handle what inevitably is going to occur for top coaches in the game who are frequently the target of search firms looking to fill a vacancy with a splash.

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