James Franklin believes his team is much better than their performance two weeks ago, and he is confident that with time to reflect on that narrow win, the No. 10 Nittany Lions will show improvement.
“We’re used to playing dominating football,” Franklin said. “Around here, we’ve been doing it for a long time. So I do think they have a chip on their shoulder and I’m expecting that to show up on Saturday.”
Penn State (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) will face an opponent that seems vulnerable.
Kent State comes to Beaver Stadium after suffering a 71-0 defeat against No. 6 Tennessee, where the Golden Flashes (0-3, 0-0 MAC) allowed 37 points in the first quarter and gave up a total of 740 yards of offense. They even turned down a running clock to ease their struggles in the second half.
The Nittany Lions performed better in their last game but still did not meet their usual standards. They needed a flawless second half to win against Bowling Green after falling behind 24-20 at halftime.
Penn State players have been eager to prove themselves with a stronger performance.
After struggling with 2 for 9 on third down and making seven penalties for 76 yards, the Nittany Lions want to improve their third-down offense, reduce penalties, and tackle better than they did against the Falcons.
“It makes for a game that as a head coach you’re not proud to watch, and it also just makes it difficult to get into a rhythm,” Franklin said.
With No. 24 Illinois visiting Beaver Stadium next week, they understand the need to improve in order to compete for a conference title.
“When you talk about the standard, we weren’t happy with the first half,” linebacker Tyler Elsdon said. “All the things in the first half were controllable things, communication issues, tackling issues, stuff that’s again controllable.”
