Daily briefing: On Penn State’s offensive line, Iowa’s development and ‘Michigan Day’ at App State
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
Can Penn State block anybody?
Penn State opens at Purdue on Thursday night, and a conference game on the road is about as rude a wake-up call as you can get. The Nittany Lions return a veteran quarterback in Sean Clifford, four of their top five receivers and have not only their leading rusher, Keyvone Lee, but two of the top true freshman backs in the nation in Nick Singleton (On3 Consensus five-star recuit and national top-30 prospect) and Kaytron Allen (four-star recruit). And none of that talent and experience will matter if James Franklin hasn’t put together a better offensive line. Penn State has allowed 62 sacks in the past two seasons, nearly three a game, and the offense didn’t have a touchdown run longer than 7 yards a year ago. It will be interesting to see how dirty Clifford’s jersey gets at Ross-Ade Stadium.
Something in the water in Iowa
The two defensive starters at Iowa mentioned as All-America candidates, linebacker Jack Campbell and corner Riley Moss, are both from Iowa (Cedar Falls and Ankeny, respectively). The Hawkeyes’ 2021 Rimington Trophy winner and consensus All-America center Tyler Linderbaum, now playing for the Baltimore Ravens, is from Solon, Iowa. All three were three-star recruits. Are the rating services selling Iowa high school football short? Is this another example of how well Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz develops talent? I don’t know, but there’s a long list of guys who leave Iowa a lot more famous than when they arrived.
Remembering a big win at the Big House
It’s Michigan Day at App State, the 15th anniversary of the Mountaineers’ 34-32 upset at the Big House, and why it’s not a campus holiday in Boone, N.C., is a mystery. It’s rare that one game changes the fortune of a football program, an athletic department and a university so drastically. The victory accelerated the $50 million facilities campaign that built the seven-story Ricks Athletic Complex on the west side of Kidd Brewer Stadium. Enrollment has increased 30 percent. And App State seized the momentum of the victory and three consecutive FCS national championships to transition into the FBS ranks and the Sun Belt Conference, which they have won four times in their eight seasons in the league. Not bad for one game.