Blue White Illustrated

O c T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O m 11 N A T E   B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O m Warning of Indiana's tough run defense and confusing blitz schemes all week, Penn State head coach James Franklin in- sisted his Nittany Lions would be forced to throw the ball Saturday aBernoon. He wasn't kidding. Led by a 21-of-39, 262-yard aBernoon for junior quarterback Christian Hack- enberg, along with 154 yards on the ground from seven ball-carriers, the Nit- tany Lions' offense broke out of the dol- drums that marked its previous four weeks. Opting for grind-it-out, conser- vative football against arguably lesser foes, Penn State finally emerged with a high-flying performance in its 29-7 win against the Hoosiers. The performance certainly pleased Franklin. "I thought we were much more aggres- sive on offense in the passing game, made some plays," he said. "I still feel like we leB some yards on the field, but we did some nice things. It was a great team win." Though the Lions failed to connect on a few long passing attempts, Franklin's critiques for a more explosive offense will likely fall on deaf ears considering the context of Saturday's relative offensive explosion. Opening with back-to-back 39-yard touchdown strikes from Hackenberg in the first and second quarters, first to Brandon Polk, then to DaeSean Hamil- ton, respectively, the Nittany Lions took their shots. Going to the air against an Indiana defense rated next-to-last in the Big Ten passing yards allowed entering the game, offensive coordinator John Donovan pressed the Hoosiers' defensive backs while maintaining a steady mix of passes and runs. "The way our receivers have been play- ing, winning their one-on-one matchups on a more consistent basis and obviously us being able to run the foot- ball and work off play-action and protect it, I think they all played a role in it," Hackenberg said. "And then [given] what they did defensively, their scheme, how they did some things, we saw we'd have the opportunity to have those one-on- one matchups and take advantage of them." Penn State's receivers were happy to take advantage. With eight players grab- bing receptions of 10 or more yards, the Nittany Lions found variety and rhythm offensively for maybe the first time all season on Saturday aBernoon. In fact, so successful was the plan that the Nittany Lions' 310 yards of total of- fense in the first half were just 19 yards shy of their game average for the season, in spite of a handful of blatant missed connections between Hackenberg and his receivers. Their 29 points, even with two missed extra points from Joey Julius, topped their 95th-ranked season average of 24.4 per game. Even a rushing offense forced to rely on third- and fourth-string backs Nick Scott and Mark Allen man- aged to produce 154 yards and a pair of ground touchdowns from Hackenberg. A cathartic release of four weeks' worth of frustration? Not according to Franklin, who main- tained that the circumstances for his of- fensive line following 10 sacks in a 27-10 opening-day loss at Temple forced the conservative offensive approach in re- cent weeks. "It's really the same things I've been talking about for four weeks, that we were going to have to play a certain style over the next couple of weeks to allow our offensive line time to mature," Franklin said, also noting the weather's impact on three of the four games. "We played three games in pretty significant rain. So it was all those things. "And it was [Indiana playing] every- body in the box. They were basically dar- ing you to throw the ball, so we knew we were going to have to do that. It was all those factors." BREAKOUT GAME Penn State's offense generates big plays in victory RECRUITING Bullis School DB is among visitors for Indiana game Penn State hosted roughly 30 prospects for Saturday's game against Indiana, including two of the staff's top targets in the Class of 2017. Safety prospect Damani Neal, from the Bullis School in Potomac, Md., is a name that most fans should recog- nize. Since June, the three-star prospect has taken four unofficial visits to University Park. He's also admitted on a few occasions that the Nittany Lions are currently his top school. We expect Neal to visit a few other programs this season, but a commitment to PSU this winter or spring wouldn't surprise us. The coaching staff also hosted of- fensive lineman Micah Clark of Holmdel, N.J. The four-star prospect from St. John Vianney was visiting University Park for the second time in two weeks. He's re- ceived offers from Alabama, Clem- son, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State, so it's clear the Nittany Lions will have plenty of competi- tion for the Rivals250 offensive tackle. But the fact that he's already taken two visits is a very positive sign. We believe he's now been on campus for four or five visits dur- ing the past year. Two other noteworthy players are defensive end Brandon Hickerson- Rooks of Central Dauphin East in Harrisburg, Pa., and quarterback Kyle McCloskey of Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa. Neither one has picked up a Divi- sion I offer yet, but they turned in solid performances at Penn State's prospect camps this past summer. –RYAN SNYDER

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