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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 something that our senior class can be really proud of, something that our Penn State fan base can be really proud of. There are not a whole lot of teams in the country that have been able to do what we've been able to do consistently over the last three years." A 10-win season would be even more impressive given that the Lions are in the midst of what has to be considered a rebuilding year. Nobody ever wants to use that word, especially at the outset of a season. Football requires a year- round investment of time, effort and emotion, and it feels deflating and maybe even a little unfair to decide pre- emptively that the work that players and coaches put in during the off-sea- son is not going to yield the results that everyone wants. Still, most programs have their ups and downs, as veteran players cycle out and inexperienced players cycle in. There are a few programs that have built up enough depth throughout their roster to weather their annual graduation losses without missing a beat, but Penn State is not one of them. Not yet, any- way. The Nittany Lions lost nine starters on S T A F F P R E D I C T I O N S NATE BAUER WEBSITE EDITOR Whether or not Penn State can pull o? a third consecutive season of double- digit wins will revolve around its ability to score 27 or more points in the Citrus Bowl. The Nittany Lions did that seven times during the regular season and won all seven of those games. In the >ve games in which they scored 26 or fewer points, they went 2-3. Their opponent on New Year's Day, the Kentucky Wild- cats, will make it di@cult to reach that number, as they are allowing only 16.3 points per game to rank eighth in the country. All-America defensive end Josh Allen has said he will play, challenging Penn State's o?ensive line and quarter- back Trace McSorley tremendously. For a PSU o?ense that was o?-kilter for much of the Big Ten season, coming up with those 27 points will be critical. Conversely, given how imbalanced Kentucky's o?ense has been, 27 points should be more than su@cient. Pitt, Illi- nois, Wisconsin and Maryland all fea- tured o?enses with big disparities between the run and pass, and so do the Wildcats. They rank 38th nationally in rushing and 115th in passing. Those aforementioned games were all PSU wins, and a similar outcome seems likely in the Citrus Bowl. PREDICTION PENN STATE................................................ 27 KENTUCKY...................................................20 PHIL GROSZ BWI PUBLISHER A few weeks ago, I was ready to predict that Penn State would beat Kentucky by three touchdowns. That was because there seemed to be some question as to whether All-America DE/OLB Josh Allen would play in the Citrus Bowl. But Allen put that speculation to rest in early De- cember, announcing that he would in- deed play in the game. That was huge news for the Wildcats. In order to beat Penn State, they will most de>nitely need Allen in their lineup. He was a one-man wrecking crew on a defense that allowed only 332.2 yards per game during the reg- ular season. In those 12 games, Allen posted 18.5 tackles for loss and 14 sacks. With the Nittany Lions coming o? one of their best o?ensive performances of the season, a 38-3 victory over Maryland in which they totaled 552 yards, it was easy to envision them scoring more than 30 points in the Citrus Bowl. I don't see that happening now, even though Trace McSorley should be fully healthy. But the Lions' defense has been coming on strong lately, and Kentucky has a one- dimensional o?ense that relies heavily on the running game. As its rout of Maryland showed, that's not a game plan for beating Penn State. Expect the Lions to win a low-scoring contest. PREDICTION PENN STATE................................................ 24 KENTUCKY....................................................10 MATT HERB MAGAZINE EDITOR The thing that scares me most about this game, looking at it from the Nittany Lions' perspective, is the matchup be- tween Josh Allen and an o?ensive line that has not always done a great job of pro- tecting Trace McSorley this season. The Lions have given up 2.1 sacks per game, seventh-best in the Big Ten, and with all due respect to A.J. Epenesa, Dre'Mont Jones and Kenny Willekes, Allen is likely to be the best pass rusher they've seen all year. Another concern is that the Lions' late-season defensive surge was at least partly predicated on their opponents' quarterback problems. They faced backup QBs in 10 of the last 12 quarters of the sea- son, and during those other two quarters, the starter they faced was Artur Sitkowski. Kentucky doesn't boast an overpowering o?ense, but it's likely to have more playmaking potential than Wisconsin without Alex Hornibrook and Maryland without Kasim Hill. All that said, I believe the Lions are the more talented team from top to bottom and that McSorley will >nd a way to engi- neer a victory in his >nal college game. He's likely to be healthier than he was at any point in the >nal month of the regular season, and a healthy McSorley means trouble for any opponent. PREDICTION PENN STATE................................................ 27 KENTUCKY.................................................... 21

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