Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1030409
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> winning basketball championships at UCLA, his players did everything but bring their own Windex on road trips. Janitors throughout the Pac-10 used to marvel at how impressively the Bruins tidied up. So Penn State's approach to culture and leadership development isn't really an experiment. It's an attempt to adopt best practices, no matter what the source. Is it working? Is all that attention to detail producing tangible results on the field? To judge by some of the more ob- vious measurements, the answer to those questions is a qualified yes. A year ago, Penn State was the second-least- penalized team in the Big Ten, commit- ting only 54 infractions in 13 games. That trend continued in this year's opener, as the Nittany Lions were flagged only twice for 10 yards against Appalachian State despite using 10 first- time starters and eight true freshmen in the game. What's more, they didn't suffer a sin- gle turnover against an App State team that ranked second in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 56 interceptions since 2015. The only turnover of the game was one that Penn State collected on the final play, as Amani Oruwariye intercepted a pass into the end zone in overtime to put away the Moun- taineers. But the Nittany Lions' next two games, while far more lopsided, were also a bit sloppier. Yes, Penn State thrashed Pitt, 51-6, and yes, it was far more disciplined than its opponent, committing only four penalties to the Panthers' 14. But two of those flags negated long runs by Miles Sanders, and the Lions also dropped some more passes and turned the ball over twice, both times on fumbles by one of Sanders' backups, freshman Ricky Slade. Things got worse against Kent State, even though the 53-point margin of vic- tory was even bigger than it had been the week before. Against the Golden Flashes, Penn State had not one, not two, but three touchdowns called back. Franklin was chagrined, and under- standably so. "We took 21 points off the board," he said. "Three touchdowns came off the board because of penal- ties." As the heart of the Big Ten season ap- proaches, the Nittany Lions are going to have to brace for the possibility that there will be some growing pains this