Penn State 'phenomenal' through intentionally difficult week: 3-2-1

For Penn State head coach James Franklin, a question remains after his push through the Nittany Lions week leading into and coming out of the game against Villanova last weekend.

Would any effort have been met the standard he'd hoped to set for Penn State football under the circumstances?

Lamenting the fact that he believed his Nittany Lions hadn't prepared well leading into the game against the Wildcats, then following the performance with a press conference largely focused on its shortcomings, the game-within-a-game primed Penn State for its return to Big Ten competition this weekend.

And what a return it will be for the Nittany Lions.

Now ranked No. 4 in the country on the back of a 4-0 start that has included wins at Wisconsin to open the season and back at Beaver Stadium over SEC stalwart Auburn, Penn State has a showdown set for Saturday night and a home 'Stripe Out' environment with Indiana loaded with backstory.

Can Penn State stay unbeaten against a Hoosiers program that propelled the Nittany Lions into an 0-5 slide a year ago? Maybe more important for Franklin and his program is whether or not the backstory even matters this week.

We'll try to tackle that topic and more as we take a look back at the week that was for Penn State football.

This is the 3-2-1:

This was the news of the week from a personnel standpoint.

Asked about the Nittany Lions' defensive tackle, Hakeem Beamon, who has not seen action through the first four games of the program's season, Franklin announced Wednesday night that the redshirt sophomore would not see game action against the Hoosiers this weekend or at any other point this season.

"Hakeem loves football, so in practice, he's always good because he loves to play football," Franklin said. "But he will be unavailable this week and he will be unavailable for the season."

Franklin didn't elaborate with a reason for the absence beyond that, though the natural follow-up regarding the news, after "why?" is what to make of Penn State's situation along the line moving forward this season.

Competing with Derrick Tangelo for the opportunity to pair with P.J. Mustipher as a starter at DT ahead of the 2021 season, Beamon was a full participant in the program's preseason practices up-to and including an open media session held at Beaver Stadium on August 25. In the week leading up to Penn State's trip to Madison, however, Beamon could no longer be seen in his normal No. 51 as the program prepared for its season-opener, and in subsequent weeks, he has been identified as practicing with the Nittany Lions' scout team.

Thus far this season, Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry has relied largely on a six-man rotation along the line with Arnold Ebiketie, Nick Tarburton, and Jesse Luketa handling the bulk of the snaps at the two end positions and Mustipher, Tangelo, and D'von Ellies accounting for the majority of the reps at DT, according to PFF.

At DT, Coziah Izzard (74 snaps) has been the fourth man in the rotation with Fatorma Mulbah and Jordan van den Berg picking up 31 and nine snaps on the year, respectively, while Smith Vilbert (54), Zuriah Fisher (51), and Amin Vanover (35) have helped to supplant the end spots.

Thursday, Pry noted that he didn’t know if Penn State could “go the season” with the three players it’s relying on at end and the same would stand to reason as being true at DT in Beamon’s absence.

Down two players expected to be heavy contributors or starters on the defensive line in injured DE Adisa Isaac and now Beamon, the successful start to the season will be a story line worth watching as the year progresses, both in terms of the stamina and health of Penn State’s biggest contributors as well as the development of the depth behind them.

That Franklin has been talking about Penn State's game with Indiana in 2020 as a game the program is actively not talking about this week should come as no surprise.

Franklin's game-by-game approach, doing the best to set a tone in which the immediate overrules any perspective on the past or future, has held true to form this season just as it has in each of his other seven years at the helm of the Nittany Lions.

Thursday night at his weekly radio show and throughout the week, the sentiment has been steady from Franklin that any other conversation is a distraction to the program's quest to notch another win Saturday night against the Hoosiers. And by extension, he suggested, relitigating the events of the 36-35 overtime loss for the Nittany Lions to Indiana last Oct. 24 in Bloomington is unworthy of the time currently being devoted to making program-wide improvements this week.

