Penn State Preview

With months of virtually no substantial activity in the college football world, fans are provided more than ample time to research, analyze, and sometimes obsess about the first opponent of the year, which is why the second game of the season seems to follow so quickly. Don't worry Irish faithful, Charlie's Nasties has taken the liberty of writing a basic breakdown of tomorrow's opponent so you will be able to adequately prepare yourself for Saturday's matchup.

Penn State looks to build off of a 59 point thumping of Florida International. Senior quarterback Anthony Morelli threw for 295 yards and 3 touchdowns, hooking up primarily with his 3 returning starters at receiver: Joron Norwood, Derrick Williams, and Deon Butler, who had days of 92, 31, and 66 yards, respectively. Also in the mix was sophomore tight end Mickey Sculer who caught 4 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. More confident in their air attack, look for the Lions to test the Irish secondary this weekend.

Even with the improved aerial game, Penn State is still in the Big Ten and Big Ten teams love to run the football. State returns 3 starters on the interior line and looks to repeat last week's performance where they rushed for 236 yards and 5 touchdowns. Redshirt Senior and first time starter Austin Scott only posted a 4.2 yard average so look to see more of Rodney Kinlaw and freshman Evan Royster who both put up carry averages of over 8 against FIU.

On defense, the Lions return 7 starters. Among the more notable returnees are linebacker Dan Connor and cornerback Justin King. The defensive unit ganged up on the green FIU offense last week, forcing five fumbles and sacking the quarterback seven times en route to a shutout. Look for Linebacker U to spice up their blitz packages in an attempt to fluster Notre Dame's new starting quarterback. Clausen will have to think on his feet and make smart plays if he wants to move the ball against this experienced unit.

The best thing the Irish have on their side going into this game is that they have nothing to lose. The offense will be out to prove something; expect Weis to keep it relatively simple (however, relatively simple for Weis can be pretty complex) and grind it out with the running game. Watch for the defense to "knock some heads" out there and get physical trying to stop the run. I'm personally looking forward to see some more of Corwin's blitz packages; I really like what he's done with the defense up to this point, and I can't wait for our secondary to start hitting like Coach Brown used to.

Due to last week's unfortunate events, my roommate will no long be providing Charlie's Nasties with a score prediction, so we'll have to settle for Mark May's simulation of 87 - 0 Penn State. Have a good one. Go Irish!