Penn State football vs. Rutgers: scouting report, prediction
Penn State football will be searching when it meets its traditional late-season punching bag on Saturday, the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers.
Start with spirit and football life. Will they have enough, on Senior Day of all things, since their biggest dreams were blown up, once and for all, just last week?
Go to the offense. Can it possibly look much different — be any more productive and functional — since firing its coordinator? Assistants Ja'Juan Seider and Ty Howle will run the day for the first time.
Then there's James Franklin. The 10-season head coach was booed and jeered off the field after the Michigan loss. How will his welcoming, and departing, go on the final Beaver Stadium date of the season?
Of course, there's the detail of the actual match-up at hand, one that's played out 33 times previously in various locales. Penn State has won all but two, each since that fateful State College day in 1988 (21-16 defeat).
Beating Penn State? Rutgers must, first, simply aspire to scoring a touchdown in Beaver Stadium. The Knights haven't done that yet since joining the Big Ten, being outscored 118-15 overall there — managing just five field goals through four games.
Can Saturday be different for two teams with resolute defenses, each coming off deflating defeats?
Penn State football: Can defense rise up once more?
The biggest obstacle for bowl-bound, inspiring Rutgers may simply be its health. It may have simply hit a wall, evidenced by its 22-0 loss at Iowa and subsequent injuries incurred. Big Ten-leading rusher Kyle Monangai (94 yards per game) is working on a wobbly ankle. Top cornerback and No. 2 receiver may also be out now. Star linebacker Tyreem Powell has been gone since mid-October.
A breakthrough Saturday may require more than proper spirit and want-to. For starters, they'll need Monangai battering at something close to top speed and a remarkably efficient day from QB Gavin Wimsatt (pummeled by Abdul Carter, Curtis and company last year in New Jersey). He's proven, once again, to be a better, big-body runner than thrower.
It should come to this: As emotionally injured and swayed as the Lions may be, their defenders are still the deepest, most talented and trustworthy group on the field.
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That, alone, should carry them the entire day, if needed, unlike possible in their previous penultimate tests.
Rutgers, for all of its proud work and improvement, isn't Ohio State or Michigan.
Prediction: Penn State 30, Rutgers 10
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football, Big Ten prediction vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
