Key Takeaways: Penn State Beats Kent State 56-0<\/h2>\nCreative Kotelnicki<\/h3>\n
Despite some early bumps, Andy Kotelnicki’s offense is working. \u00a0It can create havoc, especially when the Big Ten schedule starts against Illinois. \u00a0Interestingly, he has not even likely shown the entire bag of tricks. \u00a0Once in this game, Penn State’s offense lined up in such an unconventional formation that it caused Kent State to call a timeout.<\/p>\n
It is possible to be too cute, though. \u00a0On Penn State’s first offensive drive, backup Beau Pribula<\/a> threw his first interception of the season. \u00a0While it was a nice play by Kameron Olds<\/a> of Kent State, the play seemed unnecessarily complicated as Pribula short-armed a throw to Tyler Warren<\/a>.\u00a0 The offense needs to stop the trend of slow starts, and being too creative could prevent that. \u00a0Against Kent State, it is easier to recover from an early interception, compared to against tougher competition, like Illinois.<\/p>\n The offense easily recovered from the early interception, gaining a school-record 718 yards. \u00a0It was explosive, producing a lot of big plays. \u00a0Drew Allar<\/a> completed 17 of 21 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns. \u00a0In the running game, the team ran for 309 yards. \u00a0Nick Singleton<\/a> and Kaytron Allen<\/a> each had 11 carries, with Singleton picking up 81 yards, and Allen 66. \u00a0Allar and Pribula spread the wealth in the passing game, with 10 players picking up receptions across 409 yards. \u00a0Cam Wallace’s<\/a> injury took him out of the game in the fourth quarter. \u00a0He is a backup running back and a key depth piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kotelnicki’s formula of using the running game to open up the vertical passing game is well aligned with the likes of Allar<\/a>, Singleton, Allen, and Trey Wallace<\/a>. \u00a0One player in particular that was mentioned, but not enough, was tight end Warren. \u00a0We’ll talk about Warren’s performance below.<\/p>\n Quarterbacks establish relationships with their key passing game targets. \u00a0In some cases, communication becomes a look, a hand signal, or an inflection of the pre-snap cadence. \u00a0Allar relied on Wallace early in the first game at West Virginia<\/a>, completing his first four passes to Wallace. \u00a0However, Tyler Warren has become a focal point in the offense. \u00a0The performance and stature of Warren is enough to provide peace for Kotelnicki and Allar, both leading up to the game and in stressful situations where stars need to step up.<\/p>\n Warren was a frequent target of Allar in the Kent State game. \u00a0He finished with 50 yards on five receptions, including the game’s first touchdown. \u00a0Warren went beyond just catching the ball. \u00a0He ran the ball out of the Wildcat formation. \u00a0On that carry, he picked up 16 yards. \u00a0Going back to his roots as a high school quarterback, Warren even threw a touchdown. \u00a0His touchdown pass to Singleton, a 17-yard scoring play, put Penn State up 14-0 in the second quarter. \u00a0It paved the way for the offense’s acceleration, which ultimately put the game away.<\/p>\n The case for Warren to be considered for the Mackey Award, given annually to the country’s top tight end, continues to grow. \u00a0He catches everything thrown his way, runs good routes, and blocks well. \u00a0In this game, he even ran and threw the ball very well. \u00a0Warren made the tight end position one of strength for the team<\/a> coming into the season, despite losing Theo Johnson to the NFL Draft. \u00a0So far, Warren has surpassed what were already fairly lofty expectations. \u00a0Speaking of Warren, Franklin said, “He’s the best tight end in college football.”<\/p>\n Defensive coordinator Tom Allen had his side of the ball ready to play this week. \u00a0There was constant pressure on the Kent State quarterbacks. \u00a0Additionally, there was no room to run for the Kent State ball carriers. \u00a0It was an all-around dominant performance by the defense. \u00a0They set the tone early, and unfortunately, it was evidenced by an injury. \u00a0Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/a> took down Kent State quarterback Devin Kargman<\/a> on the second play of the game, and Kargman was carted off the field.