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His team had just dismantled Purdue on homecoming weekend, 35-7, and head coach James Franklin couldn't help but gush about how thoroughly Penn State had kept an injury-riddled but still potentially dangerous Boilermakers of- fense in check. "Defensively, we are doing some spe- cial things right now," Franklin said. "It starts up front when your defensive line can stop the run and pressure the quar- terback for four downs. When you can get 13 tackles for a loss in a game, get 10 sacks and hold someone to minus-19 yards rushing, [you] are playing cham- pionship-level defense, and we've been doing it for a number of weeks. I'm very, very pleased and impressed with that." The Nittany Lions did indeed play championship-level defense throughout much of the first half of their season, ranking among the top three teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision in sacks and tackles for loss. The players who had received star billing in the off-season were playing like stars, and the younger, less-cel- ebrated players, well, they were also playing like stars. At times this season, the Lions have played cham- pionship-level offense, too. And at other times, they've looked pretty ordinary. The Pur- due game showed both sides of their split personality, as they scored touch- downs on their first four possessions, then put together only one more scoring drive the rest of the afternoon. The Nittany Lions began the second half of their season on Oct. 19 when Michigan visited Beaver Stadium for a White Out game. Here's a position-by- position look at how the Lions graded out in their first six games: QUARTERBACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT Sean Clifford has gotten off to a very promising start. He's had his ups and downs, as you would expect of a red- NEWS & NOTES GATE CRASHERS Franklin leads his team onto the field prior to the Nittany Lions' homecoming game against Pur- due earlier this month. Photo by Steve Manuel F O O T B A L L Nittany Lions earn high marks at midseason A N A L Y S I S B Y M A T T H E R B

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