5 things to watch in Saturday’s Penn State-Idaho college football game

The No. 15 Penn State Nittany Lions will take on FCS Idaho in Happy Valley at 3:30 p.m. Saturday (BTN) in the season opener. Here are five things you should keep an eye on:

QB Sean Clifford’s first career start

Expectations couldn’t be much higher for a redshirt sophomore who has seven career passes to his name. Sean Clifford began last season as the team’s third-string QB, but his stock has risen dramatically since then. Pro Football Focus has already dubbed him the nation’s 31st-best signal caller, and teammates have spoken glowingly of him in the offseason.

Clifford acknowledged Wednesday night that, ever since Tommy Stevens transferred in April, he felt like this was his offense. He’s been calm and poised since the pressure of QB1 was dumped on his shoulders and, in the portions of practice open to the media, he’s completed plenty of long passes that fell right into the receivers’ hands. The main question here is whether the same Clifford in practice will be the same one come gametime.

Will he turn into the likes of interception-machine Nathan Peterman? Or will he shake off the butterflies and impress in his debut? We’re leaning (heavily) toward the latter — but we’ll see for sure Saturday.

First look at promising true freshmen, transfers

James Franklin doesn’t often pull his starters at halftime, even in blowouts, but the Nittany Lions’ newcomers should still see time in the fourth quarter. And a handful of true freshmen should even be part of the early rotation.

RBs Noah Cain and Devyn Ford will play Saturday and are expected to be offensive staples all season long. CB Keaton Ellis could play at nickel later this season, and he’s already factored into the two-deep. JUCO safety Jaquan Brisker lost out to Lamont Wade at safety, but he’s expected to still play a significant role. And transfer kicker Jordan Stout will take care of kickoffs.

Other newcomers who earned a “green light” by Franklin, meaning the team isn’t expected to redshirt them, include DE Adisa Isaac, OL Caedan Wallace and LBs Lance Dixon and Brandon Smith.

The “bubble” players — guys who still might or might not redshirt — will also play since they can compete in four games while maintaining the right to redshirt. Franklin said he’d like to play those fringe players early in the season and, if they fare well, they’ll continue to play and will not redshirt. If they need more seasoning? They’ll go back to the bench and redshirt this season.

Talented rotation at running back

Sure, last year’s starter in Miles Sanders is now making headlines for the Philadelphia Eagles. But this is still the strength of the offense, and the depth here borders on ridiculous.

Ricky Slade, the nation’s top all-purpose back in the 2018 recruiting class, will get the start Saturday. But the three backs behind him are also expected to see plenty of carries — including speedster Journey Brown and true freshmen Noah Cain and Devyn Ford, who were both ranked as top-10 backs in the 2019 class.

Every back brings something a little different to the table. Slade is an explosive player who can catch well and block well enough. Brown has the straight-line speed of an elite track athlete. Cain can wear defenses down with his 206-pound frame. And Ford is a quick study with big-play ability.

Playing four backs in one game sounds like a tall task, but this is something assistant coach Ja’Juan Seider is accustomed to. When he was with West Virginia in 2016, for example, he also had four pretty good running backs to work with — and all four finished with between 49 and 163 carries on the season. This season could mirror that.

By the end of the year, the rotation could be completely flipped. Cain earned a lot of fans for his tough running at the Blue-White Game, and some analysts think Ford could be the starter by season’s end. This will be a fierce competition all season long, and Saturday is only the beginning.

Defensive dominance

Defensive tackle Robert Windsor, a redshirt senior, said this is the best Penn State defense he’s been on. And Franklin said Wednesday night that, at this early point, he believes that this defense is on track to be his best with the Nittany Lions.

Expectations are sky-high for this unit. Last season, the defense talked about getting 50 sacks. This season, players are talking about being the nation’s No. 1-ranked defense. Frankly, they have a chance.

There are stars at every level here. On the line, Yetur Gross-Matos is a potential top-10 NFL draft pick next season. And fellow DE Jayson Oweh made Bruce Feldman’s annual “Freaks List” for running a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at 256 pounds ... which is all the more impressive considering that Oweh isn’t even a starter. That’s how stacked this line is.

At linebacker, Micah Parsons — another pick on Feldman’s “Freaks List” — is a staple on several preseason All-America teams. He runs in the low 4.4s at 245 pounds, and few defensive players in the Big Ten are more athletic. And, at corner, John Reid might leave Happy Valley having watched more film than any player in Penn State history. He’s a cerebral perfectionist, and fellow starter Tariq Castro-Fields boasts all-conference potential.

Add all that together, and you get a defense that will easily be among the Big Ten’s best — and should be among the nation’s best. The depth here is impressive and, even if Penn State puts in its third-team in the fourth quarter, it should still dominate. Don’t blink when Idaho has the ball Saturday; you might miss greatness.

Special teams, wide receiver woes behind PSU?

Last season’s struggles were hard to ignore. The Nittany Lions’ wideouts dropped a combined 25 passes, the 15th-worst rate in the nation, and just about every special-teams unit regressed from the year before. It was consistently bad. Very, very bad.

But there are reasons for optimism this season. Gone are receivers coach David Corley and special-teams coordinator Phil Galiano, and in their places are the more-esteemed Gerad Parker and Joe Lorig.

Corley coached receivers last year despite coaching run-first Army’s wideouts the year before. Parker is a proven commodity — and former Division I wideout himself — who’s mentored the likes of Marshall’s Aaron Dobson. Lorig has coached for 22 seasons and has already spent six years with special teams.

Players are more confident with both coaches this season, and Franklin has been pleased with the progress sparked by the pair. We won’t know for sure Saturday if the drops and special-teams miscues are truly behind this team — Idaho isn’t exactly Ohio State — but a mistake-free afternoon would still surely be a big step in the right direction.

This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 7:24 PM.