UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State has looked really good at times and really mediocre at times during its 5-0 start, but it has yet to face a ranked opponent, so there are still a lot of questions about the team.
Like this one: Are the No. 10 Nittany Lions ready for No. 4 Michigan?
We have to wait two weeks to find out, but there's nothing in the way of that question now, as Penn State has a bye this week and can get fully prepared for that huge challenge at the Big House on Oct. 15.
Now, we also can ask this question: Is Michigan ready for Penn State? We'll get to that one in a bit.
First, the Penn State part of this equation.
"Yeah, I think we have done what we needed to do to this point. We're 5-0," James Franklin said of the Lions' preparation thus far.
Part of that 5-0 was Saturday's sloppy 17-7 win over a bad Northwestern team, and last week's uninspiring 33-14 win over a bad Central Michigan team. Both of those opponents are 1-4, and yet at times gave Penn State some unexpected troubles.
"Winning is hard," Franklin said. "It is hard, week in and week out. I put examples up every Sunday of games that people are looking on the ticker or watching the highlights and they're shocked. Winning's hard, whether it's in conference, whether it's out of conference, scheduling a game to go play at Auburn. ... It's hard to do it.
"So we've done what we needed to do up to this point to be 5-0, but we gotta get better. We're playing, obviously, a really good Michigan team on the road. They got rankings and so on and so forth. We haven't spent a whole lot of time on them yet. Obviously, I haven't watched them, so it's hard to be say that we're ready. But our objective is obviously to be ready come (Oct. 15). That's when we have to be ready. Not today. We gotta to be ready next Saturday. And there's a lot of work that goes into that."
Franklin added that there's value in the way Penn State has gotten to 5-0, winning in "a lot of different ways."
"I'd love for them all to be pretty wins and sexy wins," Franklin said. "But that's not the game we play."
Here's a look at the two teams' schedules and results so far:
Penn State
* at Purdue: W 35-31
* vs. Ohio: W 46-10
* at Auburn: W 41-12
* vs. Central Michigan: W 33-14
* vs. Northwestern: W 17-7
Michigan
* vs. Colorado State: W 51-7
* vs. Hawaii: 56-10
* vs. UConn: W 59-0
* vs. Maryland: W 34-27
* at Iowa: W 27-14
As you can see, Michigan's early season schedule was ... well, frankly, garbage. That's about as bad of an opening three-game stretch as you'll see for a power program, especially a reigning conference champion. Colorado State is 0-4, Hawaii is 1-4 and UConn is 2-4 with only one FBS victory.
Conversely, Penn State played one of the nation's toughest schedules the first three weeks, picking up two quality road wins at Purdue and Auburn.
So, from a road-tested and confidence perspective, there should be no doubt that Penn State will be ready for its trip to Ann Arbor.
On the field, there's no doubt Penn State's defense will be ready. That unit has been fantastic and has the personnel, you would think, that can give the Wolverines trouble. Now, the one question mark about that will be run defense, which hasn't been tested the way it will be against the Wolverines. Blake Corum leads Michigan with 611 yards rushing and 10 TDs, and he erupted for 243 yards against Maryland.
Jim Harbaugh has settled on J.J. McCarthy as Michigan's starting QB over Cade McNamara. McCarthy is completing 78.6 percent with 848 yards and six TDs with no interceptions. But he will face a MUCH greater challenge against Penn State's defense than anything he has seen.
That's where the part about whether Michigan will be ready for Penn State comes into play. Because for as good as Corum has been and as good as McCarthy has been, they haven't faced a defense as good as Penn State's. Maryland has a solid team but not a great defense, and Iowa has a good defense but a putrid offense, so the defense is on the field all day. The Wolverines also play at Indiana this week.
Whether Penn State will be ready for this challenge comes down to the same two things that all big games come down to for the Lions:
1. The running game, and ...
2. Sean Clifford
I'll have significant analysis of both over the next two weeks, but obviously, the Lions are a very different team when they can run the ball. And they certainly have that ability with Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
But can those two true freshmen go into the Big House and be ready for the challenge of facing a strong Michigan defense? That's a gigantic question mark.
As for Clifford, he's seen it all and done it all throughout his career, so he won't be intimidated at all going into that environment. The question with the sixth-year quarterback, though, is never about being prepared or confident or what have you.
The question with Clifford is always: Is he good enough?
It's just that simple.
He can look good enough at times, and then at other times, you wonder why he's even on the field. And A LOT of Penn State fans have started to believe that Clifford shouldn't be on the field and that freshman Drew Allar could make the offense more effective. Clifford's 10-for-20, 140-yard, one interception that should have been two performance against Northwestern didn't do him any favors with his mountain of critics.
"Obviously, that's not up to the standard that he normally plays at. ... I don't think this was one of Sean's best games," Franklin said.
Maryland has a quality offense, led by QB Taulia Tagovailoa, and the Terps had a solid day in their loss at Michigan two weeks ago. They had 23 first downs and 397 total yards, but they turned the ball over three times.
Penn State's offense is going to have to find a way to be more consistent against the Wolverines, and that's been a problem all season, save for Auburn. The Lions also cannot afford turnovers, which wasn't a problem all season until they committed five against Northwestern in rainy, sloppy conditions.
"I feel like small mistakes, we can minimize those, and that just comes with more practice," receiver Parker Washington said. "More communicating with everybody and having everybody on the same page. But at the same time, I would say we have played with great effort these last few weeks, and I feel like that's been key for us. Great focus on the run game has been helping us a lot. I'm excited for the next two weeks coming up."
Special teams also will play a big role in whether the Lions can win at Michigan. Punter Barney Amor could end up being a big weapon in the game, and he's been sensational. But there are still questions about whether Jake Pinegar can make big field goals in clutch situations.
Lastly, the Big House was such a big problem for Penn State in two recent trips that it always makes you wonder how any Lion team will fare there. The 2016 team got destroyed, 49-10, although that game should always come with the asterisk that Penn State was missing six defensive starters. And then in 2018, the Lions got hammered, 42-7, in a dismal performance.
However, Penn State did win the last time it visited Michigan -- 27-20 in 2020. That was the Lions' first win that year after an 0-5 start, and there are still a lot of players left over from that team who know what it feels like to win in the Big House.
Can Penn State do it again in two weeks? It's gonna be very interesting to find out.
