{"id":68364,"date":"2024-11-16T20:50:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=68364"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T14:22:04","slug":"penn-state-enhances-cfp-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/11\/16\/penn-state-enhances-cfp-resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Enhances CFP Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State continues climbing the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings.\u00a0 However, coming into the week ranked #4 in the AP poll and the CFP rankings, the ceiling is established.\u00a0 This is thanks to their one-loss status, with the lone defeat<\/a> at the hands of #2 Ohio State.\u00a0 Penn State took care of business at Purdue, beating the Boilermakers by a score of 49-10.\u00a0 Following last week’s 35-6 win over Washington<\/a>, Penn State currently finds itself as one of the top projected non-conference winning teams in CFP seeding.\u00a0 Head coach James Franklin had the team ready to play and avoided a letdown against a Purdue opponent that now has a 1-9 record.\u00a0 Moving to 9-1 on the season, with Penn State’s victory, enhances their CFP resume.<\/p>\n

In the 49-10 win, Penn State established their dominance early.\u00a0 They scored touchdowns on their first two drives of the game.\u00a0 Additionally, the Nittany Lions found the endzone on their first three possessions of the second half.\u00a0 Penn State’s stars shone as brightly as the full moon in West Lafayette.\u00a0 Drew Allar<\/a> was efficient in limited playing time.\u00a0 Tyler Warren<\/a> continued to build his case as the nation’s best tight end, as well as being a quality running back (with some snaps at quarterback for good measure).\u00a0 Abdul Carter<\/a> led the defense and has pushed his game to another gear over the past few weeks.\u00a0 In the second half, the reserves and young up-and-comers saw the field and kept the momentum going.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways: Penn State Enhances CFP Resume<\/h2>\n

More and More of Warren<\/h3>\n

Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki seems destined to ride star tight end Tyler Warren as far as he can take the offense.\u00a0 So far, this has proven to be a very solid strategy.\u00a0 Warren continued to build his own resume for postseason awards like the Mackey Award, and potentially even the Heisman.<\/p>\n

Warren has had a record-setting campaign in 2024.\u00a0 Against Purdue, he continued proving why he should be in the conversations for best tight end and potentially best player.\u00a0 Not only is Warren a safety blanket for Allar, but he is also a weapon in his own right.\u00a0 In the Purdue game, he even set a career-high for rushing yards in a game.\u00a0 In fact, he had a game-high 63 yards on the ground with a touchdown.\u00a0 If that wasn’t enough, Warren also led all receivers in the game.\u00a0 After finishing the first half with seven receptions for 119 yards and a touchdown, his final receiving stats were eight catches for 127 yards and the touchdown.<\/p>\n

Players like Warren don’t come around often.\u00a0 He is one of those that makes you wonder what he will do next.\u00a0 His playing time was limited in this game, as the starters received some much-deserved rest after building a big lead.\u00a0 However, before he left Warren made his presence felt.\u00a0 With Warren providing a solid option in the passing game, Allar was able to amass a great statistical performance.\u00a0 Allar also exited early, either to avoid injury or avoid further injury as he was limping a bit between plays before exiting.\u00a0 This will be a situation to watch moving forward.\u00a0 Whether it’s Allar or backup Beau Pribula<\/a> under center, Warren will be a key part of the game plan going forward.<\/p>\n

Calling on Carter<\/h3>\n

While the offense should receive the accolades that they earned, coordinator Tom Allen and his defense also held serve.\u00a0 After holding Washington out of the endzone last week, Purdue was able to score a touchdown in the second half of this matchup.\u00a0 While the injury bug may have made an appearance for another star in the defensive backfield, the defender with the most talent stepped up again.<\/p>\n

