3 reasons Penn State football will upset Ohio State
By Jeremy Ganes
Penn State football is equipped to take advantage of the key matchups
At 0-9 in road games against AP Top Ten teams, and losing every Ohio State matchup since the big 2016 upset, there’s been a myriad of things that have gone wrong for Penn State in contests that were usually close and almost always winnable. In the 2017-18 years, the Nittany Lions blew large leads late by being too conservative on offense and great Ohio State offenses punished some good, but not special Penn State secondaries. In 2022, key turnovers and big plays helped Ohio State get control late.
Penn State football has the team it needs to avoid a lot of those past pitfalls. Drew Allar, though technically not challenged in a big game yet, but hasn’t shown you the mistakes a Sean Clifford has made that swung the momentum in the wrong direction. He personally has not turned over the ball yet in his first season as a starter.
Though some see more flaws in another PSU offensive line, Penn State football still leads the Big Ten in rush yards and has only allowed four sacks on the year, good for fifth in the country. You will see just enough big plays from the offense to win a close grinder of a game, and none of the killer mistakes that have doomed Penn State in its most recent must-win games.
Franklin is always building teams to compete with Ohio State, but the 2023 team has enough strength-on-strength position groups to negate the Buckeyes this time around. CB Kalen King projects as a first-rounder and has what it takes to keep Marvin Harrison Jr. in check, and Johnny Dixon is as good as CB2 as there is at this level. A deep and talented rotation of safeties should also match up well against Cade Stover at Tight End, and some other pass-catching weapons looking to work the middle of the field. Ohio State’s offensive line is more of a concern overall than in the past, and they may struggle to protect a fellow first-year starter in Kyle McCord against what by most metrics is the premier front seven in college football.