Close-knit Nittany Lions confident and ready to keep rolling

The Nittany Lions seek a fifth straight victory when they host the Hawkeyes on Saturday night.

Heading into what is sure to be raucous environment this Saturday, the Hawkeyes will look to extend an impressive road win streak which now stands at nine games.

That’s the thing about this team that makes it so much better than others in recent Penn State memory, the thing that defies its youth and may speak more to an exciting future for this program than any other statistic or concrete fact.

The 62-point outburst was the most the Nittany Lions scored in a Big Ten game since scoring 63 in 2005 against IL. However, a team you don’t often hear mentioned alongside those schools is Penn State.

The sophomore running back has been one of the most effective backs in the country during his last four games.

“I think the team chemistry is just light years from how it’s been the past couple years”, he said, pointing out the extra work put in by a great many players in the offseason and the leaders who have emerged in every positional group. That’s what we’ve done time and time again through so many ways.

The reason all of these players are being mentioned is because their importance to the team will be profound affecting wins and losses, which will determine is they are contenders or pretenders. Wadley averages 7.07 yards a play (90 plays), which is fourth in total offense in the B1G and seventh in yards per carry.

Mahon struggled at left tackle in the loss at Pitt, giving up two sacks that led to fumbles and touchdowns. Few expected Penn State to arrive at this point so quickly. He ignites an underrated defense that may be the most disciplined Penn State faces this year.

The Lions may be able to throw and kick away from star cornerback and returner Desmond King, but they won’t be able to avoid Jewell.

Fortunately, Penn State’s run defense has vastly improved since the first half of the Minnesota game in week five, as bscaff pointed out earlier in the week. Bell’s played in all but two of those road games and said the trick is to maintain your energy level throughout the game, something that’s easier to do with an atmosphere like the one Penn State last played in. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. So far this season, Wadley has 18 catches for 188 yards. The time could be near for all that progress to turn into results on the recruiting trail.

Despite a strong front seven, Iowa is giving up 150+ yards per game rushing in 2016.

But man, did they ever get it figured out after halftime, when they tortured the Purdue defense for 315 yards and 45 points that led to a convincing 62-24 victory.

Franklin pointed out, as he’s done before, he wasn’t fully aware of what he was getting into when he came to Penn State following the sanctions.

While head coach James Franklin seems to live by the mantra that publicity like this can’t possibly be bad on a national scale, he stressed during his weekly press conference Tuesday that his team has to do what seems hard when it comes to outside praise if it wants to continue its march toward relevance.

Tight end Mike Gesicki was clearly hobbled in Penn State’s win against Purdue, and the Nittany Lions will hope that he is back to 100 percent to make full use of his exceptional athleticism. It’s up to Allen to be the last line of defense against that rushing attack.

This game will be close. This won’t be any different, but Penn State’s crowd will be raucous on Saturday night.

That would be working more of its potential in the pass game – more than simply a handful of big plays.