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College Football
Preview
Penn State at Minnesota
When: 3:30 PM ET, Saturday, November 23, 2024
Where: Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota

No. 4 Penn State will look to improve its case for making the College Football Playoff when it visits Minnesota in a Big Ten encounter in Minneapolis on Saturday.

A competitive schedule might be preparing the Nittany Lions (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) for the playoffs, but coach James Franklin remains focused solely on the Golden Gophers this week.

"As you know, I don't love to talk about a whole lot more than Minnesota and the team that we're playing this week," Franklin said. "I'm totally focused, and I want our team to be totally focused on Minnesota.

"If I start talking about things other than Minnesota, then so do our coaches and so do the players, and we lose focus, and then we come out and don't play well."

Fair enough, but let's look at where Penn State has been of late. The Nittany Lions answered a 20-13 setback to Ohio State on Nov. 2 with convincing victories over Washington and Purdue.

Drew Allar threw three touchdowns and tight end Tyler Warren had both a receiving and rushing score in Penn State's 49-10 romp over the Boilermakers last Saturday.

Warren reeled in eight catches for 127 yards and rushed three times for 63 yards. His fourth career 100-yard receiving game tied Ted Kwalick (1966-68) for the school record among tight ends.

"Tyler Warren had a pretty high draft grade last year, came back, and I think it's been a win-win," Franklin said of Warren, who was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season.

"I think he's going to be the first tight end drafted, is having a great year, is having a ton of fun with his teammates, and that's what you want, right? You want it to be a great situation for everybody."

Minnesota (6-4, 4-3) saw its four-game winning streak come to a halt with a 26-19 setback to Rutgers on Nov. 9. Former Golden Gophers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis threw three touchdowns against his former team to lead the Scarlet Knights.

Luckily for Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck, the team had two weeks to rebound from that setback.

"Two bye weeks is really beneficial for a football team, mentally, physically and emotionally, for their health," Fleck said. "Seasons are getting longer. I think our guys did a really good job of that. Not only that. We had to get better at the things we needed to get better at. Some self-scout. But it gave us a lot more time to work on Penn State as well and get a jump-start on that.

"I thought we had a really productive week of not only working on Penn State, working ahead, working on ourselves."

Darius Taylor rushed for a touchdown in his fourth straight game but was held to just 28 yards on the ground.

Max Brosmer is completing 67.1 percent of his passes for 2,251 yards with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions.

--Field Level Media

Stats and Records
Team Comparison
  W‑L Strk PF PA Home Away Grass Turf Conf
Penn State 9-1 W2 33.0 13.6 5-1 4-0 7-1 0-0 6-1
Minnesota 6-4 L1 26.7 17.7 4-2 2-2 1-0 0-0 4-3
Last Meeting
Penn State Minnesota
Date Away Home Tot Rus Pas Tot Rus Pas
10/22/22 MINN 17 PSU 45 479 175 304 340 165 175
Player Stats
Previous Matchup
Passing Player COMP % YDS TD INT
Penn State S. Clifford 74.2 295 4 1
Minnesota A. Kaliakmanis 40.9 175 1 1
Rushing Player CAR YDS AVG TD
Penn State N. Singleton 13 79 6.1 2
Minnesota M. Ibrahim 30 102 3.4 1
Receiving Player REC YDS AVG TD
Penn State T. Johnson 5 75 15.0 1
Minnesota B. Spann-Ford 5 68 13.6 1
Touchdowns Player TD
Penn State N. Singleton 2
Minnesota M. Ibrahim 1
Season
Passing Player COMP % YDS TD INT
Penn State D. Allar 71.9 2253 16 5
Minnesota M. Brosmer 67.1 2252 14 4
Rushing Player CAR YDS AVG TD
Penn State K. Allen 139 654 4.7 5
Minnesota D. Taylor 136 672 4.9 9
Receiving Player REC YDS AVG TD
Penn State T. Warren 67 808 12.1 5
Minnesota D. Jackson 63 712 11.3 3
Touchdowns Player TD
Penn State T. Warren 9
Minnesota D. Taylor 11
Quickchart Matchup
Penn State Penn State Off vs  Minnesota Minnesota Def
Penn State 454.1 yards
Minnesota 296.4 yards
Penn State 5.3 yards/rush
Minnesota 3.7 yards/rush
Penn State 9.5 yards/attempt
Minnesota 6 yards/attempt
Minnesota Minnesota Off vs  Penn State Penn State Def
Minnesota 333.3 yards
Penn State 272.7 yards
Minnesota 3.6 yards/rush
Penn State 3.2 yards/rush
Minnesota 6.9 yards/attempt
Penn State 6 yards/attempt