"It's truly about beating this year's Indiana. That's all it is," Franklin said. "There's enough things on tape and enough things on film that we have to get corrected and get prepared for. We have not spent any time talking about that. I know sometimes people have a choice to make, are they're going to use it as fuel. I don't think we need it. I think we're in a good place, and I want to make sure all our focus and energy is on what we've seen on film this year."

Undoubtedly true, that doesn't mean that Penn State doesn't have a heightened sense of focus on the situational football elements, rare as they might have been last year, that helped play a role in what transpired at Memorial Stadium.

In a play that isn't likely to be forgotten anytime soon, running back Devyn Ford's jaunt into the end zone at the end of regulation to take an 8-point lead rather than milking the clock, was one of a handful of situational failings that doomed the Nittany Lions to the loss. And as Franklin revealed this week, one of the primary takeaways from that experience is the reality that the program is still very much trying to effectively translate its lessons in meeting rooms over to the field, both at practice and in games.

Sparked by a Wednesday situation in which a Penn State defender created a turnover but failed to get down in the two-minute, end-of-game situation, instead trying to bring the ball back only to have it stripped and return possession to the Nittany Lions' offense, Franklin said he doubled down on the emphasis.

"I brought the team together at the end of practice and I said guys, we must be able to take things from the meeting to the practice field to the game, and those lessons must be learned or they come back to bite you," Franklin said. "I would prefer it happen in a practice like that so we can get it corrected, but there are always opportunities for growth and learning whether it's from previous season's games or whether it's from stuff we're teaching in practice."

For the week as a whole, however, coming off what Franklin and the program repeatedly described as an underwhelming effort and performance through the Villanova contest, the results have been to his liking.

"I feel like we've had a really good week of preparation," Franklin said Thursday. "Our guys have been phenomenal."

Inside the Den: Penn State football Wednesday media notes and takeaways

Keeping the focus on Penn State's defense, a group that has so far allowed just 15.0 points per game to rank 12th nationally in scoring defense this season, the Nittany Lions' approach the staying within the framework of the scheme has been something of a topic of conversation each week from players following wins.

As Pry detailed Thursday, though, the effort has been more than just a buzzphrase for Penn State as it continues its work to reverse some of the major shortcomings that marked the program's start to the 2020 season, including some of his own.

Rather, "playing within the framework of the defense" has truly become a mentality within the Nittany Lions' defense in which remaining accountable to very player-specific responsibilities on an every down basis has taken on paramount importance.

"That's been our battle cry the entire offseason," Pry said. "I think the word framework means in the structure, doing your job, doing your 1/11th, your part in the defense, being where you're supposed to be. If you'll just trust your keys and read your keys, they're gonna take you to your play. That's about 99 percent over 30 years, that's the case. Training these guys to keep their eyes in the right place and trust their keys, that'll put them in the framework, keep them in the framework.

"That's been a big emphasis and the guys, the leadership on defense, they have really embraced that. I respect them and I'm proud of them for it and I appreciate them for it. They have embraced that and have completely aligned with us as the coaches and how important it is. And I think it's paying dividends for all of us right now."

In Indiana, Penn State's defense will face an offense that was stifled in the form of a 34-6 loss at Iowa to open the season, but at 29.8 points per game represents the second-best scoring offense the Nittany Lions have seen this year (at the FBS level), well ahead of Wisconsin and Ball State at No. 112 and No. 118 in scoring, respectively.

Key to Penn State defensive success? Brent Pry points to framework

How could this section begin with anything else?

In receiver Ty Fryfogle and linebacker Micah McFadden, the Hoosiers have two returning AP All-Americans from the 2020 season. And in quarterback Michael Penix Jr., Indiana's offense also has a returning All-Big Ten second-team selection from a year ago with a third-team All-Big Ten tight end target in Peyton Hendershot.

But in four games this season, the Hoosiers have simply not yet shown anything resembling the potency on both sides of the ball that defined the program's 2020 season in which it notched a 6-1 mark against Big Ten opponents and finished with a No. 12 ranking. Climbing as high as No. 9 before falling in a shootout at Ohio State, in fact, the Hoosiers produced a season Penn State's personnel has referred to as "magical" this week.

