After opening the season with a 46-11 victory over Nevada last weekend, second-ranked Penn State will attempt to stretch its winning streak against unranked teams to 33 games when it battles FIU on Saturday afternoon in University Park, Pa.
Penn State remained No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25. Ohio State moved from No. 3 to No. 1 in this week’s poll after beating top-ranked Texas 14-7.
Penn State scored on its first nine possessions against Nevada (five touchdowns, four field goals) and will face an FIU team that rushed for six touchdowns in a season-opening 42-9 win against Bethune-Cookman last Saturday.
The Panthers’ victory came in Willie Simmons’ first game as the program’s head coach. He spent last season as the running backs coach at Duke and was hired by FIU in December.
As for Penn State, coach James Franklin said he was happy with his team’s opening effort.
“I was pleased with an early season game and how clean things were, and how organized we were,” Franklin said. “We had no issues that you see a ton in early games in a season with college football — programs who are burning timeouts, substitution issues … we didn’t have any of those.
“We’re going to have to be prepared just like we were for last week. Offense, defense and special teams. There are going to be things that show up in this game that we can’t prepare for or anticipate based on film breakdown or study, but we need to take a significant step compared to where we were last week.”
FIU junior quarterback Keyone Jenkins completed 18 of 30 passes for 187 yards and rushed for two touchdowns in the victory over Bethune-Cookman.
Jenkins, selected as the Conference USA preseason offensive player of the year, passed for 4,971 yards and 33 touchdowns, with 19 interceptions, in his first two seasons at FIU.
“They did some pretty good things (on offense) last game, so there will be some challenges there,” Franklin said.
Kejon Owens also had two rushing touchdowns for the Panthers, who held Bethune-Cookman to 105 yards on the ground.
“If we can continue to be stout against the run, I think we can be a pretty good defense,” Simmons said. “Didn’t play our best game (last weekend), but got the job done. Lots of things to clean up. Hoping to make a dramatic improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.
“Huge test for us,” Simmons added. “We need to play clean to compete at this level.”
Penn State defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton recorded five tackles (four solo) and forced two fumbles against Nevada. He also had a pass breakup and a QB hurry.
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar completed 22 of 26 passes for 217 yards and one touchdown. The Nittany Lions received productive games from transfer wide receivers Trebor Pena (Syracuse) and Kyron Hudson (Southern California).
Pena had seven receptions for 74 yards and Hudson caught six passes for 89 yards and a TD.
–Field Level Media
