The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State’s 79-7 blowout win over Idaho
Penn State wideout KJ Hamler posted his first career multi-TD receiving performance Saturday — but he won’t forget Saturday’s dominating 79-7 victory over Idaho for an altogether different reason.
Idaho pointed out his “tells,” how he was tipping off the defense to some plays before the snap. The Vandals literally just told him after the game.
Once the final whistle sounded, linebacker Tre Walker — Hamler identified him as “No. 8” — approached the Penn State playmaker to offer some advice that could have a positive impact once the Big Ten season rolls around.
“One of the players came up to me and actually gave me a tip on my splits and how they can read some plays and stuff like that,” Hamler said. “And I thought that was very cool. I never had a player do that.”
Walker’s message was that some of Hamler’s splits seemed a bit “odd,” or different than the norm, so the defense was able to anticipate some of his routes. That kind of postgame advice is almost unheard of at any level of football, but FCS Idaho might never again face the Nittany Lions — so the Vandals didn’t have much to lose.
Hamler appeared to take the talk to heart. That was a unique experience, he said.
“That was the first time,” Hamler said, explaining no opponent has ever before shared tells like that. “I appreciated it, though. It’s something I never experienced before, but I really appreciated it.”
Hamler finished the game with four catches on four targets for 115 yards and two touchdowns. He also had 16 rushing yards and 28 punt-return yards during what was the highest-scoring Penn State game since 1991.
Good
RB Nick Eury’s feel-good moment: Eury is a Pennsylvania product, a walk-on from a small town (Shavertown; pop: 2K), whose best bet after high school was to play football at a Division III school in Luzerne County. But he wanted to wear the blue-and-white, accepted an invitation as a preferred walk-on and never stopped putting in the work.
And, on Saturday, toward the end of the game, it finally paid off.
Eury put together a run that would’ve made Saquon Barkley proud. He bounced right to find some room, avoided several would-be tacklers and nearly went down before putting his hand in the dirt. He then popped himself back up and spun into in the end zone for his first career touchdown.
Prior to Saturday’s game, the redshirt junior had one career carry for four yards. Against Idaho, he had six carries for 44 yards, including the eight-yard TD.
“It was fantastic to see Nick Eury score a touchdown and how our sideline reacted,” head coach James Franklin said. “I was a little worried we were going to get penalties because guys were running on the field without helmets.”
Journey Brown called him the “glue” that helps keep the RB room together. Assistant coach Ja’Juan Seider told the Times-Leader he’s a “culture-driver.” And teammates couldn’t have been happier for him.
“To see him score today, just seeing all the work he put in pay off, it’s just fantastic,” Brown said. “You really get emotional when you see it.”
QB Sean Clifford impresses in debut: Clifford wasn’t perfect — he admitted he was nervous early on — but, once he settled in, he showed just why James Franklin didn’t hand the starting job to the since-transferred Tommy Stevens in the spring.
Clifford bounced back after making some mistakes on the first two drives, such as overthrowing a wide-open Pat Freiermuth, and he led the offense to touchdown drives in three of the next four possessions. He also made one highlight-worthy play on his first TD pass of the game, a 36-yard strike to Hamler.
With the pocket closing in on him, he stepped up and bought some extra time. Instead of dumping it off to the running back, he held onto the ball a half-second longer, narrowly avoided a sack and connected on the touchdown pass. That was the first glimpse of Clifford’s big-play ability this season, and it’s just the start of what could be a memorable career as QB1.
DE Yetur Gross-Matos starts off hot: Despite playing in limited snaps, because so many players saw time, Yetur Gross-Matos was still the talk of the defense.
The future first-rounder racked up 2.5 sacks against Idaho — all of which came in the first half. If there was a question of whether Gross-Matos would have a slow start to the season, after he was suspended for the summer, that was answered emphatically Saturday.
“I had a pretty good start,” Gross-Matos said. “I’m not surprised; you need to practice and work to have success.”
Added DT PJ Mustipher: “He’s ready to take off.”
Defensive depth at an all-time high: Twenty-seven defensive players recorded a tackle or a pass breakup Saturday, and the highlights came from everywhere.
True freshman Keaton Ellis played early, before the game got out of hand, and finished with a pass breakup. Linebacker Brandon Smith, another true freshman, laid a hard hit on a Vandal late in the game — one that caused the crowd to groan and had OL CJ Thorpe falling to his knees on the sideline. Newcomer Adisa Issac also combined with LB Jesse Luketa for a stuff in the backfield. Defensive player after defensive player showed no let-up throughout the game.
Franklin said he believes he truly has six defensive ends he can play this season and 5-6 defensive tackles. As a whole, this is as deep a defense that Franklin has had since arriving at Penn State in 2014.
RB Devyn Ford separates himself: With a committee approach this season, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if no running back stood out Saturday. After all, no back carried the ball more than seven times against Idaho.
But Ford — a true freshman who only arrived over the summer — had fans talking after his six-carry, 107-yard performance. His key play was an 81-yard TD scamper, where he stiff-armed one defender and outran all the others.
Now, that doesn’t mean the depth chart is going to be flipped upside-down next week. It’s obviously early, and Ricky Slade-Journey Brown will likely open most games early on. But Ford performed about as well as could’ve been hoped.
The newcomer has home-run speed. And he showed that Saturday.
K Jordan Stout delivers historic first impression: Has a Penn State kicker ever had a better debut than Stout? It doesn’t seem like it.
The Virginia Tech transfer booted a 53-yard field goal in the first quarter, meaning only three Nittany Lions have ever kicked farther field goals — Chris Bahr (55 yards), Herb Menhardt (54) and Sam Ficken (54). Stout could legitimately break the school record for the longest field goal this season.
On top of that, Stout recorded 13 touchbacks as the kickoff specialist Saturday. That’s the most touchbacks in a single game by a Penn State player since at least 2011, when kickoffs were moved to the 35-yard line.
Bad
Third downs remain an issue: Lost in Penn State’s 79-point, 673-yard day was the fact that the offense still had a problem with third downs — which doesn’t bode well for when explosive plays don’t happen every other snap.
The Nittany Lions finished 1-for-8 on third downs Saturday. Sure, that can just be chalked up to being an anomaly in such a unique matchup. But it’s worth reminding that Penn State also ranked No. 86 nationally last season in third-down rate (37.1 percent).
Whether this was a one-time hiccup or the continuation of a past issue remains to be seen. But Franklin sure wished it was different Saturday.
“One of the things that stood out to me — again, I haven’t studied all of the stats or the film yet — but we have to get better at third down,” he said. “We weren’t as good on third down as we need to be. Obviously, that will be an emphasis as we continue moving forward.”
Ugly
TE Pat Freiermuth suffers helmet-to-helmet hit: On the final offensive play of the first half, Freiermuth was trying to reel in a catch over the middle — he couldn’t get to it in time, getting one hand on it — when the opposing safety lowered his head and smacked Freiermuth right in the helmet.
No flag was called, and the safety wasn’t ejected. But the helmet-to-helmet hit was evident, and Freiermuth stayed down on the field for a few moments before teammates helped him up.
Freiermuth did not return to the game, although he remained on the sideline in uniform. Franklin declined to discuss his injury status after the game, when asked if he could’ve returned if needed.
“I appreciate the question,” Franklin said, “but I don’t get into specifics when it comes to injuries. But I understand you got to ask.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2019 at 1:56 PM.