Blue White Illustrated

T H E M O N T H I N . . . On most occasions, the Penn State offense has one viable option. It's fresh- man running back Saquon Barkley, who returned from an ankle injury and again looked like a facsimile of Leonard Fournette camouflaged by otherwise general dysfunction. Barkley is special and he kept Penn State in this game singlehandedly. It didn't hurt that Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry was hurt early and did not return and the Lions ran effectively over that right side and tackle Andrew Nelson. But Barkley is so explosive and so quick to the edge that any tackle just getting a hat on his man and a draw push-wise is good enough. He is more and more reminiscent of Ki-Jana Carter every time you see him. DAVID JONES PENNLIVE.COM Who knows? Maybe the starting punter of IM teams like for Bigler The Better or Capt. Crunch and the Cereal Killers or Deflate The Balls or Friday Natty Lights may be the answer to Franklin's problems. Because believe the Penn State head coach when he says he's not happy. And that begins with the pair of punters he already has in his locker room. Penn State's Daniel Pasquariello and Chris Gulla netted just 33.4 yards on seven punts against Ohio State, while OSU punter Cameron Johnston netted 41.6 yards per kick – and had zero of his punts re- turned. That's a big swing. Penn State had one punt inside the 20, while John- ston had four. MIKE POORMAN STATECOLLEGE.COM Penn State lost to the nation's No. 1 team, 38-10, Saturday night at Ohio Stadi- um, and believe it or not, the Nittany Lions outplayed the Buckeyes for signifi- cant spurts of the game. But the final score doesn't indicate as much. That's how good the Buckeyes are. Penn State had to play a perfect game to stand any chance of scaring Ohio State, and it didn't. The Lions got off to a decent start, led 3-0 and were on the move again. But with a chance to make things inter- esting, the Nits botched not one but two golden opportunities to take a 10-0 lead. NEIL RUDEL ALTOONA MIRROR It should be a really adversarial relationship between the scout team and the of- fense or defense. There should be respect there, but they should really kind of hate each other on the field because they're challenging each other to get better. The young guys are trying to show the coaches they can play, and the old guys are forced to get better every single day in practice by those guys going after them. JAMES FRANKLIN I've been here for five years and it's amazing to think that I've been here that long and I've played in this stadium that many times. Looking into these next couple of games, I want to do this for the Penn State football family, this town, this communi- ty, my teammates, my coaches, my family back home. I have a lot to play for, and it really makes playing hard every game a lot easier, so I have a lot of passion for this school and this university. ANTHONY ZETTEL Q U O T E S O P I N I O N S sta8, adding that a certain amount of tension can be productive. "I think we have a healthy dialogue, and a back- and-forth with the compliance o9ce," he said. "I look forward to continuing to strengthen those relationships, repre- senting Penn State the right way, repre- senting Penn State football the right way and building a program that everybody can be proud of." ALL SPORTS PSU leads Big Ten in 'comprehensive excellence' Penn State is at the forefront of the Big Ten in comprehensive academic and athletic excellence, according to data calculated by Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics. The Nittany Lions lead all Big Ten athletic programs in a compilation of the most recent NCAA graduation success rates, CoSIDA Academic All- Americans and NCAA and Big Ten championships won during the past four years. NCAA graduation rates are based on four years of data. With an 89 percent NCAA graduation success rate, 17 CoSIDA Academic All- Americans, six NCAA championships and 24 Big Ten titles during the past four years, the Nittany Lions have 136 points in the compilation. Penn State's NCAA graduation rate is tied for second-highest in the conference, and over the past four years, its 17 CoSIDA Academic All- Americans are third-highest. In addition, the Nittany Lions' six NCAA titles are tied for the most in the Big Ten, and their 24 league crowns are second-highest. Michigan is second in the compilation with 132 points, followed by Ohio State (128), Nebraska (125), Michigan State (122) and Minnesota (120). Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive athletic programs. Its 31 sports (16 men's, 15 women's) are tied for the fourth-highest total nation- ally among all 128 Football Bowl Subdi- vision schools. ■

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