Is Penn State football ready to handle the challenges of Big Ten play? James Franklin gives his assessment

Now in the last full week of September, Penn State football turns the page to the first week of the Big Ten schedule. Undefeated in non-conference play for the eighth time in the James Franklin era, the Nittany Lions will prepare for a top-20 showdown when No. 19 Illinois travels to Happy Valley next weekend.

The Blue and White are fresh off a record-setting outing Saturday afternoon against Kent State, where the Nittany Lions set a new program record for total offense in a game and had the highest yardage differential of any team in the country against an FBS opponent over the last two decades.

Saturday’s 56-0 thrashing of the Golden Flashes comes after narrowly squeaking by Ball State 34-27 in Week 2. At the time a convincing 34-12 win, the Nittany Lions’ season-opening victory in Morgantown has seemingly lost some of its luster after West Virginia suffered a second loss in the Backyard Brawl.

Does James Franklin think Penn State football is ready for Big Ten play?

With the toughest test so far this year now six days away, followed by a five-week stretch that includes trips to USC and Wisconsin as well as a home date with Ohio State, has Penn State football proven that it’s ready to take on the Big Ten slate?

While he acknowledges that there’s still plenty of work to be done, James Franklin believes that the results so far this season can speak for themselves.

“It’s interesting because you play this type of opponent [Kent State], and everybody thinks it’s just going to be easy, right?” Franklin said on Saturday evening. “You know, they still got scholarship athletes, and I know they’ve had some struggles this year, but they came out here and fought, and we started out a little bit slower than I would have liked, but overall, I thought we took a really good step.”

“We went on the road and won in a tough environment. I think West Virginia won today. We played well enough to win last week [against Bowling Green], but probably not up to our standard, which I’ll admit. And then I thought this week we did what we needed to do, so we’ve got to take all three of those different experiences and learn from them, and then get better this week. And we’ve got a really good opponent coming in. I’ve got a ton of respect for them [Illinois]. It’s going to be a heck of a game, but I do think we’ve done what we needed to do up to this point.

“It hasn’t always been perfect, but there’s a lot of places in the country right now that would love to be 1-0 this week and 3-0 for the season. So, I’m happy with that, but there’ll be a ton of things that we’re still going to have to get cleaned up for next week.”

Allar: Goal is to refine Nittany Lion offense’s process heading into the conference schedule

© Grace Carella / Basic Blues Nation, 2024.

In a similar vein to his head coach, Drew Allar is looking to build on the positive momentum coming out of Saturday’s win. Allar led the Nittany Lions’ historic offensive outing with 335 total yards and four touchdowns. The junior quarterback threw just four errant passes on the afternoon.

“So there’s going to be little things to clean up, and those are the things we have to keep continuing to grow on. But it, really we talk about it on offense each week, is finding our process and getting better at our process,” Allar said. “And our process should be growing each week, and we should be adding on things and getting better, just perfecting it.

“So that’s going to be our goal going into next week. And we’re going to, you know, just learn from this win and just building on that.”

Drew Allar speaks on record-setting Penn State football win over Kent State

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Drew Allar speaks on record-setting Penn State football win over Kent State

“I would say that we are,” Allar responded when asked if the Penn State offense was ready for conference play. “So again, it’s just refining our process, continuing to get better throughout the weeks of practice, and just being very dialed into the game plan.”

Kickoff between No. 9 Penn State football and No. 19 Illinois is set for 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

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