Penn State Emerges From Bye Week Refocused, Particularly on Defense

"The bye week was big," cornerback Cam Miller said of the Nittany Lions' early schedule break.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar evades Bowling Green Falcons defensive linesman Chace Davis (16) during the third quarter at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

It’s rare for Penn State to have a bye week as early as Week 3. In fact, this past week was the earliest bye for the Nittany Lions since 2002.

After a 2-0 start but a shaky 34-27 win over Bowling Green, the early break for Penn State might have come at the perfect time to address some issues, notably injuries. Despite the Week 2 victory, the Nittany Lions weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders.

The bye gave Penn State a chance to refocus, rest and tweak its gameplans ahead of Saturday’s matchup with Kent State. Coach James Franklin and his players recently discussed how they maximized the time off. 

Drew Allar, offense getting better daily

Franklin admitted Monday that it felt “unusual” not playing this early in the season. By mid-September last year, Penn State had taken down West Virginia, Delaware and Illinois. This year, they’ve logged just one strong road win vs. the Mountaineers and an unconvincing victory against Bowling Green.

Offensively, the Nittany Lions have scored 68 points in the two wins, and there’s been an uptick in play-calling creativity under coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. The overall offensive outlook is positive, but there still are areas for improvement, particularly with penalties. Penn State has 15 as a team already.

“[Decreasing penalties is] a major priority for me because we're just making things more difficult than they need to be,” Franklin said Monday. “We're either stopping drives after we convert first downs or making more challenging third down situations. Hard to get into a rhythm of offense.”

The early bye also allowed quarterback Drew Allar to sit down with coaches and reflect on his play through two weeks.

“It was a lot more self-scouting,” Allar said. “As an offense, it's really just striving to get 1 percent better each day.”

Allar is off to a strong start. While it’s only been two games, his yards per completion (11.4) and quarterback rating (199.4) have improved from his sophomore season. However, one potential area for growth is spreading the ball more evenly. Tight end Tyler Warren (11 receptions) and receivers Harrison Wallace III (five) and Omari Evans (four) have dominated the passing targets. Julian Fleming has just one catch, and Liam Clifford has yet to record one.

Allar won’t force the ball to new receivers for the sake of numbers, but the third-year quarterback did acknowledge the value of involving more players in the passing game. Some of that, though, will come naturally as the Nittany Lions aim to keep their offense on the field longer during drives.

“We have a ton of playmakers out in space, on the perimeter, with receivers, tight ends and running backs. So my job is just to throw to the guy who’s open,” Allar said. “We want to spread the ball around as much as we can, just because that will help us balance out the run and pass game and get everybody involved in the game plan.”

Defense gets back to the basics

In Penn State’s four halves of football in 2024, one stands out like a sore thumb: the first half against Bowling Green. The Nittany Lions allowed 24 points to the Falcons in that first half, a number they didn’t exceed in any game during the entire 2023 regular season. In retrospect, Franklin identified two of the main defensive issues to be tackling and ongoing adjustments to new helmet communications.

“We did not tackle as well in Game 2 as we did in Game 1,” Franklin said. “We were trying to rely specifically on the headset communication, and at home that can be a little bit more challenging with the linebacker trying to verbally communicate to all 11 guys on the field.”

The early bye week may have been a blessing in disguise for new defensive coordinator Tom Allen to address those problems. With Franklin announcing Wednesday that safety KJ Winston is out with a “long-term” injury, Allen also lost one of his secondary’s best pieces. So the extra few days to reevaluate the depth chart were beneficial.

“The bye week was big,” cornerback Cam Miller said. “Just getting back to the basics. That's it, for real. Just got to get back to playing Penn State defense.”

For Miller, that means aiming to be “the No. 1 defense in the country.” That may be a tough title to claim right now after the Week 2 output, but Penn State’s defense has had time to refocus and lean into its fundamentals.

“I definitely think it was a good reset button,” defensive tackle Coziah Izzard said. “Especially coming off of Bowling Green. I don't think we [played] up to our standard. We just took this week to get better.”

Franklin said he expects to see results of that process Saturday.

"The reality is, we played a half of football inconsistent with how we normally play," the Penn State coach said. ... But as you can imagine this early in the season, a half impacts you dramatically. It won't impact you later in the season, when we've played a bunch of games. But we’re used to playing dominating [defensive] football around here. We've been doing it it for a long time. So I do think they have a chip on their shoulder, and I expect that to show up on Saturday."

Penn State will host Kent State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.

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Daniel Mader, a May 2024 graduate of Penn State, is an Editorial Intern with The Sporting News. As a student journalist with The Daily Collegian, he served as a sports editor and covered Nittany Lions women’s basketball, men’s volleyball and more. He has also covered Penn State football for NBC Sports and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, with additional work in the Centre Daily Times, Lancaster Online and more. Follow him on X @DanielMader_    or Instagram @dmadersports.