UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State very easily could have lost at Purdue, but got a break when the ball barely hit the ground on a late pass play that likely would have sealed the deal for the Boilermakers.
The Nittany Lions looked terrific against Ohio. But ... that was Ohio.
So, after two games -- and a 2-0 record -- what do we really know about Penn State?
Not as much as we'll know come Saturday night.
Auburn is not a great team, far from it, in fact. But this week's matchup at Jordan-Hare Stadium will test the Nittany Lions in ways they have not been tested so far -- namely a tough running game and raucous SEC home venue that's a very difficult place to play.
"We have a championship team here," Sean Clifford said after the 46-10 thumping of Ohio. "We've just got to keep going 1-0 each week."
College players often believe they have what it takes to be a championship team. That's part of their internal motivation -- shoot for the moon! -- even if in reality their team doesn't have all the pieces in place to achieve the goal.
Does Penn State have the pieces in place to make this a special season? To reach 10 wins, contend for a Big Ten East title or possibly be in the College Football Playoff race?
Or, will a lot of those hopes and dreams come crashing down at Auburn?
The Tiger players apparently are on a revenge tour this week, feeling like they should have won last year at Beaver Stadium, instead of losing, 28-20.
“We owe them one,” offensive lineman Brandon Council told AL.com. “… We’re going to get that dub.”
“We think we should have won the football game, for sure,” tight end John Samuel Shenker said in that story. “That has left a sour taste in our mouths for a year now. We’ve had this one circled for a while, the guys that were here last year and seeing what we can do better to win this game this year when they come to our house.”
So, clearly, Penn State had better be ready for a pumped-up Auburn team out for revenge.
WHAT A WIN COULD MEAN
The confidence of the Penn State players has to be sky high right now. It really doesn't matter that they could have lost at Purdue, because they didn't. And then they destroyed Ohio and got more than 70 players into the game.
Once again, Auburn isn't a great team. Beating the Tigers, who can run the ball but have big questions in their passing game, wouldn't mean that all of a sudden the Lions should be favored against Ohio State down the road.
But from a confidence standpoint, going down and getting a win in SEC Country would be MASSIVE for these Penn State players, many of whom endured the frustration of last year's collapse from 5-0 to 7-6.
“They’re a really great running team,” linebacker Curtis Jacobs said Tuesday. “You have to bring your hard hats on Saturday."
To win the game, Penn State will have to be the more physical, more aggressive team. This isn't the kind of game that can be won with tricks or gadgets or finesse.
The upside is that when you do win a big-time physical battle, it's the kind of victory that builds even more confidence within a team.
While we know Auburn will run the ball well, there is still a question of whether Penn State can do the same. Nicholas Singleton had an enormous game against Ohio with 179 yards and two long TDs on 10 carries, but doing that against the Tigers will be a totally different challenge.
Singleton's great speed was on display once he got to the edge, and he outran the Bobcats. Auburn not only will make it tougher for him to get to the edge, it also has the kind of speed on defense that can catch him out there.
So, as usual, this game is going to come down to Penn State's offensive line and whether Clifford can make enough good plays without making too many bad ones.
A victory would be a 3-0 start, with Central Michigan and Northwestern visiting Beaver Stadium the next two weeks. That should be a 5-0 start, then the Lions get a bye week before going to Michigan.
A 5-0 Penn State team would be incredibly confident going into that game. Whether the Lions can win is a discussion for later on, but even if they lose, they'd still be 5-1.
Minnesota visits for the whiteout game the following week, and while the Gophers can and usually do give the Lions a tough battle, it's ahrd to see Penn State losing a whiteout.
The huge showdown against Ohio State would be next Oct. 29. I don't see Penn State having much chance in that game, but you never know since the Lions always play the Buckeyes tough. Still, even if Penn State loses, the rest of the schedule would give them a chance to finish 10-2, which would be a great season and likely would earn the Lions a New Year's Six Bowl berth.
WHAT A LOSS COULD MEAN
Do we think Penn State is a really good team? The jury is still very much out on that.
I've mentioned a couple of times that Auburn isn't all that great. So if the Lions lose, we would have to re-evaluate just how good we think they are -- or are not.
It depends on how the game plays out, of course. A very close loss on the road in the SEC wouldn't be all that bad, especially if Penn State plays well but comes up just short. In that case, we could still keep high expectations for the rest of the year.
But if the Lions go down to Auburn and get run over -- literally -- and get beaten up physically on either or both sides of the ball, then we'll have to temper expectations once again to thinking this likely will either be an 8-4 or 9-3 kind of season.
"Got a ton of respect for that program as well as that conference," Franklin said. "Obviously, I've got some familiarity, been a head coach in that conference for three years (at Vanderbilt). I've known Bryan Harsin for a long time, more from a distance, respected his career, what he did at Auburn, as well as other places.
"You talk about Auburn, still early in the season, and I think it makes sense to still talk about returning starters from last year. They had seven on offense, seven on defense, and returned all of their specialists, all four specialists. So, they have an experienced team coming back."
