Weekly takeaways, trends, and technicalities from the weekend’s Big Ten action.

Penn State usually loses these games

No. 19 Penn State 16, No. 12 Wisconsin 10. If there was an award for Most Confusing Season in 2020, Penn State would’ve won it. Easily. The Nittany Lions went 4-5 despite out-gaining their opponents in 7 of 9 games. Twice, they racked up 200 more yards of offense than their opponent — and lost.

Years from now, a young college football writer will look back at that season and have a lot of questions, to which you will reply with the shrugging emoji.

The Nittany Lions upped the ante in 2021 with one of the most bizarre wins you’ll see. They became the first team in nearly 4 years to win a game while running 51 or fewer plays with the opponent running at least 95. Penn State’s defense somehow allowed only a touchdown and a field goal despite being on the field for nearly 43 minutes. They battled through the toll of 58 running plays against a line in which the smallest guy was 6-foot-7, 304 pounds. Penn State picked up 1 first down in the first half (with 5 3-and-outs), yet it went into halftime tied (at zero, of course).

The NCAA doesn’t keep official time of possession records, but Penn State was just a few minutes away from the unofficial lowest time of possession in a game, which is believed to be held by Rutgers (12:10) in 2017 and Georgia State (14:46) in 2016. The catch, obviously, is that those teams lost by 33 and 34, respectively, while Penn State beat the No. 12 team in its home stadium.

Years from now, a young college football football writer will look back at this game and have a lot of questions, to which you will reply with the shrugging emoji.

But from Penn State’s perspective, that doesn’t matter. Because far too often in James Franklin’s tenure, the explanation has made a lot of sense in these close games. Penn State has a bad habit of mismanaging games in the most critical moments, with the most recent example being last year’s season opener in which it had a 99.9 percent win probability of beating Indiana with less than 2 minutes left, yet found a way to lose. Maybe this is the start of a new narrative in which Penn State finally does take the next step and goes from a really good program to one that is challenging Ohio State for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Because doing that means the Nittany Lions are going to have to win games they shouldn’t (in addition to not losing the games they should win).

Penn State undoubtedly enjoyed the flight back East, but there’s a lot of work to be done before the talk of challenging Ohio State gets serious. Let’s start on offense. New offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has earned high marks at Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Texas, which is why Franklin reportedly wanted him badly, so much so that he thought it was worth it to stick Sean Clifford with his third offensive coordinator in 3 years. But the Yurcich offense flopped in its debut. Finishing the first half with 41 yards on 23 plays with 1 first down is inexcusable, even against a defense as good as Wisconsin.

There is clearly an emphasis on tempo (Penn State got warned for snapping the ball before the officials were set in the third quarter) and aggressiveness (they ran a draw on third-and-8 and then went for it on fourth-and-4 in the first quarter). But it can’t continue to put its defense in that situation, because an offense that is less of a mess than Wisconsin will capitalize.

The second half was better, and there were clearly some adjustments. For one, someone reminded Yurcich that he has Noah Cain on the roster. How does that guy only get 2 carries through 3 quarters? Aside from getting the star running back involved, Wisconsin also clearly struggled with some of what Yurcich drew up. Jahan Dotson was running wide open deep on 3 occasions, and Clifford connected on 2 of them. Clifford hit KeAndre Lambert-Smith for 52 yards, too.

The thing Clifford and Yurcich can hang their hats on above anything else is that Penn State didn’t turn the ball over and was plus-3 in turnover differential. That, more than anything, is probably why Penn State escaped Madison with an improbable win. Penn State won the turnover battle only twice last season.

As far as season openers go, it was an all-time defensive effort. Ellis Brooks was everywhere, Temple transfer Arnold Ebiketie was unblockable at times and Jaquan Brisker showed why he is one of the B1G’s premier defensive backs. The little things like Jesse Luketa skying to prevent the potential go-ahead score are how you win a game like this.

 

In 2020, Penn State invented ways to lose. So far in 2021, it is inventing ways to win.

Iowa keeps on rolling

No. 18 Iowa 34, No. 17 Indiana 6. No one who watched this game came away thinking that these were 2 evenly matched teams, as the rankings would suggest. No, this looked like a top-10 team against an unranked opponent going through a transition phase. That happens sometimes at Kinnick Stadium.

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I thought this would be a close game, but maybe I should’ve seen this coming. One of these teams finished last season on a 6-game winning streak and looked like one of the best teams in the country; the other sputtered in a bowl game against a .500 team. Granted, the return of Michael Penix Jr., who was ranked 5th on PFF’s preseason QB rankings, was supposed to even that out.

Riley Moss doesn’t need to return 2 interceptions for TDs, as he did Saturday, for Iowa to be successful. Because there’s no way Iowa was losing that game. It probably should’ve picked off Penix 5 or 6 times, to be honest, before he was mercifully pulled for backup Jack Tuttle early in the fourth quarter. Defensive coordinator Phil Parker is paid over $1 million for a reason, and it’s clear this defense operates at an elite level.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Iowa. Maybe the Hawkeyes are the rare team that doesn’t need a stud QB to win big. Spencer Petras was meh again, completing 13 of 27 passes for 145 yards. But that doesn’t matter when you have a defense that is coming off a season in which it led the country in yards per play and looks every bit as good this season. It doesn’t matter when you have a running back that can pop off for a long TD run on any play.

Iowa has now won 7 in a row, with 6 coming by 14 points or more. This hasn’t just been a good team since that confounding 0-2 start last season; it’s been a great one.

