Penn State 42, Michigan State 0
My, what a horrible beat-down for Moo U, as Penn State put the big hurt on the Spartans, holding them to negative rushing yardage and 53 total yards. The Nittany Lions rang up 586 total yards in a balanced passing and running attack. Even though I’m sick and tired of hearing the term “explosive plays”, Penn State had a lot of them, over the land, on the sea, and in the air. The oft-abused, hackneyed phrase “total domination” certainly applies here.
And so, the 2023 regular season ends with a bang. We were happy to see both Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton pounding the turf for triple digits. Allen had 137, while Singleton had 118 and a touchdown. Drew Allar exhibited patience and competence in the passing game, going 17-26 for 292 yards and two touchdowns. Beau Pribula was 2-2 for 11 yards and one touchdown; he also had one rushing touchdown.
Of course, this was not tOSU or Michigan. Nevertheless, watching the PSU defense do its thing was highly entertaining. As friend Toejam kidded, “This is no fun. We can’t bitch about Franklin.”
Now, the Lions get fifteen practices before the bowl game. Speculation abounds, but all will become clear a week from Sunday. A New Years Six game is likely, and plenty of decent opponents will fall out of the playoff picture between now and the conference championships. Will Iowa beat tOSU? Not likely. As Penn State proved, you need an offense to beat the Schmuckeyes. However, for tOSU to play in Indianapolis, they must beat Michigan tomorrow, and I’m not predicting that. I’m mum on that game. I’ll watch it and enjoy the fray.
So, thanks for hanging in for another season. After ending the season on a high note, I am no longer dreading the bowl game.
I’ll be back when we know who Penn State will be playing and where they’ll be. Anyone’s crystal ball clearer than mine?
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K. John says
Great win against a team that was undermanned (<45 scholarship players were available) and gave up before it started. Right now, I think a lot of things are working against us with bowl selection. Mostly notably, it is being reported that it is extremely likely Louisville will play in the Orange Bowl (taking away a NY6 slot) win or lose on Saturday due to an unmet contractual obligation with the ACC. Then there is Tulane and Liberty. One will make an NY6 game that leaves very little room for error, and it might not get there as it is very possible OU and or Ole Miss jump us in the final rankings with an Iowa loss. A three loss Iowa team whose best win is over Northwestern is a major negative when it comes to competition. They committee values quality wins more than quality losses and has since this the invitational has started. My guess is we are Citrus Bowl bound. I have been thinking this for several weeks now. We could surprise and pull the Peach however but the odds are not great.
The Nittany Turkey says
Despite your thoroughly researched treatise on where Penn State will land (not “lands”) in the bowl picture, it is complete bullshit, as is any speculation at this point. Why do we need to go through these ridiculous “what ifs”? Only to one-up the guy sitting at the bar next to you, methinks. Yet, thousands of column-inches are devoted annually to which team will go (not “goes”) where and why. I suppose it is entertaining to some, but to this turkey, it remains pure bullshit — rampant speculation forced through a poor grammar filter — a useless waste of my fucking time…
…as is this response.
—TNT
K. John says
My comment was too a useless waste of time, but then again, so is less entertaining, highly inferior Bowl Coalition/Bowl Alliance/BCS/Playoff era college football.
The Nittany Turkey says
AMEN to that! Pisses me off every time I see something about NIL, transfer portal, playoffs, etc. Even more so when players opt out of bowl games for fear of doing something injurious to their intrinsic worth to the NFL.
Drew Allar isn’t going anywhere, even though Will Levis’ mom called Drew’s mom to tell her he should transfer. WTF kind of bullshit was that!?!?!? Maybe he’s staying only because his NIL deal precludes any transfers before his Senior year. Who knows? It’s all about money these days.
As for “meaningless” bowls, they’re ALL meaningless. In my mind, from the playoffs on down, they are just stage performances to generate revenue for already flush institutions.
This ain’t your father’s Oldsmobile, but it is destined to go the way of the Oldsmobile when the economy tanks big time and we’re no longer able to support the gladiators due to misplaced priorities for so many decades.
—TNT
Big Al says
Kudos to you, Turkey for correctly predicting that the defense would shut out Moo U. I was wrong to think that Moo’s O line would be able to protect Houser long enough to hit his receivers. I still think Moo’s offense was better than any of the other teams State held to 7 points or less.
Overall this might have been the Kitties best performance of the year. And maybe Yurcich was really responsible for some of the offensive problems instead of just being a convenient scapegoat for Franklin’s “vision.” I guess we’ll know better when the new OC is hired. Hopefully, it’s not the guy from UNLV. His offense is just a gimmick like Tennessee’s offense that depends on running standard spread plays so quickly that the defense can’t substitute and gets worn out.
Re State getting into a NY6 Bowl, one problem is the automatic slot for an ACC team in the Orange Bowl. Louisville will get a bid to the Orange Bowl even if they lose the ACC championship since FSU will be selected for the playoff and the Orange Bowl is guaranteed an ACC team. This means that, although State is currently ranked tenth, they are actually occupying the 11th and final slot for a NY6 Bowl. If Texas wins the Big 12 championship game AND gets selected for the playoffs, another Big 12 team (probably Oklahoma) has to be given a bid. If Texas loses the Big 12 championship, they’ll still be ranked ahead of State. So, State has to hope that Texas wins the Big 12 game but doesn’t get selected for the playoffs Finally, in the unlikely event that Iowa upsets UM, they get the B1G automatic slot and State is sent to the Citrus.
The Nittany Turkey says
Watching the first half, I was afraid that I would be way off the mark because the offense was playing as usual. The defense came out strong. You must give them lots of credit, knowing that they were not going to get much help from the offense. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall in the locker room at Ford Field at halftime, because both units came out inspired in the second half. And that was the first time that I began thinking as you proposed — that the offensive woes might have been more on Yurcich than we skeptical fans were thinking.
The GoGo guy from UNLV seems to be getting lots of press. Being an old-school turkey, I am hoping as you are that Franklin and Kraft don’t go that direction. However, I’ll defer to them, as I have no say in the matter.
As for Bowl games, I’m wasting no cycles worrying about that. We’ll know on Sunday, so anything I say at this point is pissing in the wind. I think too much time is wasted on such speculation, but it sells Bud Lite, so it goes on and on and on, ad nauseam. I was counting on seeing the boys land here in Orlando from mid-season on, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. But there’s also the “show me the money” aspect, where the Peach and the Fiesta know Penn State “travels well” and brings big bucks to the economy. I believe that wangling will occur, but I’ll stop blowing wind and wait for Sunday.
The opponent will be interesting, because you know and I know that the way they played for 11/12ths of the season, they’re not going to beat someone like LSU or Missouri. I’m not sure about Tulane — haven’t yet seen them play this year. If PSU wound up facing the loser of the Washington-Oregon game, I’d doubt that they could win. But again, I’m wasting finger strokes on speculation, which will be unnecessary after Sunday.
—TNT