Tag: Ohio Bobcats

Game-by-game predictions for Penn State football in 2022

It’s time to go on the record with some game-by-game predictions for 2022.

The start of a brand new college football season is quickly approaching, so it is time to officially go on the record with some game-by-game predictions. We’ll be sharing our official staff predictions for Penn State’s upcoming season soon, but I am officially on the record already, so I’ll show my cards to you now.

I took part in providing my game-by-game predictions for Penn State’s 2022 season with the folks over at Athlon Sports this week. It turns out my predicted record was spot-on with the two other experts sharing their opinions for Athlon Sports. The three of us combined for identical 9-3 record predictions for Penn State this fall, although we arrived at those predictions in slightly different ways.

You can see the full post over at Athlon Sports, but here are my game-by-game predictions for Penn State’s 2022 season and a quick thought or two about my prediction.

Nittany Lions Wire Roundtable: Biggest game in September

Purdue or Auburn? Our staff weighs in on which September game is the most important for Penn State.

As we begin to move closer to the start of a new college football season in Happy Valley, the staff at Nittnay Lions Wire is spending some time sounding off on some big questions facing the Nittany Lions this fall. Today’s focus is the biggest game in the first month of the season.

This question boils down to two distinct options, with both being a road game. Penn State opens the season on Thursday, Sept. 1 at Purdue and will play at Auburn in a return trip of a home-and-home deal in Week 3. Penn State also plays home games against Central Michigan and Ohio in September.

Here is what our staff had to say about the biggest game in September, but feel free to share with us your thoughts on Twitter or Facebook.

Sam Dehring, Contributor
@sam_dehring68

September should be a fairly easy set of games for Penn State. If I had to pick a game that would be most important game for the first month, I would have to say Auburn.

It’s fairly close between Auburn and their season opener against Purdue. Though I’m not very high at all on Auburn this year, I think the fact that they’re playing that game on the road will make it tough.

Last year, Penn State took down Auburn 28-20 in the white-out game. Clifford went 28/32 with 280 yards, a touchdown, and an interception all while putting up an 89.9 quarterback rating. However, that game was much from their defensive success.

Overall, for the Nittany Lions to beat Auburn again this season, they are going to need consistency on both sides of the ball.

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Kevin McGuire, Editor
@KevinOnCFB

As much as I am looking forward to seeing Penn State play at Aubrun, the bigger game has to be the season opener on the road against a conference opponent. And not just any Big Ten opponent, but one that plays tough at home and knocked off a couple of highly-ranked opponents last fall.

Purdue is not the ideal opponent to play on the road to start the season, so Penn State will absolutely be put to the test right out of the gates of the season. For the third straight season, Penn State is opening the season on the road against a conference opponent, and this one won’t be easy either.

The value of a conference win is much higher than a road win against Auburn. A win at Auburn may draw more attention, but starting the season off with a Big Ten win in a year that Penn State hopes to move back up the Big Ten standings cannot be oversold to me. If Penn State is only going to win one of these games, it has to be the Purdue game to start the season.

But winning both would be great too.

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247Sports ranking of toughest September schedules includes Penn State

247Sports ranked the nation’s toughest September schedules. Here’s where Penn State ranked

Penn State is facing a bit of a challenging schedule in the first month of the upcoming college football season, and it is being recognized as one of the nation’s more difficult ones in the month of September. 247Sports ranked the 15 toughest September schedules in college football, and Penn State’s slate was included in the mix.

Penn State’s September schedule is the 11th-ranked most challenging schedule in the first full month of the college football season. While the home schedule includes games against MAC opponents in Central Michigan and Ohio, it is the road trips in September that ramp up the difficulty level.

Penn State opens the season on a Thursday night (Sept. 1) with a Big Ten road game against Purdue. It is the third consecutive season that will start with a Big Ten road game and it comes against a Boilermakers team that knocked off highly-ranked teams at home twice last season on their way to a nine-win season.

