The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing Penn State football’s 35-16 win over Michigan State

Penn State couldn’t have asked for a much better Saturday.

The Nittany Lions won their matchup with Michigan State on Senior Day, despite the game getting a little bit nervy in the fourth quarter. They watched as Michigan defeated Ohio State, increasing their chances of going to the Rose Bowl. Then they saw LSU fall to Texas A&M and Clemson fall to South Carolina, almost assuredly pushing them into the top 10.

So, then, what comes next? That’s still to be determined.

“We actually went over it with the captains last week to make sure they were on the same page with us,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said. “They’ll get a little bit of time off here over the next couple days. Tomorrow is the first Sunday they’ll have off. There’s a new kind of transfer portal period where things shut down where we normally would go right on the road recruiting and we’ll be in the office for three or four days meeting with all the players and making sure we’re all on the same page, finding out what bowl we’re going to and then we’ll get started practices before we know necessarily who we’re playing ball with. We’ll have practices and then get into the bowl prep, but I don’t have all the details and the specifics for you.”

There are plenty of options on the table. The Rose Bowl is in play. The Citrus Bowl is as well. Myriad scenarios remain available that could send Penn State from one end of the country to the other for its bowl trip.

The Rose Bowl seems like the ideal outcome, one that would require Ohio State to make the College Football Playoff after losing to Michigan.

Franklin said he still wants the best bowl possible for his team, and athletic director Pat Kraft will be the one lobbying for its inclusion somewhere.

“I think it’s still important to go to the biggest and the best games you possibly can in the postseason, and whether that is the New Year’s Six bowl game or whatever, there’s still value in it,” Franklin said. “... Pat will handle (lobbying for bowls). He’s got tremendous experience doing it. The Big Ten will do everything they possibly can to help all the teams within the conference, getting the best situations we possibly can.”

Good

Sean Clifford: For all of the consternation, for all of the ups and downs, Saturday was a good performance for Sean Clifford. He was not perfect. But he deserved to go out with a good game. Clifford is a player who has heard boos most of the season and has had headlines written about his potential benching — yes that includes me. He had seen the ups and the downs in his six years of playing college football.

For one night in Beaver Stadium, it all seemed to go well. He got a win, got to walk off the field with a smile and tears in his eyes on his Senior Day. There are nits you can pick, but Saturday was a good day for Sean Clifford.

Ji’Ayir Brown: From one end of the spectrum to the other. Clifford has dealt with a tumultuous season, but it’s all mostly been good this year for Ji’Ayir Brown. He’s played at an incredibly high level all season and managed to force another turnover in his Senior Day game. Brown is the heart and soul of the Penn State defense and played like it against the Spartans.

He was all over the field and came barreling toward Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne more than once, just a couple steps away from earning his fourth sack of the season. Brown’s contributions may go more unnoticed because he’s only spent three years at Penn State, but his impact will stick with the next generation of safeties who have praised his leadership.

PJ Mustipher: Sensing a theme here? Look, it’s Senior Day, what did you expect? PJ Mustipher has been a rock for the Nittany Lions all season along the interior of the defensive line. He’s coming off an undisclosed leg injury that knocked him out for an extended stretch last year and into the offseason. Naturally he came back by having one of the best seasons of his career and capping it off with another great game against Michigan State.

He was the force in the middle that helped Penn State hold the Spartans to 50 rushing yards, not counting the sack yardage they took. He was once again difficult to move and filled enough space to allow the Nittany Lions’ linebackers to make plays. Speaking of whom …

Abdul Carter: All right, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Abdul Carter played like a star against MSU. The kind of player you can build a defense around and an offense has to build a game plan around to stop. He has always been an outstanding athlete but now he’s playing instinctually and making plays before they’ve even developed.

He finished with seven tackles, three for loss and two sacks in the game, exploding off the edge and disrupting the Michigan State offense in the backfield. It remains to be seen who will and won’t come back for next season, but Carter will be one of the defense’s best players no matter who lines up next to him.

Bad

Mel Tucker’s contract extension: The tale of two contract extensions. Both Franklin and Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker signed 10-year extensions last season, but their paths have gone in opposite directions ever since. For all of the issues fans have with Franklin, he led the team back to 10 wins and closer to where the program wants to be.

Tucker and the Spartans fell off drastically, unable to rekindle the magic he and his staff created in 2021 by hitting the transfer portal hard. The Spartans sit at 5-7 to end the regular season with more questions than answers after this year’s crop of portal additions prepares to depart. An important reminder to Nittany Lion fans that things could always be worse — much worse.

The rest of the college football world: I touched on this in the intro, but Saturday was another reminder that anybody can lose any game — something that hasn’t really negatively impacted Penn State this season. LSU lost to a bad Texas A&M team that was nosediving over the second half of the season. Clemson lost to a South Carolina team that couldn’t beat anyone until it beat Tennessee last week. Vaunted Ohio State was shellacked by Michigan and now might be falling out of the playoff race (yes, that one is very different than the others but still important considering how much better the Buckeyes are perceived to be).

Penn State took care of business after losing to Ohio State. There is value in that. Just ask fans of the Tigers — either of them.

Ugly

The Land Grant Trophy: I mean, it is. There might not be an uglier trophy in the country. And it got a little uglier Saturday when a piece broke off the behemoth that it is and will now probably have to be repaired. Generally speaking, I love rivalry games and adding a trophy makes those matchups even more fun. It just so happens that Penn State-Michigan State isn’t much of a rivalry, so it makes sense that the Land Grant Trophy isn’t much of a trophy.

Jon Sauber

Centre Daily Times

(814) 231-6461

Jon Sauber covers Penn State football and men’s basketball for the Centre Daily Times. He earned his B.A. in digital and print journalism from Penn State and his M.A. in sports journalism from IUPUI. His previous stops include jobs at The Indianapolis Star, the NCAA, and Rivals.