Chat about Penn State’s surge tonight at 7

“Penn State still, mathematically, has a chance if things can work out to get to a Big Ten championship game”, said ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. This week, we’ve got some primetime action in State College. At 10-2, Penn State is a viable candidate for one of the New Year’s Bowls. The offseason, the depth, the maturity.

If you can’t think of anything to talk about in the face of all this, you’re just not trying. “All these things play a part in it”.

Coaching: Even – Franklin is having his breakout year with the Nittany Lions, while Ferentz is having yet another average season in Iowa City. They’ve come a long way since sanctions from the Jerry Sandusky case took hold. The Golden Gophers have won three in a row.

Barkley will look to further boost his stock against Iowa at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Beaver Stadium.

“I think, externally, it helps”, Franklin said. “Typically going to play with a two-high safety and do a great job with those things”.

“They don’t turn the ball over on offense”.

And they may be required to offset Iowa’s improving run defense.

McSorley has completed 36.7 percent of his passes of at least 20 yards during the Lions’ four-game winning streak. The Maxwell Award semifinalist will have a more hard time earning yardage than a week ago, but could still be in for a big day against the nation’s 54th-ranked run defense.

Iowa: RB Akrum Wadley. Beathard is a typical drop-back quarterback that doesn’t do much damage at all with his legs, managing positive rushing yardage in just three games this season. That would also help prop up quarterback Trace McSorley’s terrible completion percentage. No doubt about it. I expect Desmond King will play a key role in keeping Penn State from creating too many big plays through the air. “We’re in there with some of the great teams in the country, so I think it’s just wonderful that we’re there”. They give the Lions a distinct size advantage along with 6-3 Saeed Blacknall, who is working his way back from an injury. Several Nittany Lions will have to play important roles in order to keep the win streak alive.

It’s the first meeting between the schools since 2012.

It is Penn State’s first exhibition matchup since 2013.

Saquon Barkley is running with reckless abandon lately. Barkley needs 112 yards to hit 1,000 for the second straight year, and he’ll be going up against an Iowa defense that allowed 167 on the ground last week.

Same for the once-struggling offensive line.

Defensively, the Lions have healed up and amped up their pressure.

MI heads to the College Football Playoff, leaving the Rose Bowl to choose a Big Ten replacement.

A proud program is once again trending up. A player, not a strength coach, called out (another) player for not touching a line.

In other words, no let down Saturday at Purdue, beat every other team left on its schedule, including Iowa, and treat the 3-4 Boilermakers as if they were the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Right now the Big Ten hierarchy is why the Nittany Lions are pretenders and it will ultimately stay that way because they have just not yet reached the level of the elites.

“I think whatever the Big Ten feels like we have to do to put the conference in the best position to be successful, that Penn State and myself, we’re supportive of that, but we’re not going to do Friday night home games here”, Franklin said.