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In Week 3, Penn State makes its first trip in program history to Auburn for the second game in a home-and-home series. Penn State edged the Tigers in Happy Valley last season in a fun early-season non-conference matchup. Auburn is not expected to be great this season and the game looks far less intimidating than it once may have, but getting out of SEC country with a win is still expected to be a challenge for Penn State. The game is set for the CBS SEC Game of the Week national spotlight.

Here is what 247Sports had to say about Penn State’s ranking on this list;

Purdue or Auburn might not be ranked to start the season, with the latter having an ugly offseason, but no team goes on the road into two environments like Penn State does. James Franklin and company got a mulligan for the COVID-impacted 2020 season, and the Nittany Lions were 5-0 before Sean Clifford got banged up in early October. Penn State has the talent advantage to go 4-0 in this stretch, but it will without a doubt be a challenge.

Florida has the most difficult September schedule according to 247Sports with a home game against Utah and Kentucky in back-to-back weeks highlighting their September schedule.

The only other Big Ten team to appear in this ranking of the top 15 most difficult September schedules was Ohio State. Ohio State opens the season at home against Notre Dame (which is ranked No. 3 on this list) and closes out September with a game against Wisconsin.

See the full ranking of the top 15 most challenging September schedules from 247Sports.

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Penn State Nittany Lions 2022 Football Schedule

Penn State’s 2022 football schedule: Dates, kickoff times, TV information, series history and most recent results

After a couple of back-to-back mediocre seasons, Penn State is hoping to restore the roar in Happy Valley in 2022. The Nittany Lions bring a good mix of returning veterans and young upcoming talent ready to put Penn State back in the Big Ten title race but they will have to earn it with a somewhat challenging schedule in 2022.

Penn State opens the third straight season on the road against a Big Ten opponent when they open the 2022 season at Purdue. Two weeks later Penn State will make a trip to Auburn for the second half of a home-and-home scheduling agreement. Penn State also pays a trip to Ann Arbor to face defending Big Ten champion Michigan in a stadium that has not generally been kind to the Nittany Lions over the years, and Penn State will get chances for revenge at home against Ohio State and Michigan State.

Here is a look at the entire 2022 schedule for Penn State with the series record and most recent results in the series noted.

This list will be updated with television and kickoff times as they become available. This schedule is subject to change.

Ohio Bobcats Top 10 Players: College Football Preview 2022

Who are the top 10 Ohio players going into the 2022 college football season?

Ohio Bobcats Preview 2022: Who are the top 10 players going into the season?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

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Ohio Bobcats Preview  
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen | Ohio Schedule  

Kickoff time for Penn State’s season opener, four other games announced

Penn State-Purdue is confirmed for primetime, and one more PSU home game in Beaver Stadium will be played under the lights.

A day after learning the official kickoff time for one of Penn State’s most anticipated regular-season road games of the upcoming season, we now know the official kickoff time for Penn State’s first game of the season. And three more games on the schedule also have kickoff times etched in stone.

FOX announced that Penn State’s Week 1 road opener at Purdue will kick off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 1. The game had previously been set aside for a Thursday night kickoff, but the official start time had not been confirmed by FOX until today.

Penn State also received another primetime game on its schedule for the fall, but it may not be the one most fans were expecting. Penn State’s home game against Minnesota on October 22 has been set for a primetime kickoff (7:30 p.m. ET) on a network to be determined at a later time.

Penn State’s Week 3 contest at Auburn was recently locked in for a 3:30 p.m. ET start time on CBS.

Here is a quick look at the five officially announced start times or TV plans for games on the 2022 Penn State football schedule that were confirmed on Thursday.

Ranking Penn State’s 2022 schedule from Ohio to Ohio State

What are the easiest games on Penn State’s 2022 football schedule? Which are the most challenging? Ranking Penn State’s schedule from easiest to hardest games.

