Ohio State football: Clash of strengths highlights matchup with Penn State

Here are five things to know going into Saturday:

1. The biggest matchup is Ohio State’s passing game against the Penn State secondary.

The Buckeyes are third in the nation in passing efficiency while the Nittany Lions are third in defensive passing efficiency.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud is on a four-game roll, and Ohio State has perhaps the deepest receiving corps in the nation led by Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, while Penn State boasts experienced cornerbacks in Joey Porter Jr. and Tariq Castro-Fields along with play-making safety Jaquan Brisker.

“I just think across the board they are athletic back there,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “It allows them to run some different schemes. They can man you up. They can zone you up. They can do a couple different things. They do a lot of pressuring (with blitzes) now.”

2. Penn State has questions at quarterback.

Sean Clifford, a senior from Cincinnati, is a three-year starter for the Nittany Lions, but he was hurt in Penn State’s loss to Iowa two games ago and appeared to be limited physically last week in an upset loss to Illinois.

Both coach James Franklin and Clifford himself said they expect him to be at least close to 100 percent Saturday night, but it remains to be seen if that comes to fruition. The exact nature of his injury has not been revealed, but he appeared to favor his right side last weekend.

Clifford’s primary backup is Ta’Quan Roberson, a third-year player from New Jersey who was a four-star dual-threat quarterback coming out of high school. The offense struggled under his direction against a tough Iowa defense after Clifford was knocked out of that game, and the PSU coaching staff apparently decided an injured Clifford gave them a better chance to beat Illinois than a healthy Roberson.

“Last week we weren’t sure,” Franklin said. “We were trying to see where he was going to be at. Sean is much farther ahead now to being back to 100 percent, so that’s a positive. We feel really good about that. I know Sean felt great physically on Sunday.”

3. Penn State can’t run the ball.

Clifford’s injury was particularly problematic for the Nittany Lions because they have not shown the ability to line up and run the ball in a traditional way this season.

They rank 100th in the nation and 11th in the Big Ten in rushing yards, and Football Outsiders ranks the Penn State offensive line 116th in the country in adjusted line yards, which measures how consistently a team clears the way for at least four yards on a run.

“Yeah, we’ve got to be more physical up front,” Franklin said. “I think that’s really important. We got to get vertical push with the O-line and the tight ends. I love those guys. I know where their heart is, their mentality, what their approach is like.”

Clifford is third on the team with 173 rushing yards, and his ability to pick up yardage on the ground is crucial to the offense’s success overall, as is his ability to scramble and throw downfield.

“That’s one of the things now that I pride myself on,” Clifford told reporters in Pennsylvania this week. “Being able to make those plays when the pocket is breaking down and you need the extra few yards. So I’m looking to have that back to 100 percent on Saturday and be able to extend plays when they need to be extended.”

PSU also has burly tight end Tyler Warren as a “wildcat” direct snap option in short-yardage situations.

4. Franklin’s future with Penn State could loom over the program.

A Pennsylvania native, Franklin is 65-30 with a Big Ten title in eight seasons at Penn State.

He has regularly been linked to other jobs over the past few years and typically refused to outright deny interest in leaving, both things that happened again this week amid speculation he could be a candidate for vacancies at USC or LSU and the revelation he changed agents earlier this year.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that over my eight years here, and we’ll continue to try to do that,” Franklin said when asked about his status potentially being a distraction to the team. “There are things we can control and things we can’t from the outside, but this has been kind of a story that’s happened on numerous occasions, and we just to keep it as focused as we can.

“I think it’s a fair question and I understand where it’s coming from.”

5. The weekend should be big for Ohio State recruiting.

Games like this are often used as a showcase in selling the program, and this week is no exception.

Ohio State is expecting numerous recruits to be on campus, including official visits from four-star prospects Earnest Greene (offensive lineman from California), Hero Kanu (defensive tackle from California) and Marvin Jones Jr. (defensive end from Florida) according to 247Sports.com.

“We’re really in search of the fit,” Day said of narrowing the recruiting net they spread nationwide every year. “We’re really competitive about who we bring in and rankings and all those types of things, but at the end of the day, it’s about the right fit. We want to have the right guys who want to be here.

That’s in part to keep the number of transfers down.

“We want guys who want to be Buckeyes and understand what it means to be a Buckeye because sustaining that throughout the development process is how you sustain a program, and that’s something we’re very focused on,” Day said.

Local standouts C.J. Hicks of Alter and Lakota West teammates Tegra Tshabola and Jyaire Brown are expected to be among the many 2022 Ohio State verbal commits on hand according to BuckeyeScoop.com, as are Wayne offensive lineman Josh Padilla and Springfield receiver Anthony Brown.

Padilla and Brown are both members of the 2023 class, and Brown committed to Minnesota earlier this fall.

TODAY’S GAME

Penn State at Ohio State, 7:30 p.m., ABC, 1410