Penn State Football: 5 reasons Nittany Lions will repeat as Big Ten champs

5. Mike Gesicki is a matchup nightmare

A good college tight end is hard to find, and even harder to cover.

With teams like Texas Tech, Washington State and TCU purging tight ends entirely from their rosters in favor of loading up on hoards of wide receivers, the prototypical tight end is becoming an endangered species in modern college football, soon to be a footnote in history like the fullbacks of yesteryear.

So by extension, if a team does possess a good tight end on their roster he can be an absolute match up nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators, and the Penn State Nittany Lions have one of the best tight ends in the nation.

What Mike Gesicki lacks in prototypical inline blocking, he more than makes up for it as a unique, multidimensional chess piece that Penn State has used as a proverbial Swiss Army knife across multiple offensive sets this season.

While Gesicki’s impact for the Nittany Lions has yet to translate into a showy stat line, as he has only haled in 22 catches for 172 yards, he has established himself as a premier red zone target, and currently leads the team’s receiving corps in touchdown receptions with four.

And as Penn State sits comfortably undefeated on their Week 7 bye, the second half of the Nittany Lions’ season will be where the real challenge begins.

Penn State will face off against their first ranked opponents of the season right away in next three games against Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State, respectively, and will have to weather three consecutive top-15 defenses and Mike Gesicki’s unique skill set could be the key to the Nittany Lions’ success down the stretch.