Abdul Carter is the undisputed star of the Penn State defense.\u00a0 He dons the coveted #11 jersey, which unofficially signifies the leader of the defense.\u00a0 Despite the accolades and notoriety, Carter got off to a bit of a slow start this season.\u00a0 However, at least part of that can be attributed to switching positions.\u00a0 He made the move from linebacker to defensive end for 2024.\u00a0 With his performance over the past few weeks, it is now safe to say he’s now fully adjusted.\u00a0 Carter entered the game leading the Big Ten with 15.5 tackles for loss.\u00a0 Against Purdue, Carter led Penn State with five tackles.\u00a0 He added to his tackles for loss total with two more, though he is stuck at eight sacks for the year.<\/p>\n

Further reinforcing Carter’s importance moving forward is the status of Jaylen Reed<\/a>.\u00a0 Reed, a star hybrid safety in Allen’s offense who leads the team in tackles, exited with an injury in the second quarter.\u00a0 Though Reed did return, any potential injury at this point in the season bears watching.\u00a0 The defensive backfield is a strong point of the Penn State defense.\u00a0 Star KJ Winston has already been lost<\/a> to a long-term injury.\u00a0 Any lingering injury effects on a talent like Reed puts more pressure on players up front like Carter to make big plays and rush the quarterback.<\/p>\n

By the Numbers: Penn State Enhances CFP Resume<\/h2>\n

Offense<\/h3>\n

Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State threw for 305 yards, compared to 217 for Purdue.\u00a0 Allar completed 17 of 19 for 247 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions.\u00a0 Pribula completed five of his eight pass attempts for 58 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions.\u00a0 Purdue starter Hudson Card<\/a> completed 11 of 20 for 151 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.\u00a0 Ryan Browne<\/a> completed three of seven pass attempts for 40 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.\u00a0 Christian Gelov<\/a> completed one of three passes for 26 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.<\/p>\n

Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>Penn State had 234 yards, compared to 85 yards for Purdue.\u00a0 Warren led Penn State, and all players, with 63 rushing yards on only three carries, and a touchdown.\u00a0 Backup quarterback Pribula had five carries for 56 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 Nick Singleton<\/a> returned from injury and had seven carries for 40 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 Devin Mockobee<\/a> led Purdue with 40 yards on 11 carries.<\/p>\n

Receiving:\u00a0<\/strong>Warren led Penn State with a game-high 127 yards on eight catches including a touchdown.\u00a0 Trey Wallace<\/a> had two catches for 54 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 Luke Reynolds<\/a> contributed three receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown, while another receiving touchdown was by running back Kaytron Allen<\/a>.\u00a0 For Purdue, Max Klare<\/a> led the team with seven receptions for 91 yards, including the only touchdown for the Boilermakers.<\/p>\n

Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n

Defense: <\/strong> Carter led Penn State defenders with five tackles, including two for loss.\u00a0 Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/a>, Coziah Izzard<\/a>, and Amin Vanover<\/a> had Penn State’s three sacks.\u00a0 Dillon Thieneman<\/a> led Purdue with a game-high eight tackles, while Kydran Jenkins<\/a> added seven tackles.<\/p>\n

Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For Penn State,\u00a0Ryan Barker<\/a> did not attempt any field goals, but converted all seven of his extra-point attempts. \u00a0Riley Thompson<\/a> punted four times, averaging 42.5 yards per punt. \u00a0For Purdue, Ben Freehill<\/a> converted one of two field goal attempts, as well as his only extra point attempt. Keelan Crimmins<\/a> punted eight times, averaging 46.0 yards per punt.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penn State continues climbing the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings.\u00a0 However, coming into the week ranked #4 in the AP poll and the CFP rankings, the ceiling is established.\u00a0 This is thanks to their one-loss status, with the lone defeat at the hands of #2 Ohio State.\u00a0 Penn State took care of business at Purdue, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":68374,"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":[5,2,2056],"tags":[34344,34396,32817,493,7983,837,5653,3440,309,7449,926,1073],"class_list":["post-68364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-top-25","tag-2024-college-football-playoff-rankings","tag-abdul-carter","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-awards","tag-big-ten-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-mackey-award","tag-penn-state-defense","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-penn-state-offense","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68364","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=68364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82199,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68364\/revisions\/82199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}