Nittany Lions know they face daunting task
Big 12 teams face musical-chairs scenario in bowl-game quest
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — As Penn State defenders huddled around their coaches, peering at play charts earlier this week, 11 teammates on the other side of the ball tried their best to mimic the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions’ next opponents.
But recreating the size, speed and ferocity of No. 2 Ohio State is virtually impossible. So is stopping the Buckeyes, a team Penn State coach James Franklin said might be the best he’s coached against.
So far, Ohio State has beaten every team it’s played by at least 24 points. The Buckeyes are favored by 18½ points for Saturday’s game in Columbus, Ohio, where a shot at a Big Ten championship and possible College Football Playoff berth will be on the line.
“They’re pretty much playing up to their standard consistently,” Franklin said. “When you watch the tape and you see the length and you see the athleticism and you see the production, it’s hard to argue with it.”
BIG 12: Chris Klieman gets an extra game in his first season at Kansas State, and that is significant for the Wildcats’ first-year coach even though it won’t be as long of a season as he got used to before he got to Manhattan.
Texas Tech’s Matt Wells and West Virginia’s Neal Brown need to win their last two games to become bowleligible in their debut seasons as Big 12 head coaches. The Red Raiders and Mountaineers are both 4-6.
“Our sense of urgency was good. I think it has been. We went to West Virginia (two weeks ago) knowing we had our back against the wall and we had to win that one, and we did. We needed to win last week,” said Wells, referring to a 33-31 home loss to TCU, when the Red Raiders had rallied from a 17-0 deficit in the first quarter and took the lead. “We absolutely need to win now. … We all know that.”
The Big 12 already has six bowl-eligible teams with two weeks left in the regular season, and could finish with up to nine. TCU (5-5, 3-4) needs to win one of its last two games.
There are seven bowl tie-ins for the league, and there is a potential eighth if the Big 12 champion gets into the College Football Playoff. But the conference likely will need some help for that to happen, even if its champion is No. 8 Oklahoma (9-1, 6-1, No. 9 CFP), which has been to the playoff three of the past four seasons.