<\/p>\n It was difficult for individual performers to stand out on the defense since there were not many plays. \u00a0The Kent State offense only ran the ball 28 times and threw 13 passes. \u00a0The defense allowed 67 yards, with 18 of them coming via the pass (on two completions) and 49 on the ground. \u00a0Anthony Speca<\/a> led Penn State with five tackles. \u00a0Additionally, Abdul Carter<\/a> and Dennis-Sutton each had a sack. \u00a0Despite being happy with the performance, coming off the field after the game, Franklin said, “Defensively, the only thing we didn’t do is get a turnover.”<\/p>\n Penn State beat Kent State handily, by a score of 56-0. \u00a0Here are some of the key statistics that underpinned the Penn State win.<\/p>\n Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State threw for 409 yards, compared to 18 for Kent State. \u00a0Allar completed 17 of 21 for 309 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. \u00a0Pribula completed six of nine passes for 83 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. \u00a0For Kent State, JD Sherrod<\/a> had the only two completions, finishing two of six, for 18 yards.<\/p>\n Rushing: <\/strong>Penn State had 309 yards, compared to Kent State’s 49 yards. \u00a0Singleton led all players with 81 yards on 11 carries. \u00a0Allen ran 11 times for 66 yards. \u00a0Penn State’s touchdowns on the ground were scored by Pribula, Wallace, and Allar. \u00a0Ayden Harris<\/a> led Kent State with 20 yards on 10 carries. \u00a0Ky Thomas<\/a> had 16 yards on four carries.<\/p>\n Receiving: <\/strong>Warren led all players with five receptions that went for 50 yards and a touchdown. \u00a0Omari Evans<\/a> led in yardage, with 116 yards on four catches, including a 59-yard touchdown. \u00a0Liam Clifford<\/a>, Singleton, and Khalil Dinkins<\/a> had the other Penn State receiving touchdowns. \u00a0For Kent State, Ardell Banks<\/a> had one catch for 13 yards, and Luke Floriea<\/a> had one catch for five yards.<\/p>\n Defense:\u00a0<\/strong>Speca led Penn State defenders with five tackles. \u00a0Carter and Dennis-Sutton each had a sack. \u00a0Rocco Nicholl<\/a> led Kent State with 14 tackles. \u00a0Matt Harmon<\/a> had the Kent State sack, and Olds had the lone interception of the game.<\/p>\n Special Teams: <\/strong>No field goals were attempted in the game. \u00a0For Penn State, Sander Sahaydak<\/a> converted all seven of his extra points, and Ryan Barker<\/a> also had an extra point. \u00a0Riley Thompson<\/a> had two punts, averaging 35.5 yards per punt. \u00a0For Kent State, Josh Smith<\/a> had 10 punts, averaging 42.2 yards per punt.<\/p>\n Penalties:\u00a0<\/strong>Penalties continue to be an area for Penn State to clean up. \u00a0In total, they were flagged for seven penalties and 65 yards. \u00a0Kent State was called for two penalties and 20 yards.<\/p>\n Penn State beats Kent State 56-0, following their first bye week of the season last week. \u00a0The offense turned the ball over on its first possession. \u00a0Then, they really hit their stride in the second quarter and didn’t look back. \u00a0James Franklin’s offense produced three touchdowns over a 5:34 span in that second quarter, building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":64787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[32817,7983,837,5424,5299,309,1073],"class_list":["post-64762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-big-ten-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-kent-state","tag-kent-state-golden-flashes","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Warren Peace<\/h3>\n
Dominant Defense<\/h3>\n
By the Numbers: Penn State Beats Kent State 56-0<\/h2>\n
Offense<\/h3>\n
Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n
![\"Penn](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/09\/USATSI_24292690_168400536_lowres-300x215.jpg\")