Hometown Sports
Don't Miss
Home / Altoona / Varner: New Look Nits/So far so good

Varner: New Look Nits/So far so good

By Kenny Varner

At this year’s Media Penn State Coach James Franklin had a look of “I know something you don’t know” all through out. He at times looked like “the cat that ate the canary”. Wanting to get the season started to show off the talented team he would bring to the field in the upcoming season.

With its first test of the season in the Idaho Vandals, the Nittany Lions had a chance to officially unveil what would hopefully by a tough competitive team for the 2019 campaign and I guess the answer was yes, at least in its opener.

When the dust settled Saturday at Beaver Stadium, not only did the Nits defeat Idaho by the 43-point streak that the odds makers were giving them but they much surpassed it, winning by a nail biting 79-7 victory.

It was the second largest margin in recent years for the Lions.

From the first defensive outing of the “Blue and White” it’s apparent that the smug grin on James’ Franklin’s face at Media Day was what he knew how athletic and aggressive his team was going to be this year, especially on the defensive side.

The group was so dominant that they held Idaho to just two first downs going into the final stanza.

Despite the number of players going in and out throughout the game, there was no drop in talent and most importantly, aggressiveness.

The Nittany Lions “D” had over four sacks on the afternoon and had the Vandals’ quarterback running for his life and held the running game to -24-yards rushing after three quarters.

Offensively, new signal caller Sean Clifford seemed to start out with some nervousness, just missing his receivers early. But with each play, the fresh faced quarterback started to sizzle and with a pin point accurate TD pass to KJ Hamler, it was just the confidence booster he needed and looked sharp from then until he was relieved at the end of the third.

Hamler got off to a great start as he looked in mid-season mode as he had some good runs in the punt return department.

Offensively, the play-maker was well above the 100-yard receiving mark with 115 yards.

Clifford finished with 280 yards through the air and ran for 65.

The day was one for the record books for the “Men in Blue”.

Knowing who they played and what the final score was, the verdict on how good the Lions are are very promising and if its steps continue going forward heading into Big 10 will be possible contenders if the players continue to improve and Clifford continues to get comfortable in the offensive scheme, these guys may prove a lot of the Penn State haters and “So-Called Experts” wrong.

But until then, next week is Buffalo.

Stay tuned.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.