Tailgate Show: Penn State vs FIU | Can FIU test PSU Secondary?

The Penn State Nittany Lions face the FIU Golden Panthers today at noon. Join the Penn State Football Tailgate Show live at 9 a.m. outside of the Bryce Jordan Center as we break down the game. We’ll have 90 minutes of discussion about Penn State’s week one performance, what to expect from the game today, and what we think are the key takeaways from the non-conference schedule.

Join the show at 9 to be part of the live chat! If you’re local to State College, you can also hear the show on 99.5 The Bus. The Penn State football tailgate Show is produced in conjunction with Seven Mountains Media.

Penn State gets reinforcements from last week

As with most of the non-conference schedule, the show will focus on Penn State more than its opponent. We’ll discuss the situation this week, where the program will see starting defensive end Zuriah Fisher and nickel defender Zion Tracy rejoin the team. Here’s what Penn State head coach James Franklin had to say about their status for this week.

“He’s ready to go. He’s practiced all week long, including Sunday. So, we’re anticipating him ready to go. There’ll be two significant guys that we’ll get back, veterans, that have played a decent amount of football for us,” Franklin said about Tracy.

The sitaution with Fisher is a bit more complex than his teammate’s status. He discussed that earlier in the week.

“Yeah, I would still think though, even in this game, even if he wants to, we’ll probably only play him a limited amount of reps. But right now, he’s a go.”

Can Penn State get explosive plays this week?

Despite the strong showing in the first week, fans remain skeptical of the team’s passing attack. Both after the game and during his Monday press conference, Franklin expressed a desire for the team to be more explosive in the future. Those comments were specifically addressed to the passing game. So was the situation against Nevada preventing more called shots? Or did starting quarterback Drew Allar not take the ones that were there?

“I think it’s a combination of both. And I think it’s also what I talked about after the game, how they’re defending us. It wouldn’t surprise me this week if it’s a similar model where they’re snapping the ball under five and playing some type of soft middle field open or middle of field closed defense with the idea that they’re going to keep everything in front of them. We’ll see how that goes.”

Around the Big Ten, game score predictions and more

We’ll also keep you up to date on all the news from around the Big Ten, including previewing the biggest conference games of the day.  Be sure to tune in for great features such as the Coach’s Corner, Practice Updates, and more!