Penn State faces a somewhat challenging 2022 season that will see the Nittany Lions open the year in primetime at Purdue, visit an SEC stadium in Auburn, and make a trip to the home stadium of the defending Big Ten champion Michigan Wolverines that has rarely been kind to them over the years. Oh yeah, and Penn State also has to play Ohio State.

So now that we know what the schedule looks like from start to finish, what are the toughest games on the schedule? How does the way the schedule is mapped out help determine just how difficult a particular matchup could potentially be for the Nittany Lions, who are looking to bounce back after a couple of seasons of .500 football?

This is a ranking of Penn State’s schedule starting with what should be the easiest matchup and working all the way up to the most difficult challenge for Penn State in 2022. A number of factors were taken into consideration in ranking these games including the strength of the opponent as a majority factor. But stadium environments and the flow of the season also is used to formulate this ranking. Is the bye week at a good spot for Penn State? Is a trip to the sEC still a bigger challenge than a visit to Ann Arbor even if Michigan should be a better team than Auburn?

Find out below how the schedule ranks in terms of difficulty level.

Buffalo downs Ohio on untimed down following penalty on missed FG

Ohio had defeated Buffalo and then a penalty flag flew

This one defines painful losses.

The Buffalo Bulls overcame a 21-0 deficit and defeated the Ohio Bobcats 27-26 in MAC play Saturday.

The Bobcats appeared to have pulled off a 26-24 victory when Buffalo’s Alex McNulty missed a 31-yard field-goal attempt as time expired.

Hold on … because Ohio was flagged for being offsides on the attempt and that gave the Bulls’ McNulty a second chance.

“Our short snapper, Jeremiah Riordan actually made a good call,” McNulty said per the Buffalo News. “He saw the jump and he snapped it early, so we had an early snap to try to pull that offsides so we could get a second chance.

And he nailed the kick.

The celebration was on after that comeback.

The Bulls had to overcome a 26-10 deficit in the fourth quarter, part of which came on Armani Rogers’ historic 99-yard touchdown run.

Rogers set NCAA history on that play with the longest scoring play by a quarterback.

Penn State football’s season-opening results since 2000

Let’s take a look at every Penn State football season opener since 2000.

Penn State opens the 2021 college football season against Wisconsin on Sept. 4. It will be here before you know it. This got us to thinking about how the Nittany Lions have fared in their season openers since the year 2000. Needless to say, there have been some mixed results since the turn of the century.

Penn State’s all-time record against every member of the MAC

Penn State has had little problems dealing with #MACTION, but two MAC schools own active winning streaks against the Nittany Lions.

Historically speaking, Penn State has been very good against teams currently residing in the MAC. That should be expected given Penn State’s place in college football history compared to most of the programs in the MAC. But two schools in the MAC will enter the 2021 season with active winning streaks against the Nittany Lions with no future game son the schedule lined up to give Penn State an upcoming chance of breaking those streaks.

The Toledo Rockets are the only non-power conference program in college football to own a 100 percent winning percentage against the Nittany Lions (excluding teams from the Ivy League), putting Toledo in some very elite company with programs like Clemson, Oklahoma, and Florida (and Vanderbilt!).

Penn State’s brief run under former head coach Bill O’Brien got off on the wrong foot with a home loss to the Ohio Bobcats in Beaver Stadium. Ohio is the only other MAC team with an active winning streak against the Nittany Lions. In fact, those are the only two games Penn State has ever lost to a team in the MAC to this day.

Here is a look at how Penn State fares all-time against schools currently in the MAC.

All data referenced is credited to College Football Reference. Rankings referenced are AP Top 25 where available.

If you want more, check out Penn State’s all-time records against current members of the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC. We are also adding all-time records against non-power conferences. Here is Penn State’s all-time record against schools in the AAC.

Note: Penn State has never faced Ball State, Miami, or Western Michigan. Penn State will face Ball State in 2021.

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