{"id":68504,"date":"2024-11-19T13:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=68504"},"modified":"2024-11-22T19:58:26","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T00:58:26","slug":"penn-state-takes-on-minnesota-golden-opportunity-against-the-gophers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/11\/19\/penn-state-takes-on-minnesota-golden-opportunity-against-the-gophers\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State’s Golden Opportunity Against the Gophers"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the fourth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions take on Minnesota on Saturday, they will look to take advantage of a golden opportunity against the Gophers.\u00a0 This is Penn State\u2019s eighth Big Ten contest of the season, and they are 6-1 in the conference (9-1 overall) so far.\u00a0 The team\u2019s only loss is a 20-13 defeat to #2 Ohio State<\/a>. \u00a0Penn State is still in the thick of the top rankings for the College Football Playoff (CFP).\u00a0 Like last week<\/a>, this game is about jockeying for the CFP position. \u00a0Following Minnesota, Penn State will host Maryland to end the regular season.\u00a0 With the regular season finish line in sight, it will be important for coach James Franklin to ensure the Nittany Lions do not overlook Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Golden Gophers enter the game with a record of 6-4 and 4-3 in the Big Ten.\u00a0 Minnesota stumbled last week in New Jersey against Rutgers, which stopped a four-game winning streak.\u00a0 Minnesota will wrap up the regular season schedule next week, on the road against Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

#4 Penn State (9-1) Takes on Minnesota (6-4): Golden Opportunity Against the Gophers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When & Where: <\/strong>Saturday, November 23, 3:30 pm ET, at Minnesota<\/p>\n

Last Game\u2019s Results: <\/strong>Penn State beat Purdue on the road by a score of 49-10.\u00a0 Minnesota lost to Rutgers 26-19 on the road.<\/p>\n

Last Season\u2019s Results: <\/strong>Penn State finished ranked #13 after a 10-3 season that ended with a Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss.\u00a0 Purdue finished with a record of 6-7, including a win over Bowling Green in the Quick Lane Bowl.<\/p>\n

Series History: <\/strong>This is the 17th time the teams will meet.\u00a0 Penn State has won 10 of the 16 prior contests.\u00a0 However, the teams have split the last four games.\u00a0 They last met in 2022, when Penn State won 45-17.<\/p>\n

Penn State vs. Minnesota: Nittany Lions to Watch<\/h2>\n

Quarterback Drew Allar<\/h3>\n

Overall, Drew Allar<\/a> has had a great season as the quarterback for the Nittany Lions.\u00a0 However, the questions linger regarding his ability to beat the best teams.\u00a0 While Minnesota is not considered an upper-echelon opponent, their passing defense will provide a good test for Allar.<\/p>\n

Coming into this game, Allar has completed a very efficient 71.9% of his passes.\u00a0 That 71.9% ranks fifth in the nation.\u00a0 He has thrown 16 touchdowns to go along with only five interceptions.\u00a0 Interestingly, the five interceptions are more than double the two he threw last season.\u00a0 Allar\u2019s 16 touchdowns are at a pace below last season\u2019s 25.\u00a0 His efficiency rating of 172.32 also ranks fifth in the country.\u00a0 Having weapons like reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Tyler Warren<\/a> helps generate stats.\u00a0 Allar has had an undeniably good season albeit with a very different feel from last year.<\/p>\n

Minnesota comes into the game boasting a solid pass defense.\u00a0 The Golden Gophers currently rank fourth in the country with 16 interceptions.\u00a0 The defense has generated an interception in each game except for two this season.\u00a0 It will be important for Allar to take care of the ball and avoid throwing costly interceptions on the road.\u00a0 In his Monday press conference, speaking of Allar, Franklin said, \u201cI think he\u2019s played at a really high level for two years, and I think all the data backs that up.\u201d\u00a0 The quarterback\u2019s skill, going up against Minnesota\u2019s turnover-producing pass defense, makes Allar a Nittany Lion to watch.<\/p>\n

Defensive End Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/h3>\n

While Abdul Carter<\/a> gets a lot of the attention within the Penn State defense, and deservedly so, football is a team game.\u00a0 Defensive coordinator Tom Allen\u2019s players have done well in supporting Carter.\u00a0 Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/a>, the defensive end opposite Carter, is one such contributor.<\/p>\n

Against Purdue, Dennis-Sutton made his first start in three weeks.\u00a0 He suffered an injury against Wisconsin, and barely played at all in the next two games, against Ohio State and Washington.\u00a0 However, while not at 100%, he was much closer against Purdue.\u00a0 Dennis-Sutton picked up a sack on Purdue\u2019s third play.<\/p>\n

It will be important for Dennis-Sutton to continue to improve and get healthy as the postseason approaches.\u00a0 His ability to impact the game directly is important.\u00a0 Perhaps more important is the bit of attention he can take off of Carter, potentially freeing up the defense\u2019s star to wreak havoc.\u00a0 On Monday, Franklin spoke of the defense, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think Tom Allen and the defensive side of the ball is getting enough credit for how good of defense we\u2019re playing.\u201d\u00a0 Dennis-Sutton\u2019s contribution to that, and his ability to provide more impact as he gets healthy, makes him a Nittany Lion to watch.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: Alex Martin\/Journal and Courier \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the fourth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions take on Minnesota on Saturday, they will look to take advantage of a golden opportunity against the Gophers.\u00a0 This is Penn State\u2019s eighth Big Ten contest of the season, and they are 6-1 in the conference (9-1 overall) so far.\u00a0 The team\u2019s only loss is a 20-13 defeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":68533,"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],"tags":[34221,34344,7983,837,167,3440,309,7449,7524,1073],"class_list":["post-68504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","tag-2024-college-football-playoff-projections","tag-2024-college-football-playoff-rankings","tag-big-ten-football","tag-james-franklin","tag-minnesota-golden-gophers","tag-penn-state-defense","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-penn-state-offense","tag-penn-state-quarterbacks","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68504","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=68504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}