The Penn State Football Show

Pete great analysis, and yes, I did notice your perfect prediction last week. Let's hope that you can do that two weeks in a row. Iowa is a strange team. Every year they seem to be in the top half of the Big Ten, but never spectacular. Stanzi is a great quarterback for Iowa because he runs the offense the exact way that Kirk Ferentz wants. He's not flashy, but he is a smart player. Iowa however is not as good as last year. They lost Shonn Greene, and Jewel Hampton who was supposed to fill his shoes, but they have some young talent. Their defensive line lost Mitch King who was a freak and their strength on defense is probably their secondary. Like Pete said, this is not a high powered offense and a solid defensive performance by Penn State should keep Iowa under 17 points. Can Penn State put points on the board?

I think that last week the running game made some giant leaps, and even though it was against Temple, the team has a little more confidence, and they seem to have found a starting combination for the offensive line. Royster looked much better and ran well inside. I truly believe that for the first 3 games PSU was running plays just to practice them and not really using any strategy to get in the endzone. Against Iowa they can open things up and keep them off balance. Expect Clark to scramble more, maybe not designed runs, but in short yardage I will look for a play action roll out where he may just pull it down and run. We should not lose sight of all of the talent that Penn State has on the offensive side of the ball. They should be able to score 21 without a problem in my opinion. Many are concerned over the loss of Lee, which is huge, but with the weather playing a factor, Iowa will be running a lot, and I feel that Stupar should be able to fill in decently and plug some holes. The defensive line is stout and should give Iowa all sorts of problems in the run game, and hopefully get some pressure on Stanzi. Should be a great game, but I see Penn State pulling this one out without the same drama as last year. Can't wait to get back in Beaver Stadium, the campus is buzzing, and it's great to be back in State College.