5 things to watch in the Penn State-Maryland football game
The No. 12 Penn State Nittany Lions (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) will take on the Maryland Terrapins (5-6, 3-5) in Happy Valley at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Here are the five things you should keep an eye on:
Honoring Trace McSorley and Penn State’s 21 seniors
McSorley is already the winningest quarterback in Penn State history, and his legacy is entrenched as one of the Nittany Lions’ greatest-ever at his position. He’ll leave the program with virtually every meaningful career record — and Saturday is the last time fans will see him suit up inside Beaver Stadium.
Not just McSorley, of course. He’s the biggest name, but there are plenty of other big contributors, seniors like Amani Ourwariye and Nick Scott, who arrived when Penn State was 7-6 and left with a Big Ten championship and at least two major bowl appearances.
There’ll be a pregame ceremony honoring the seniors, as there is every year. And James Franklin hoped the parking mess wouldn’t keep fans from showing up early to send the seniors out right. “I think these seniors deserve that stadium to be sold out and rocking to pay respect to them,” he said earlier this week.
The complete list of those who will be honored include Mark Allen, Joe Arcangelo, Torrence Brown, Ryan Buchholz, Jake Cooper, Frank Di Leo, Donnell Dix, Koa Farmer, Sterling Jenkins, Trace McSorley, Amani Oruwariye, Nick Scott, Tyler Shoop, Charlie Shuman, Zach Simpson, Jonathan Thomas, DeAndre Thompkins, Kyle Vasey, Jason Vranic, Christopher Welde and Chasz Wright.
Penn State defensive line’s dominance
Assistant coach Sean Spencer’s “Wild Dogs” have been a strength of this team all season, especially the ends. But they’ve been in top form the last two weeks.
In those last two games, against Wisconsin and Rutgers, the line has combined for eight sacks, 14 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Although the Scarlet Knight’s don’t exactly qualify as the Big Ten’s best and brightest, their line still ranks a respectable No. 23 in tackles for loss allowed while the Badgers’ line featured three preseason All-Americans.
In other words, it’s not as if Penn State is just pounding inferior competition in the trenches. There’s a lot of speed here and, coupled with the experience gained this season, it’s become a dominant front.
Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos has more tackles (50) than linebacker Koa Farmer (49), and he also boasts a team-leading 16.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks. Only 12 players in Penn State history have ever reached double-digit sacks in a single season, and only 10 Nittany Lions have ever gotten 20 or more tackles for loss in one season. Fellow DE Shareef Miller isn’t that far behind, with seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
Defensive tackle Robert Windsor is playing his best football of the season right now and, although Kevin Givens isn’t posting up crazy numbers, he’s helped free up his teammates to make plays. This is a dominant unit, and chances are it’ll give Maryland fits on Saturday.
Anthony McFarland and Maryland’s run game
Penn State’s defensive line may have impressed over the last two games, but so has McFarland. The redshirt freshman running back rushed for a combined 508 yards in the last two games — 210 yards against Indiana and 298 yards against Ohio State.
He averaged 10.2 yards per carry on 50 rushing attempts in that two-game sample size. For the season, he’s averaging 8.2 yards a carry. “He can flat-out run,” Franklin said. “I mean, you watch him on tape, he is fast, and makes a bunch of big plays for them.”
Franklin said McFarland has “legitimate 4.3” speed, and he’ll be a handful Saturday — as will Maryland’s running game as a whole. It’s ranked No. 17 nationally, and the speedy Ty Johnson is also expected to return to the lineup Saturday.
As the running game goes, so does Maryland’s offense. It’s 1-4 this season when rushing for less than 200 yards and 4-2 when rushing for more than 200 yards. And those two losses were no faults of the offense; they came in a 34-32 loss to Indiana and a 52-51 overtime loss to Ohio State.
Pat Freiermuth’s red-zone targets
It hasn’t exactly been a banner year for Penn State’s receivers, but the youth movement is giving some hope for the future. Redshirt freshman KJ Hamler showed early in the season that he’s a force to be reckoned with, and Freiermuth — a true freshman — has shown week after week that he might just have the best hands on the team.
He’s coming off his first career multi-touchdown game — he had three catches for 47 yards and two TDs last week — and he’s become one of the few trusty targets for McSorley, especially in the red zone. At 6-foot-5 and 258 pounds, he’s an inch shorter and 13 pounds heavier than Mike Gesicki. He may not be where Gesicki was last season, but he’s definitely farther ahead than where Gesicki was as a true freshman.
Since Sept. 29, Freiermuth has been on an impressive run. He’s caught at least three passes in five of seven games since, and he’s had at least 30 receiving yards in all but one contest during that span. On top of that, he’s had touchdowns in four of those seven games. He’s nearly a lock to make the All-Big Ten freshman team, and he could be in for another big game against the Terps. He’s a mismatch waiting to happen.
What’s at stake
A College Football Playoff berth and a Rose Bowl bid may remain out of the question for Penn State, but that doesn’t mean nothing is on the line. The Nittany Lions are still, somewhat surprisingly, in the mix for a New Year’s Six bowl — specifically the Dec. 29 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Ga.
A win doesn’t necessarily guarantee that, but a loss eliminates that bowl as an option.
As far as Maryland, it stands at 5-6 so bowl eligibility is on the line. It’s pretty straight-forward for the Terps: Beat Penn State and keep the season going; lose and it’s all over.