Texas A&M’s versatile offense could be trouble for Penn State

jrice@centredaily.com

SAN ANTONIO — The statistics, as Texas A&M offensive coordinator Les Koenning quickly pointed out Thursday, are heavily in favor of Penn State.

The Nittany Lions will enter Saturday’s Alamo Bowl (8 p.m., Alamodome) ranked ninth in the nation in total defense. The Aggies are ranked 54th in total offense.

But if you look at each team’s last outing, the disparity doesn’t seem as great.

Quarterback Stephen McGee and the suddenly pass-happy Aggies (7-5) hung 533 yards on Texas in a 38-30 win over the Longhorns on Nov. 23, six days after Michigan State erased a 24-7 second-half deficit to beat Penn State 35-31. Penn State’s defensive players hope to prevent similar performances Saturday.

“I think it’s been in the back of our minds, a little bit,” said Penn State linebacker Sean Lee of the second half in East Lansing. “We kind of went out on a bad note and we want to kind of prove ourselves again. It’s been a motivating factor — it hasn’t hindered us at all.”

Lee and Bednarik Award-winning teammate Dan Connor were consistently superb at linebacker all season. The Nittany Lions’ defensive line and secondary, which fed off of one another, were dominant at times and suspect at others. The dominant stretches were a reason why Penn State (8-4) finished second in the nation with 45 sacks. The suspect stretches were big factors in each of the Nittany Lions’ four losses, particularly the game against Michigan State.

“We talked about it every day. We lost that game, the D-line lost that game,” junior defensive end Josh Gaines said. “(Spartans quarterback Brian Hoyer) had a lot of time to throw the ball. He was running around back and forth for 30 seconds. That’s ridiculous.”

Hoyer had big chunks of time to find wide receiver Devin Thomas and tight end Kellen Davis, both of whom had more than 100 yards receiving. The Spartans also found success on the ground, as few teams did against Penn State this season, with 255-pound tailback Jehuu Caulcrick.

The Aggies (7-5), who have a 45-catch tight end in Martellus Bennett and a 16-touchdown tailback in Jorvorskie Lane, who is reported to be anywhere from 265 to 300 pounds, could pose a similar threat.

“They’ve got a big, tall tight end, they’ve got a big running back,” Gaines said. “The only thing is that A&M might be more of a threat because their quarterback can do more.”

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound McGee averaged 178.9 yards passing and 71.5 yards rushing this season. Though the Aggies had one of their best offensive performances of the year by throwing the ball against Texas far more often than they had to that point in the season, their quarterback knows his team must also be able to run with at least a little success to win Saturday. “You’re not going to be able to move the ball effectively against Penn State all day long if you can’t do both well,” he said.

Penn State cornerback Justin King said the Aggies have some great offensive players, but when he watched film of the Texas game, he saw a lot of mistakes by the Longhorns’ defense.

“Plays that should have been stopped for negative 3 yards went 40 yards for a touchdown. There was one play where they hit the tight end for a quick dump, and two defenders hit each other,” King said. “It was their day. They clicked on all cylinders.”

Who controls the line of scrimmage, at least when A&M has the ball, should control Saturday’s game, whether the Aggies continue taking shots down the field or return to the zone-read option that was the staple of their offense for most of the season.

Texas A&M’s starting offensive tackle Yemi Babalola was suspended earlier this month after being charged with aggravated robbery. Penn State defensive tackle Chris Baker, who started seven of the last nine games, did not make the trip to San Antonio after being charged with assault for his role in an on-campus fight. Neither, for reasons that are yet unknown, did reserve defensive tackle Tom McEowen.

Penn State, which lost starting tackle Jared Odrick to a broken ankle midway through the season, is down to sophomore Phil Taylor and redshirt freshmen Ollie Ogbu and Abe Koroma in the middle.

“We had been blessed with having some depth there,” Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. “And now we don’t have that same type of rotation.”

The Nittany Lions, who also lost defensive ends Jerome Hayes and Devon Still to injuries this season, managed to draw at least one positive from their shrinking front four roster.

“Some guys have had to come in there and play and get a lot more reps than they would have gotten,” Bradley said. That should help them in 2008, when every member of the defense but Connor — and possibly King — will return. So too would turning back Texas A&M.

“We want to take this game and take it as a rolling stone,” Gaines said. “Get a win, and keep going to next season.”