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Paul Finebaum, Greg McElroy not impressed with Penn State despite win over Auburn

Teddy Rydquist

By Teddy Rydquist

Published:

Playing a road game against a B1G team for the first time since 1931, Auburn was defeated by Penn State, 28-20, Saturday night.

With the win, James Franklin’s Nittany Lions improved to 3-0 and moved up four spots to No. 6 in Sunday’s AP Poll.

Bryan Harsin’s Tigers, meanwhile, are now 2-1 and dropped one spot to No. 23.

Despite this outcome, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum did not sound overly impressed with Penn State during his Monday appearance on Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic in the Morning.

Discussing Harsin’s debut campaign with the program, McElroy began by saying, “All things considered, I thought it was a pretty good performance from them and I feel like it’s one you can probably build on.

“Not that they’re going to do a whole lot in the SEC West this year – I still think if Penn State were in the SEC West, they’d finish probably fourth – but I thought that was something to be kind of proud of and kind of quieting the naysayers about what Bryan Harsin might do on The Plains over the course of time.”

“I think you said it best, Greg. As good of a game as this was in terms of hype and build-up, within the SEC, it wasn’t that big a deal,” Finebaum added.

“It was a middle-of-the-pack SEC West game. I know that sounds like a shot at Penn State, I don’t mean it that way, but if Penn State’s the best the Big Ten has to offer this year, they’re in for a terrible year.”

The Nittany Lions will play their third of four consecutive home games Saturday, welcoming in FCS Villanova at 12 p.m. ET on BTN.

Auburn will return to Jordan-Hare Stadium to face the Sun Belt Conference’s Georgia State Bulldogs at 4 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

Teddy Rydquist

A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Rydquist has been contributing to Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition since 2019. He can be found on Twitter @TeddyRydquist.