On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the defense shined the brightest for the Penn State Nittany Lions as they cruised to a 33-13 victory over the Kent State Golden Flashes in their season opener. As a unit, the defense of the Nittany Lions allowed only six points while the offense gave up seven as the result of a Trace McSorley fumble returned for a touchdown in the second quarter.
The Nittany Lions got two touchdowns through the air from McSorley with DaeSean Hamilton hauling in a first-quarter touchdown while tight end Mike Gesicki hauled in the other late in the fourth quarter. Tyler Davis added two field goals for a Penn State team who went 4-for-5 in the red zone. Saquon Barkley scampered seven yards to the end-zone to record his first touchdown of the season after a Marcus Allen recovered fumble on defense.
Amani Oruwariye returned a Justin Agner pass 30 yards to the house to start the second half on the positive side for a Penn State defense who finished with two interceptions on the afternoon.
Head coach James Franklin was happy with the first Nittany Lion win of the season.
“Overall, we’re happy with the win. Think it could’ve been cleaner,” Franklin said of the first win of the 2016 season.
Defense and Special Teams Keep Golden Flashes at Bay
While it was the offense who gave up the only touchdown the defense played shutout football in the second half and forcing four turnovers overall.
The defense recovered two fumbles and two interceptions to help put up 14 points for Penn State, putting points on the board with Oruwariye’s pick-six.
Defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s unit held Kent State to only six red-zone points in three trips for the Golden Flashes. Pry’s defense also had seven sacks and 10 tackles for loss against a Golden Flash offense who had 279 total yards.
Mark Allen’s forced fumble and subsequent recovery put the Penn State offense in excellent field goal position to have Barkley punch the ball in and give the lead to the Nittany Lions.
Now that Penn State has a full allotment of scholarships, depth is an integral part of the game plan for Franklin’s defense, specifically the secondary.
“We feel good about our depth and experience in the secondary,” Franklin raved about a unit that returned three starters from last season.
From the opening kickoff, special teams played a major part in the victory for the Nittany Lions. Nick Scott took the opening kickoff for 22 of the total 88 yards he and freshman Miles Sanders had for Penn State for the afternoon. John Reid added 22 yards in the punt return department, vastly improving a return unit which struggled for the better part of the last few seasons.
Blake Gillikin got a rousing ovation with his 49-yard punt following the initial drive for the Nittany Lions and continued to impress throughout the game. Gillikin’s first game as punter for Penn State was not perfect, however, Franklin believes there’s some room for improvement.
“His locations could have been a little bit better today,” Franklin said. “He had one drop where I thought the nose of the ball was down. He didn’t get it off as cleanly as he would have liked to, but I think he can be better than what he even showed today.”
The biggest hit of the game did not come from anybody on the defense for the Nittany Lions, it came from kicker Joey Julius.
“Joe Julius had a great day on kickoff. He had the biggest hit of the day,” Franklin said of his sophomore kicker.
Julius is listed at 258 pounds on the roster for Penn State, one of the heftier players on the special teams unit. The kicker nicknamed “Big Toe” was the last line of defense on a second quarter kickoff return when the following happened:
This hit.https://t.co/ApgZlm1xEM
— Jarrod Prugar (@jprugar26) September 3, 2016
While the Golden Flashes scored their lone touch down on two drives later, the hit Julius made changed the momentum for Penn State as they went into the half.
McSorley Shines in First Game as Starter
McSorley, a redshirt sophomore, capped off his first game as the starting quarterback with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Gesicki with fewer than two minutes left in the fourth quarter. The touchdown book-ended a day where he threw two touchdowns and 209 yards while rushing for 47 more.
In the most extensive playing time the dual-threat quarterback has had since arriving on campus with Franklin three years ago, McSorley showed poise and composure while being tough running the new Joe Moorhead offense for the first time.
“His composure was really good, and that’s kind of who he is,” Franklin said post-game. “He’s been that every day since I’ve seen him. We’re going to run our quarterbacks, so that toughness aspect is going to be really important, and he displays that every day. I was pleased with him.”
McSorley completed 16 of his passes on the afternoon with many of the incompletions being in a catchable range for his receivers, something Christian Hackenberg struggled with throughout his career as quarterback at Penn State.
The lone mistake McSorley made was fumbling while stepping to throw the ball down-field in the second quarter. The fumble return for a touchdown was the only touchdown Kent State managed on the day.
While McSorley had a good day, he feels he wishes he could’ve landed a few more of the deep balls to his wideouts.
“Obviously, I don’t know how many we threw. We connected only on one of them,” McSorley said. “So, I’m definitely not satisfied. Definitely need to connect on more of those. But again, it’s something we’re going to work on.”
McSorley gets to show the world his improvements from one week to the next with next weeks game against in-state rival Pitt.
Up Next
Penn State hits the road for Game 2 of their 12-game season for a match-up against in-state rival Pitt. The Panthers were victorious over Villanova Saturday afternoon, 28-7. While it may be a road game, expect the Penn State-faithful to turn out in full force for a rivalry game which hasn’t been played since 2000 when Pitt won 12-0.
Photo credit: @PennStateFball
