Three takeaways from Penn State’s 38-10 win over SMU in College Football Playoff game

Penn State rolled to a 38-10 win over the SMU Mustangs in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium.

With the win, the Nittany Lions advance to play Boise State at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 31 in the CFP quarterfinals in the Fiesta Bowl. Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s playoff victory:

SMU QB unable to live up to expectations

Penn State praised SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings all week, with head coach James Franklin going as far as comparing him to Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson. But, on Saturday, Jennings looked nothing like the quarterback the Nittany Lions made him out to be.

They praised his ability to keep his eyes up on scrambles and look to make passes. On one of his first scrambles, in a fourth-and-1 situation in the first quarter, he chose to throw a pass (that fell incomplete) instead of taking the easy first down. Then, twice, he kept his eyes up on scrambles and lofted inadvisable passes right into the chest of Penn State linebackers — one to Dom DeLuca and one to Tony Rojas — that were returned for touchdowns. And then he had a ball deflected by DeLuca that the linebacker picked off on a play that, if DeLuca misses the ball, was headed straight for PSU safety Zakee Wheatley.

And all of that was in the first half. Jennings has proven he’s a very good quarterback, but on Saturday he was anything but — and it took the Mustangs out of the game.

Tempo issues are worth monitoring

The Nittany Lion defense played well against SMU for the most part, but still had some issues when the Mustangs decided to go fast on offense. SMU was able to get going on its first drive because it went with tempo and consistently snapped the ball before 15 seconds came off the play clock. And the problems Penn State had in those scenarios are the kind that can carry over to other games. Defensive players were out of sorts, frantically trying to communicate and instead getting caught out of position, giving SMU easy opportunities to pick up big plays.

For whatever reason, the Mustangs went away from their tempo and struggled from there. But for Penn State, this was an issue against Oregon and again early on Saturday, making it worth keeping an eye on as a potential strategy for playoff opponents down the road. Penn State’s defense deserves all the praise it will get from this performance, but it also reinforced it’s not invincible.

Nittany Lions have clear opportunity to make a run

Penn State’s win has it in position to make a deep run in the College Football Playoff. The Nittany Lions will now head to Arizona to take on Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31 — a game in which they’re likely to be favored by at least a touchdown.

This team has proven it can take care of business against teams that are slightly below its level, like SMU, and can hang with the best teams in the country, like Ohio State and Oregon. And with the path the Nittany Lions have — a quarterfinal against the Broncos and a potential semi against Georgia or Notre Dame — there’s reason to believe they can make it all the way to the national title game. It’s far from a foregone conclusion that it will happen, but Saturday did nothing to dissuade the idea that Penn State isn’t among the best teams in the country this season.

This story was originally published December 21, 2024 at 3:30 PM.

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.