After beating Pitt 17-10 Penn State has its first of two bye weeks on Saturday. This will give the Nittany Lions a chance to rest, recover, fix some little (and big) things, and get ready for Maryland. While Penn State takes a week off from playing a game, what should the Nittany Lion fans do? A Penn State bye week gives fans a chance to do several things that they can’t normally do on a football Saturday. Let’s walk through them here.
What to Do on a Penn State Bye Week
I could give you suggestions that do not include Penn State football, but that is no fun. It is Fall after all and the only thing really to do on a Fall Saturday is to watch Penn State football. So, here are some options for the Penn State bye week.
1. Rewatch Penn State vs. Pitt
The first and obvious option is to rewatch last week’s game against Pitt. This is good because you already know the outcome so you won’t be on the edge of your seat or pacing around your house in the fourth quarter. Another thing this option does is it allows you to see which plays went well and where little adjustments can be made with the hindsight of knowing that the Nittany Lions win. Let’s do a little refresher in case you have been living under a rock for the last few days.
The game started off with a lightning delay, which I don’t remember ever occurring in my 26 years of life at Beaver Stadium but hey I could be wrong. The severe weather ended up not coming to fruition and everyone, including me, was allowed to head to their seats. The game started about 40 minutes late. This delay allowed the majority of the student section to be on time. All four running backs were again utilized against the Panthers. You can use this week to decide which one you think had the best outing. Journey Brown led the team with 109 rushing yards on 10 attempts. True freshman Noah Cain came in second with 40 yards on six attempts and one touchdown. The true freshmen Cain and Devyn Ford got the two touchdowns on the day.
The big storyline, however, was not the rushing attack. It was transfer placekicker, Jordan Stout. Stout set the record for the longest field goal in Penn State history on Saturday with a 57-yarder. Sorry Virginia Tech, you lost a great one. If you don’t want to rewatch the 100th meeting between the two teams, that’s okay there are other things you can do.
2. Watch the Next Opponent
If you can’t watch Penn State football the next best thing is to watch who they will play next. The only problem with this plan is that Maryland, which is who the Nittany Lions play next, is also on a bye week. Not the greatest for Penn State. The Nittany Lions can no longer use a bye week solely to their advantage. Now I know what you are thinking; why is this an option if Maryland doesn’t play? Well, I’m glad you asked. You can rewatch the Terps’ game against Temple, which you likely didn’t get the chance to do last week because it was played at the same time as Penn State.
The Owls were not supposed to beat Maryland last week. The Terps had outscored their first two opponents 142-20. While Temple had only played one game and it was against Bucknell, not the greatest opponent. No offense. This is your chance to watch the game to find out what happened to the high scoring Maryland offense that we saw in the first two games. Maybe the Nittany Lions can learn a thing or two from the Temple defense that held the Terps to 340 total yards of offense when they averaged 636 yards through the first two games. I can understand if you don’t want to watch Maryland vs. Temple. That’s okay, there is one more tried and true option.
3. Watch the Penn State Game Recorded on Your TV
Now we all either have an old Penn State football game recorded on our TV, or we know someone that does. The 2016 Big Ten Championship? The Rose Bowl from that same year? The thrilling Penn State vs. Michigan four-overtime game? You have many options. This way you can relive the great games and see how far this team has come in seven short years. Let’s be serious, everyone enjoys watching Saquon Barkley in a Penn State uniform dominating opponents. Need a little Trace McSorley highlight reel? Watch that game recorded on your TV that is collecting figurative dust. Or if you don’t have one recorded and don’t have a friend that does just watch highlights on YouTube. That will do the trick.
Other Not-as-Cool Options
If you don’t like any of the three options that are listed above there are other things that you can surely do. You can start decorating for Fall. You know, pumpkins, gourds, fake spider webs. All the great things that come with football season. You can finally put away your Christmas lights from last year. I know there are some of you that still have them out. It is time. Finally, I guess you can watch the other many many college football games that are on TV. Regardless, there are plenty of Penn State football or non-Penn State football-related activities that you can do on Saturday. Even though none of which will be as good as actually watching the Nittany Lions in action.