Ryan Day’s genius on full display

No. 4 Ohio State 38, Minnesota 24. Sometimes I forget Ryan Day is a first-time head coach. I keep waiting for him to make a mistake and cost the Buckeyes a game. At this point, his biggest coaching blunder was probably waiting too long to run the ball against Northwestern in last year’s Big Ten Championship Game, and let’s be honest, that’s pretty minor in the world of a head coach. Time after time, he pushes the right buttons, which is why he is now 24-2 as a head coach.

In the first game of his third season, he once again made the right call when he easily could’ve made the opposite decision. Let’s set the stage.

On a rainy Thursday night in which Ohio State trailed at Minnesota 14-10 at halftime, Day surely knew that his QB CJ Stroud, who hadn’t thrown a college pass before that night, was struggling, having thrown for only 58 yards and an INT on 14 pass attempts. He knew that Miyan Williams, Master Teague and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 11 rushes for 125 yards. He knew that Minnesota had one of the worst rushing defenses in FBS last season, allowing 6.3 yards per carry. He knew that he could sit on the ball and probably win this one by feeding Henderson and Williams behind one of the best offensive lines in football.

So what did Day do? He dialed up shots downfield for Stroud.

What did Stroud do? He completed 5 of 8 passes for 236 yards and 4 TDs.

That’s how you build confidence in a young QB. It may have been a risk, but think of how Stroud feels going into next week’s showdown with No. 11 Oregon. He now knows that he can succeed on this level in front of a sellout crowd in crappy weather.

That wouldn’t have been possible without Day’s belief in Stroud. Day could’ve easily gone to 5-star freshman Kyle McCord or 4-star redshirt freshman Jack Miller. Super recruit Quinn Ewers, who trended on Twitter during the game, will be ready soon enough. A lesser coach would’ve pulled the plug on Stroud and panicked. Not Day, though.

It’s no wonder Day continues to clean up in recruiting and that Ohio State continues to clean up on the field. Who wouldn’t want to play for this guy?

Mel Tucker is closer than we thought

Michigan State 38, Northwestern 21. There was only one program (Tennessee) that overhauled its roster more in the offseason than the Spartans, who brought in 41 new players, including 20 transfers (14 of which were from FBS programs). That’s what 2nd-year head coach Mel Tucker had to do in order to rebuild this once-proud program that had sunk below the likes of Indiana, Rutgers and Maryland in the East.

But the Spartans put the rest of the Big Ten on notice in one of the most impressive performances of opening weekend. This wasn’t the same caliber of Northwestern team that had won 2 of the last 3 West titles, but it’s still a well-coached program that will beat some teams that it shouldn’t.

Yet from the very first play, the Spartans left little doubt that they were in fact the superior team. If these teams played 10 times, I think Michigan State wins 8 or 9 of them. In Michigan State’s 2 random wins last season (against Michigan and Northwestern), I think they were games that the Spartans win 1 or 2 times out of 10. That right there tells you all you need to know about the progress Michigan State has made already.

Kenneth Walker III just looks the part, doesn’t he? He has a nice combination of power and speed, and he already looks like one of the league’s top running backs after going off for 264 yards and 4 TDs on 23 attempts. This was jarring because Michigan State had all of 2 rushing TDs in 7 games last season — 1 from a tight end and 1 from a QB. That’s a big fat 0 from a running back room that has struggled for years. Put those concerns to rest.

Redshirt sophomore Payton Thorne won the starting QB job and played a clean game with 185 passing yards on 15-of-25 passing. I think he’ll be able to do more when it’s needed, but he’s definitely an upgrade over Rocky Lombardi, who turned the ball over far too often.

While the secondary let up some big plays, this unit should still be improved from a year ago. Perhaps it will actually be ahead in some of these games and force other teams to throw, as was the case against Northwestern.

If we’re power-ranking which B1G fan bases feel the best after Week 1, Michigan State fans are in the top 3 (behind Penn State and maybe Iowa).

MVPs

1. CB Riley Moss (Iowa)

The Iowa cornerback caught 2 more TD passes from Michael Penix Jr. than Indiana’s entire roster. That’s what kind of day it was for the Hoosiers, largely thanks to Moss. The first was a deflected pass, and the second one he jumped a hitch route for another house call. The former 2-star recruit now has 8 career INTs.

2. RB Kenneth Walker III (Michigan State)

The Wake Forest transfer was sensational in his Spartans debut, running wild over Northwestern. Does it get any better than a 75-yard TD on his first carry with his new team? He finished with 264 rushing yards, averaging 11.5 per attempt.

3. WR Chris Olave (Ohio State)

I’m constantly in awe of how smooth Olave is. On both of his TD catches, I thought he was going to go out of bounds, but he somehow accelerated along the sideline and burst into the end zone. He is special, and a 4-117-2 season debut is just scratching the surface.

4. WR Jahan Dotson (Penn State)

Thank goodness this guy found a way to get open, because it was a struggle for Penn State on offense. His 49-yard TD in the third quarter was a huge play given the way the Nittany Lions failed to move the sticks in the first half with just 1 first down. He finished with 5 catches for 102 yards and will surely have bigger games this season, but given the quality of opponent and the situation, he was awesome.

5. QB Taulia Tagovailoa (Maryland)

The expectations for Tagovailoa are going to continue to rise after he opened his junior season with 332 yards and 3 TDs on 26-of-36 passing. On a day when Big Ten QBs mostly stunk, Tagovailoa was at his best.