Here’s what you should keep an eye on in the Penn State-Indiana football game

The Nittany Lions’ last-gasp, thrilling win over Iowa is behind them. Now, the focus is on Indiana.

The No. 4 Nittany Lions (4-0) return home to face the Hoosiers (2-1) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State — which owns a 19-1 series lead — opened as 18-point favorites over Indiana.

Let’s get to a handful of things to watch on Saturday:

Barkley out of the backfield

This may not come as a shock, but Saquon Barkley has an opportunity to make history in back-to-back weeks.

Barkley’s 358 all-purpose yards at Iowa set a single-game program record.

Now, the Heisman Trophy candidate needs 103 receiving yards to become the first Penn State player with 3,000 rushing and 1,000 career receiving yards. Barkley already surpassed 3,000 rushing yards with 211 on the ground against the Hawkeyes.

Barkley’s certainly capable of hitting 103 receiving yards. He leads the Big Ten in receiving yards — yes, a running back leads the conference in receiving — with 335. The junior had 142 yards through the air against Georgia State and 94 at Iowa.

A couple weeks ago, he became the first Penn State running back to have a 100-yard receiving game since Tony Hunt’s 110 against Minnesota in 2004.

Barkley could easily have two 100-yard receiving games in a matter of three weeks — and make history doing so.

Getting after it

Penn State’s defense has dominated the point of attack so far this season, averaging 10.5 tackles for loss per game — which ranks No. 1 nationally.

Meanwhile, Indiana has allowed 22 tackles for loss through three games. That 7.33 per game average ranks 111th in the country.

Ohio State tallied nine tackles for loss against the Hoosiers in Week 1; expect the Nittany Lions to maintain that double-digit average this weekend.

Wright at right?

Right tackle Chasz Wright wasn’t able to play at Iowa. He was dressed but only watched his teammates warm up.

And yet, it sounds as if the redshirt junior — who started the season — will be good to go against Indiana.

When addressing Penn State’s blocked kick at Kinnick Stadium in his opening statement, James Franklin mentioned that the presence of Wright on the field goal unit was missed.

“It will be good having Chasz back at 6-7, 357 pounds,” Franklin said. “It will be nice to have him back, his size and length there.”

If he’s back on the field goal unit, one can expect him to return to the offensive line, contributing and possibly starting at right tackle. Either way, it’s worth keeping an eye on this spot.

Housing it

J-Shun Harris — one of the deadliest punt returners in college football — could cause the Nittany Lions fits.

Harris has returned two punts for touchdowns already this year — a 70-yarder last week against Georgia Southern and a 44-yarder at Virginia. His 26.1 yards per return ranks first in the Big Ten and third in the nation.

It’s not the first time Penn State has gone up against a game-changing returner this season. Pitt’s Quadree Henderson — a first-team All-America returner in 2016 — provided a challenge a couple weeks ago.

“Once again, we’ve got a special teams guy that’s going to be a major factor that we have to deal with,” Franklin added.

Penn State’s coverage team did well to bottle up Henderson back in Week 2, holding him to zero yards on three punt returns. The Nittany Lions hope they limit Harris to similar results.

Trace tuddies

With 10 passing touchdown and two rushing scores this season, Trace McSorley has accounted for 72 points alone. That’s more points than 20 college football teams have totaled this season.

Yep, McSorley’s 72 is outscoring Temple (68), Boston College (60), BYU (39) and 17 other programs.

Granted, eight of those 20 teams have played less than four games this season. But that’s still impressive for the Nittany Lions’ quarterback.

We’ll see if he can keep that form going.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Here’s what you should keep an eye on in the Penn State-Indiana football game."