Instead, Indiana opened the 2021 campaign with a dispiriting blowout loss at Iowa, turned around and dominated Idaho back in Bloomington in Week Two, 56-14, fell 38-24 to Cincinnati at home, and then most recently topped Western Kentucky on the road, 33-31.

The inconsistencies of the performance have not deterred Franklin from feeling as though the Hoosiers will arrive at Beaver Stadium prepared to give Penn State another competitive game.

"They're just a well-rounded team," Franklin said. "Obviously, last year was a big year for them as a program and they've taken a lot of confidence from that. From a coaching staff perspective, the schemes are very similar to what we saw last year. They've had a challenging schedule to start out the season as well and they've played us tough. Even in the games that we found a way to beat them, we've had very competitive games over the last few years and I think it'll be the same way on Saturday."

BWI caught up with senior writer Alec Lasley of TheHoosier.com to learn more about the Nittany Lions' opponent.

Behind Enemy Lines: Indiana

The narrative that Penn State can't run the ball when it wants is grounded in undeniable statistics through the first four games of the season.

Three times now the Nittany Lions have come up short of 100 yards on the ground for the day and only a 240-yard effort against Ball State has separated the program's rushing attack from sinking further beyond its No. 110 national ranking in the category at 113.5 yards per game.

So the question against Indiana is whether or not the Nittany Lions, with starting running back Noah Cain's status still uncertain after a week in which he was "banged up" and carried the ball just once against Villanova, can successfully run it.

Asked about the issue through a variety of questions this week, Franklin's responses have covered a gamut of differing factors that have helped contribute to the issues, not least of all including an acknowledgment that some of the Nittany Lions' opponents have purposefully and schematically made it difficult to run the ball so far this season.

However, none of his answers were as comprehensive in trying to address what the problems are and, maybe more important, how far away the Nittany Lions are from fixing him, than this response Wednesday evening.

"We have to be a little bit more physical. I think we got to play with a little bit more of an edge. I think we got to play to the echo of the whistle. I think we got to make sure that our pad level and our hat placement is correct, and I mean that about our tight ends as well," Franklin said. "I also think our running backs, there are going to be some times where it's not a clean hole and you got to be able to lower your shoulder and run somebody over and get it a dirty four yards. And I think the more body blows that you throw like that through a game, the explosive plays will come, but we got to be willing to stick our foot in the ground and get down downhill as a runner and run people over, and we got to be able to be physical and finish blocks and make sure that we're doing a great job with our double teams."

That has yet to come to fruition on a consistent basis for Penn State this season and, against an Indiana defensive outfit that comes into the game with the No. 35-ranked rushing defense (111.0 yards per game allowed), the question will remain until kickoff Saturday night.

With run game struggling, Penn State football looks for solutions out wide

The best approach to making predictions tends to be to let the stakeholders themselves do the heavy lifting.

Wednesday evening, Penn State starting right tackle Caedan Wallace did exactly that when facing a similar barrage of questions about how the offensive line and the program's running game as a whole have operated. Acknowledging the challenges himself that Penn State's offense has so far been unable to completely overcome, Wallace finished his response with a fairly definitive assertion.

"We’re going to improve this week," he said. "We’re going to run the ball."

In the game between these two teams last season, Penn State produced 488 yards of total offense including a whopping 27 first downs on the afternoon. And while the Hoosiers still represent a challenge in the passing game, that the Nittany Lions managed to pick up 250 of those yards on the ground with an offensive line that has only improved since then, 119 of them coming from quarterback Sean Clifford in the wake of the absences of both Journey Brown and Cain, should offer some perspective on the Hoosiers' vulnerabilities to that end.

Is it necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison from year-to-year?

In college football, of course not. But Penn State's "physicality" mantra this week, and the intensity of the question at this point, create the conditions against an opponent in which I expect the Nittany Lions to start to find that success on the ground.

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