Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1063223
P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E TALE OF THE TAPE KENTUCKY PENN STATE RECORD 9-3 (5-3 Southeastern Conference) 9-3 (6-3 Big Ten) RANKING 16th AP, 15th coaches, 14th CFP 13th AP, 12th coaches, 12th CFP HEAD COACH Mark Stoops (Iowa, '89) James Franklin (East Stroudsburg, '95) COACH'S RECORD 35-39 in six seasons (Overall record: same) 44-20 in five seasons (Overall record: 68-35) COACH'S BOWL RECORD 0-2 4-3 SCHOOL'S BOWL RECORD 8-9 29-17-2 CITRUS BOWL RECORD 0-0 2-3 MOST RECENT BOWL Lost to Northwestern, 24-23, in the 2017 Defeated Washington, 35-28, in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl Music City Bowl BASIC OFFENSE Spread (26.6 ppg, 366.2 ypg) Spread (34.6 ppg, 424.3 ypg) RUSHING LEADER Benny Snell Jr. (263 att, 1,305 yds, 14 TDs, 5.0 ypc) Miles Sanders (207 att, 1,223 yds, 9 TDs, 5.9 ypc) PASSING LEADER Terry Wilson (1,768 yds, 11 TDs, 8 int, 67.6 pct) Trace McSorley (2,284 yds, 16 TDs, 6 int, 53.4 pct) RECEIVING LEADER Lynn Bowden Jr. (62 rec, 661 yds, 5 TDs) K.J. Hamler (41 rec, 713 yds, 5 TDs) BASIC DEFENSE 3-4, 4-3 (16.3 ppg, 332.2 ypg) 4-3 (20.0 ppg, 354.9 ypg) TACKLE LEADER Josh Allen (32 asst, 52 solo, 84 total) Micah Parsons (30 asst, 39 solo, 69 total) SACK LEADER Josh Allen (14, 91 yds) Yetur Gross-Matos (8, 58 yds) INTERCEPTION LEADER Darius West (3) Amani Oruwariye, Nick Scott, Garrett Taylor (3) 1946, inheriting a team that had won only two games the year before his ar- rival and immediately turning it into a winner. Bryant never suffered a losing season at Kentucky and guided the Wildcats to ap- pearances in the Orange and Cotton bowls in addition to the victory over the Sooners in the Sugar Bowl. But he didn't get along with basketball coach Adolph Rupp, and he thought that the perception of the university had suffered in the wake of a point-shaving scandal that caused the Wildcats to cancel their 1952-53 hoops season. In February 1954, Bryant left for Texas A&M. Four years after that, he headed to Alabama, where he built a football dynasty that included six na- tional championships and 13 Southeast- ern Conference titles. The Wildcats never really recovered from Bryant's exit. His successor, Blanton Collier, went 7-3 in 1954. But in the two decades that followed, they never won more than six games in any season, and they didn't return to the postseason until 1976, when they defeated North Carolina, 21-0, in the Peach Bowl under the leader- ship of coach Fran Curci, a former All- America quarterback at Miami. The following year, Kentucky enjoyed its second 10-win season, and in the process pulled off one of the biggest up- sets in school history, stunning fourth- ranked Penn State in Beaver Stadium, 24-20. However, the Wildcats had been put on probation by the NCAA for recruiting vi- olations, and despite going unbeaten in conference play, they were ineligible for the SEC championship and weren't al- lowed to play in a bowl. Then came more struggles. Hindered by the NCAA's scholarship penalties, the Wildcats went 15-28-1 in Curci's last four seasons and continued to post middling records throughout the 1980s and '90s. They didn't make it back to a January bowl game until the 1998 season, when All-America quarterback Tim Couch led them to the Outback Bowl, where they lost to Penn State, 26-14. No matter what happens in the upcom- ing Citrus Bowl, this year's Wildcats al- ready own the distinction of having produced one of the best players in the program's history. Allen, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound senior defensive end/outside linebacker, has been a pocket-crushing force for Kentucky, leading the SEC in