Listen to our recent podcast with Stephen Hiegel of Justcollegfootball.net as we preview the upcoming 2022 season and discuss some Collegefootballfan.com history. To listen, click on the icon below (please fast forward four minutes. This is an unedited copy with four minutes of wasted set-up time. Thanks) :
Game 636 preview: Penn State at Purdue, 8 pm EST on Thursday, September 1
Don’t be fooled. Despite a long-term contract, James Franklin sits on a hot-seat at Penn State. The Nittany Lions’ recent record of 11-11 fires up the pressure on him, not the fans waiting for results. His efforts have to show improvements on the field of play this season.
Purdue comes off a successful 9-4 season led by returning QB Aidan O’Connell. The 2nd Team All-Big Ten QB from a year ago threw for 3,712 yards and 28 TDs last season culminating in a 45-42 win we attended in last season’s Music City Bowl. Some key Boilermaker receivers will likely be replaced by comparable talent. Their running game needs to step up to offer a more potent offensive attack.
Defensive Coordinator Brad Lambert, now with Wake Forest, left an improved defense behind. Two understudies, Ron English and Mark Hagen, resume his defensive 4-2-5 scheme. The loss of DE George Karlaftis to the NFL draft needs to be shored up. S Jalen Graham will be called on to lead the defensive charge as the primary tackler in this defense.
Penn State preview: The good, the bad, and a new season
The Nittany Lions return sixth-year QB Sean Clifford. Many see this as a detriment after last season’s performance, but Clifford played effectively against Iowa last season before suffering an injury while leading. PSU lost that game. Hobbled, he returned and didn’t perform up to speed in losses to Illinois and Ohio State. They also fell by four and three points to Michigan and Michigan State respectively.
Reviewing last season, Franklin noted he needed to strengthen his running game. Five-star frosh RB Nick Singleton took up residence in Happy Valley last January. He will be called up on early to improve the struggling ground game. WR Parker Washington steps up to replace current pro Jahan Dotson, and WR Mike Tinsley transferred in from a record-setting Western Kentucky passing game.
Defense and counter-defense
Like Purdue, PSU has a new defensive coordinator in Manny Diaz, successful as the same previously at Miami. In addition to several returnees up front, two starters from 2020 out with injuries last season return. DT PJ Mustipher and DE Adisa Isaac will be back. The LB corps has only one starter returning, but Diaz moves starting Safety Jon Sutherland up to that spot this season. The secondary will be the strength of this defense with S Ji’Ayar Brown (six INTs) and Joey Porter Jr. at CB.
Purdue HC Jeff Brohm’s offense with O’Connell counters with WR Broc Thompson off a great performance in the Music City Bowl. TE Payne Durham leads a strong group in that position that will give defenses fits. The O-Line returns experience to lead returning top RB King Doerue (533 yards, two TDs) from a year ago. Sampson James, OSU recruit and Indiana transfer, expects to bring some explosiveness to the Boilermakers’ running attack.
Pressure points
Penn State needs to see some improvement up front to give Clifford time and to spring Singleton into the secondary. Key battles this evening will be between the Purdue passing attack against a very good pass defense with more pressure coming up front this season.
Speaking of pressure, pressure falls on Franklin mostly to get his program headed in the right direction right now. He supposedly recruits the talent, but he needs to show how well he can make it all work together on the field. He needs to do this now with improved play-calling for his experienced QB. We expect his offense to be more balanced, and we expect Manny Diaz’s defense to be aggressive. We anticipate that Penn State wins this game over Purdue by a TD at some point in the fourth quarter.
Game 637: Utah State at Alabama preview, 7:30 pm EST on Saturday, September 3
Alabama with its annual bevy of five-star recruits and returning Heisman candidate in QB Bryce Young on offense and LB Will Anderson Jr. on defense should overcome a pretty experienced 11-3 Utah State Aggie team from a year ago. Utah State (1-0) did not want to expose much last week vs. #131 Connecticut to win 31-20 at home. HC Blake Anderson will be pulling out all stops he plugged in last week. We expect to see State run a more balanced up-tempo offense against The Crimson Tide. We watched last week’s USU game on TV. QB Logan Bonner seemed to be throwing off his back foot. If he does that against Bama, the Aggies won’t challenge much on offense, if at all. He’s also going to have to rely more on runs by Calvin Tyler, Jr. behind an experienced o-line to mix in with his passing game.
Short memory, long day?
DE Byron Vaughns impressed on defense last week and as MVP in The LA Bowl last year. However, Alabama’s receivers, Jermaine Burton and Ja’Corey Brooks, though inexperienced, probably have too much speed for the Aggie secondary. If Vaughns and the experienced Aggie front four don’t bring any pressure against that patented load of offensive Alabama linemen, they will have a long day in Tuscaloosa. What can be said in an Alabama preview that hasn’t been over-advertised already?
Factors and antidote
The X-factors for State, if there are any, may include Bama’s date at Texas next week versus former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkasian. Like Utah State against UConn a week ago, Alabama may not be as focused on the task at hand Saturday night. The point spread for this game looms at 41.5 points. First game question marks, learning curves, inexperience at some positions, overconfidence, opponent’s motivation factors, late game substitutions, and looking ahead could possibly keep the Aggies in this one longer than anticipated. The antidote for all of these, of course, could just be HC Nick Saban’s experience. We’ll bank on that, but we just hope that we will see Utah State present some kind of a challenge during our first game ever at Bryant-Denny Stadium to make it somewhat memorable.
-ed. by Steve Koreivo, Author of Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all! Click on the title to order your book to read our unique, fun story about seeing every FBS team (up to the first 120) play in person a least once. And come back here weekly to read about games we continue to attend on a weekly basis stating with #636 and #637 previewed above. Thanks!
