If Penn State football didn’t know its identity before, it does after grinding past UCLA
It is not often that a 6-foot-4, 350-pound offensive lineman is the player everyone wants to talk to after a game, but Saturday was an exception.
Penn State guard Vega Ioane was surrounded by reporters following the Nittany Lions’ 27-11 victory over UCLA in Beaver Stadium. Though he said he’s not one to indulge in some of the attention coming his way — he said postgame that his phone is blowing up — he very much earned it.
Ioane has been put in pre-snap motion several times this season, but Saturday contained the biggest highlight play he’d ever made as a Nittany Lion. Ioane came around the edge and lit up UCLA defensive end Luke Schuermann on a play in the second quarter, finishing the block off by hitting Schuermann again before he could get up.
The Penn State offensive lineman was fired up after the play, throwing his hands up and pumping his fist, but it wasn’t all about his block.
“When I hit him, I thought we scored,” Ioane said with a smile. “I thought that was why everyone was getting hype. So I turned around and I hyped myself up because I just made a big hit of course.”
The eight-yard gain didn’t add any immediate points, but it did tell the tale of what Penn State football has become in 2024.
The Nittany Lions are a physical and attacking team and have turned into the type of opponent that teams don’t want to see on Saturdays.
This matchup may have played into that mentality more than usual — because the team was without Nick Singleton at running back and was left to feed human battering ram Kaytron Allen instead. Allen did not have the best game of his career, but finished with 21 carries and 78 yards, emblematic of how Penn State was able to physically grind away at the UCLA defense.
The mentality this team has isn’t an accident. Head coach James Franklin has emphasized that physicality during spring practice and fall camp, and it’s carrying over to game days.
Tight end Tyler Warren — a bit of a battering ram himself — said that’s a top-down matter that everyone is putting a focus on.
“I think it’s a little bit from everybody,” Warren said about the physicality. “Going against our defense through the spring and the summer, (offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki) was harping on it all offseason. Us, as players, we understand what we want our offense to look like and I think that’s a part of it.”
But physical doesn’t have to mean boring. The Nittany Lions are not trotting on the field with a fullback, two tight ends and running straight ahead. Quite the contrary. They’re winning their matchups with physicality, but getting to those matchups with finesse and creativity.
Sometimes that means putting a powerhouse like Ioane in motion and letting him destroy anything in his path. But even that isn’t the only thing that comes out of moving linemen around.
“There’s not many guys that are 6-4, 6-5 and 350 pounds that can move like him,” Warren said. “That’s something he’s capable of doing. And I think there’s a lot of things he can do in that type of role. And it’s fun to watch.”
If the lineman gets what he’s hoping for, he’ll get a target out of the formation eventually — but, as he said, that is up to Kotelnicki. It wouldn’t be the first time the coordinator did something outside the norm to get players the ball.
Warren is the best example of that, lining up at quarterback and barreling forward on running plays despite being a tight end.
That is the uniqueness of this team. It leans on old school physicality and new school philosophy. That applies to the defense, too. The team is trying to lay the wood on that side of the ball and force turnovers and dominate in the trenches. But it’s also playing soft zones and keeping everything in front of it until, eventually, the opposing offense makes a mistake, gets behind the sticks and has to end its drive with a kick.
On both sides of the ball, it’s all blending together. Wideout Tre Wallace is running angry after the catch. Allen is fighting for every yard after contact. The defensive line is pushing back opponents on every snap. This team, for better and for worse, has an identity. And that means something.
“I’m happy with the physicality that we play with,” Warren added. “I think we’ve got the right mentality with the offense up front.”
There have been more talented offenses under Franklin at Penn State — like 2016 and 2017 — along with other elite defenses (pick a year and you’ll probably land on one). But none of those units were part of a team that has been able to put it all together to be among the elite of college football.
But this could be the year it finally comes together. The Nittany Lions know who they are.
This story was originally published October 5, 2024 at 7:20 PM.
