It's Penn State-Rutgers week: Kick time, TV info, early spread and storylines, plus more

Penn State plays its penultimate game of the regular season on Saturday. The Nittany Lions head on the road for one final Big Ten game in 2022 when they travel to Rutgers. Head coach James Franklin’s team is a massive favorite in the matchup.

The Lions are coming off of a 30-0 win over Maryland and are perfect in November thus far.

“In the field position battle, we won,” Franklin said. “In the turnover battle, we tied; we had one late in the game. The penalty battle we won; didn’t necessarily feel like that, but we did.

“We won the explosive play battle, not only did we win, but also offensively, we met our goal, and defensively we met our goal.”

Get ready for Nittany Lions-Scarlet Knights with our early game preview below.

Time and TV info

For the second week in a row, Penn State’s next game was placed on the six-day television network scheduling window. Thus, we didn’t find out when it would start until back on Saturday night. However, we know now that the game will start at 3:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network.

What is the Penn State-Rutgers spread?

Penn State is a 19.5-point favorite.

Game week schedule for Penn State

Everything should be status quo for Penn State to have a regular media schedule this week.

Tuesday will see player interviews and a lengthy news conference with Franklin at lunchtime. On Wednesday, more player calls will take place in addition to a chance to watch practice plus another opportunity to interview Franklin and a player.

Thursday brings the Penn State Coaches Show, which Franklin typically appears on for the last half hour, and that will be it for the week until Saturday after the game.

What’s up with Rutgers?

Head coach Greg Schiano is working as hard as he can to infuse talent into the Rutgers program. But, it was never going to be an easy rebuild or a fast one, and that is showing up in the later portion of the season. The Scarlet Knights have lost six of their last seven games and just dropped a 27-21 contest at Michigan State. RU was penalized 14 times and could not get enough going on offense to overcome those and the Spartans’ rushing attack.

“When there’s an issue of that magnitude, to say that it’s not coaching or on players, it can’t single-handedly be anything,” Schiano told NJ.com “I think one of the things is, when we started this year, we said it was a young football team. Where youth really shows up, if you’re young on offense and defense, then it really shows up on special teams.

“We got a lot of young guys involved in it, but sometimes you get some mistakes. That goes with the territory. We’re getting better. All of these things will be something to build upon, but it certainly hurts when you’re building.”

At 4-6, Rutgers must now win out to make a bowl game. But, as noted above, they are not going to be favored to do so. Gavin Wismatt is just an OK option at quarterback. The Scarlet Knights run better than they pass but do neither well enough to scare the Lions. They also have the fewest sacks in the Big Ten through 11 weeks. All told, this is not a good bunch, and Penn State should dominate it just like it did Maryland.

Early weather outlook

It should be a nice and seasonable day. Weather.com currently calls for the following: “Sunny skies. High 44F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.” Obviously wind may be a factor, but otherwise, the elements should not play a role in this game.

Early Penn State-Rutgers storylines

–Will Penn State get any of its injured starters back this week? Olu Fashanu and Caedan Wallace have both missed multiple games, while Curtis Jacobs and Joey Porter Jr., have now missed one each.

–Is there any chance the Lions will alter their quarterback plan? We highly doubt it. But, we also know it’s going to be a top topic of conversation this week and cannot ignore it. Even though he set the program’s all-time passing yards mark on Saturday, Sean Clifford is now 27 of 46 for 368 yards and one touchdown over his last two games.

–Can Rutgers cut back on the penalties? It is one of the most penalized teams in the league and is not good enough to overcome the repeated self-inflicted wounds.

–Will Penn State go ahead and burn Drew Shelton’s redshirt? From this point of view, at this point, it might as well.