By: Tyler Millen - GoPSUsports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State is back on FOX Big Noon Kickoff for the second time this season and will welcome newly acclimated Big Ten foe UCLA to Beaver Stadium for the first time since 1967 on Saturday.
The 4-0 Nittany Lions are coming off a dominant defensive performance in their Big Ten opening win against Illinois where the former allowed just 34 rushing yards in a 21-7 win. Penn State has held 14 of its last 15 conference opponents under 100 yards rushing.
Penn State is seventh in the country in rushing defense and fourth in total defense with 226.5 yards allowed per game. The Nittany Lions have allowed just nine points in the second half this season with none coming in the third quarter.
Junior defensive end Abdul Carter was named the National Defensive Player of the Week by the Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy after tallying two sacks, a forced fumble and four tackles against the Fighting Illini. Carter was also named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and Senior Bowl Co-Defensive Player of the Week.
Head coach James Franklin said Carter provides defensive coordinator Tom Allen and the staff a level of “creativity” where he can line up over the center or the guard, act as a spy against the quarterback or defend a running back in the pass game.
“The transition from linebacker to defensive end is a significant one,” Franklin said. “He's done some really good things already, but as he gets more comfortable there, and like you saw last week, we started to put more on his plate where we're doing different things, whether it's just one time lining him up on the left, another time on the right—at defensive end. Just that alone so they can't game plan him and know where exactly he's going to be.”
Penn State is the only FBS team to start 4-0 in each of the last four seasons and faces a Bruins squad that will be playing their fourth consecutive team currently ranked in the AP Top-25. UCLA is led by first-year head coach DeShaun Foster and has dropped its last three games to Indiana, LSU and Oregon.
UCLA offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs and has a myriad of weapons at his disposal including redshirt senior quarterback Ethan Garbers who’s thrown for 808 yards and three touchdowns.
Redshirt junior linebacker Carson Schwesinger leads the Bruins with 34 tackles and tallied 13 in UCLA’s last contest against Oregon. Redshirt senior defensive back Bryan Addison had a 96-yard pick-six against the Ducks and added eight tackles.
The battle of Penn State’s powerful rushing attack and UCLA’s stout run defense will take center stage as the former is ninth in the nation with 251 rushing yards per game. The Bruins boast the 34th best run defense in the country with an average of 107.3 yards allowed per contest and will go toe-to-toe with the Nittany Lions junior running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen who Franklin praised on Monday.
“They're both fairly quiet guys, very different kinds of personalities,” Franklin said. “To see them showing emotion and having fun and being supportive of each other as well as the O-line, I thought that play that Kaytron [Allen] scored on and he does the whole deal where he's kicking down the door and the whole offense did that with him. I thought that was very telling of how connected our offense is and how connected our team is.”