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O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 9 The break is over. ABer an off-week that conveniently aligned with the midpoint of the college football season, it's back to work for Penn State. As with most temporary reprieves from the daily grind, the Nittany Lions come back facing the second half of their season with a refreshed state of mind as they pre- pare to tackle the biggest challenges of 2017. "The bye week was big," junior linebacker Koa Farmer said. "We got some rest, got caught up on school. Defense and football- wise, we looked at our game corrections and the way teams are attacking us, and started cleaning up our mistakes. Then got a little head start on Michigan." While this Saturday's matchup with the 19th-ranked Wolverines was a looming concern, Penn State's top priorities dur- ing the bye week were internally focused. Coaches and players looked at the ten- dencies they had shown in the first six games and examined the ways that oppo- nents were trying to attack them. They worked on making the necessary adjust- ments before being granted a couple of days away from football for a free week- end. By Sunday – a bonus day with which to start prepping for Michigan – the Lions were eager to get back in action. That's partly because last year's 49-10 loss in Ann Arbor still sticks in many Penn State craws. It was hard not to think about Michigan at times last season. In fact, the game has still been on many minds this year, even with the Nittany Lions having won 15 of the 16 games they've played since that dreary after- noon in Ann Arbor. Farmer remembers that week-four road trip as his first game back at linebacker aBer shuttling between outside linebacker and safety during his first two seasons. He finished with three tackles, but that's not what he recalls most vividly. Instead, he's haunted by the wave of injuries that hin- dered Penn State throughout the first month of the 2016 season and especially in the game against Michigan. "A lot of guys were hurt, and a lot of guys got hurt and we just weren't there as a team," Farmer said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning. "We just weren't ready to play, I guess. Michi- gan is a great football team, and we've got to be ready to play when we play these guys. As far as us talking about them in the locker room, it's just like another op- ponent. I mean, they're a great football team. You watch the film and we'll see what we can do against these guys and get prepared as much as we can and go 1-0 this week." The drive for improvement comes on the heels of a six-game stretch in which Penn State outscored its opponents by an aver- age margin of just over 30 points. In eval- uating Michigan's game film, the Lions have been looking for areas to attack in the hope of producing a different outcome this year. Farmer is expecting a "very defensive game," and he's especially excited about the game because his father will be in at- tendance. Making the trip from their home in Lake View Terrace, Calif., Jamal Farmer will be visiting Beaver Stadium for the first time. That helps balance Farmer's emotions for this game. He's not just looking for a re- demptive moment against the Wolverines; he also wants to put on a show for his fa- ther. There are both positive and negative forces fueling his desire to excel. The same can be said for the entire Nit- tany Lion squad. A sour aBertaste remains from the last time they suffered defeat dur- ing the regular season, and they're all too familiar with what that was like. But they've also shared many triumphant mo- ments since that game, and the bonds that have been built – between coaches and players, and between players and their teammates – have grown stronger and has become a binding force, one that Farmer hopes leads PSU to a winning effort Satur- day night. "Our chemistry has just gotten so much better, chemistry in terms of our mindset," he said. "We're 15-1 since the last time we played them. We told ourselves we're not going to prepare the way we did, we're not going to come out the way we did, we're not going to have the energy that we came out with. I think every team needs that kind of game – to look at themselves in the face and look at each other in the face and just get it done." T I M   O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M Nittany Lions relish return to action after bye week Farmer said the Nittany Lions ben- efitted from hav- ing the week off following their vic- tory over North- western. "The bye week was big," he said. "We got some rest, got caught up on school." Photo by Bill Anderson

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