ALTOONA, Pa. -- There's only so much one can determine about a football team after it plays two bad opponents.
Of course Penn State is 2-0 and has looked great. West Virginia doesn't appear to be very good, and Delaware is an FCS team. Those games produced a combined score of 101-22.
Next up, though, are a pair of interesting challenges -- at Illinois and home against Iowa. While they are different in a lot of ways, they both will give us a lot more answers about what this Nittany Lion team is or is not capable of.
That's where we'll begin this edition of the midweek top five.
1. How curious is James Franklin about how his team will fare against better competition?
This was my question for the coach Tuesday, and the hope was that he'd say something along the lines of, "We still don't know just yet how everyone will perform in a tight game."
Yeah ... no, Franklin didn't offer anything like that. It was perhaps a bit too much to hope for, since the coach tries to put a positive spin on everything and doesn't like to publicly acknowledge any level of concerns.
"I just want to get better," Franklin said. "I just want to get better every single week. That's also why we challenge them in practice all through training camp and all through the season. It's not just Saturdays that we're competing and dealing with situations. It's all the time.
"I think your point is a good one. We're going to learn more and more about our team every week. There are going to be different ways that we're going to have to find ways to win. Good teams will find different ways to win each week based on the opponent, the schemes, the matchups, the challenges, the weather, whatever. So, we've been able to check a lot of those boxes during training camp."
What Franklin was saying, ultimately, is that practices and everything else in the program are set up to try and simulate any and all possible situations the team might find itself in during any given game.
But in reality, there's no way to simulate everything. There's just not enough time, and no matter how much Franklin tries to talk around it, there's also no way to know how these players -- who are human beings, not robots -- will react emotionally or physically in a certain situation.
Conversely, let's look at the challenges that this week's opponent could provide that Penn State might not necessarily be ready for.
2. Illinois has been bad, but this week should be all about showing some pride
The Illini barely survived their opener at home against Toledo, kicking a last-season field goal for a 30-28 win. They were pretty terrible at Kansas on Friday, falling behind 34-7 before losing 34-23.
This is a program that led the nation in scoring defense last year, but has given up 62 points through two games.
Penn State has looked so good, and Illinois so bad, that the initial point spread on this week's game was a whopping 15 1/2 points.
So, while everyone has felt for months that this potentially could be a very tight game for the Lions, at this point, not many people are expecting that anymore.
But the flipside is ALL of that probably makes the Illini even more dangerous this week. If they're just terrible, then no, it won't matter. But nothing can motivate a team more than getting embarrassed and having its back against the wall.
For all intents and purposes, this game is kind of Illinois' season. Because if the Illini can find a way to protect their home field and stun No. 7 Penn State, it would be a gigantic boost for the program. But if they come out and get clobbered at home, then everybody's gonna start piling on them and their coach.
"One of the things we commonly talk about in our program is one of the best things that can happen is you grow a lot from difficult conversations,” coach Bret Bielema told Illinois reporters Monday.
He later added, "For here at Illinois to have a loss hurt, and it hurts a lot of people, right? Obviously I can read the tone of your articles and people that write. It matters. It matters to people in our community, it matters to our administration. So, to have that relevance, I think, is a good thing, but also the disappointment of that makes it a challenge, as well."
Bielema is a good coach. He's been around, both in the Big Ten and SEC, and he knows what it takes to get his players to bounce back from a tough loss.
Can he do that this week? Can Illinois regroup, show some pride and give Penn State a fierce battle? We'll have to wait and see.
From the Penn State perspective, the Lion players need to be fully ready for what they're walking into.
Penn State has more talent than Illinois. That's a given. But the Lions have a lot of young players who haven't necessarily played in a lot of difficult road environments, or maybe haven't gone up against a bunch of players who are desperate to come out and turn around their season.
In short, emotion, pride and fortitude surely will be big elements of this game for the Illinois players, and Penn State's guys need to be aware of those intangible challenges.
3. After this it's Iowa, and that's a whole other challenge
Yeah, yeah, 1-0 each week and all that jazz.
But since there's a chance Illinois just isn't good enough to give Penn State a significant challenge, one could come next week at home against Iowa.
The Hawkeyes are a tough, physical, punch-you-in-the-mouth kind of team. Going up against them is often a war in the trenches, and so far through two games, it's fair to say that both Penn State lines have had some hiccups at times.
The offensive line has been good but not great, although there is still a chance the unit can ascend to the latter this season.
The defensive line has been a bit of a disappointment, only because there were such enormous expectations for that group, and so far it has endured a few troubling trends that need to get cleaned up.
I talked a lot about how facing West Virginia was a bit of a mini-Michigan challenge because the Mountaineers have a good O-line and like to run the ball. In that opener, the Lions' D-line seemed to get pushed around a bit too much, which certainly cannot happen against Michigan.
Iowa next week will give us a lot more indication of where the D-line stands against a tough offensive line. That question needs to be answered before we get closer to the Ohio State and Michigan games later on.
Franklin was asked Tuesday if having already faced West Virginia and its good running game has helped prepare the defense for Illinois, and presumably future opponents.
"Yeah, I think we'll be more prepared this week based on going against West Virginia," Franklin said. "I thought we played really well in the first two weeks. There was obviously times and moments we would want to get cleaned up on offense, defense, and special teams, but I thought we did some really good things that are building blocks moving forward.
"That West Virginia quarterback is a going to give a lot of people trouble. I do think having faced him helps."
4. Allar's first Big Ten road start
Part of the unknown about this week is just how well Drew Allar will fare starting for the first time in a Big Ten road game.
Again, if this were last year against a strong Illinois defense, that question might have been more pressing this week. But given how the Illini defense has struggled, it does take a little bit away from that question.
“They make everything look the same,” Allar said Tuesday about Illinois' defense.. “They do a really good job with disguising. They have a lot of big guys up front. It’s definitely going to be a challenge this week. It’s a Big Ten game on the road. It’s not going to be easy by any stretch."
Is Allar ready for this test on the road?
"Well, like I keep saying with Drew, he's doing all the right things and taking all the necessary steps," Franklin said. "We expect it to be a challenging road environment, but we didn't wait until this week to prepare for that. Whether it's crowd noise or whatever it may be, we've done that all training camp. Obviously, we'll major in it this week, as well.
"But again, he's doing all the right things in terms of preparation, in terms of watching film, in terms of nutrition, hydration, sleep. He's getting more and more comfortable and confident in his leadership role on the team."
Allar obviously has gotten a ton of attention as the star young quarterback, but he noted Tuesday that's he's not really all that comfortable being the center of attention.
“I do most of my talking on the field as opposed to off the field,” Allar said. “That’s just kind of how I am.”
5. Franklin loves being in a college town
This was an interesting part of Franklin's answer when it came to how he feels about the pressures and scrutiny that come with being a head coach at a major program.
We've all speculated in the past about whether Franklin might leave for a place like USC or LSU or somewhere else, and wondered just how happy he and his family might be in State College.
Well, he discussed one very key element about the State College stuff Tuesday, and it's something he or any other coach would never get at a place like USC, for instance.
"I think I struggle with how to balance my time with my family as well as the team and my responsibilities for both," Franklin said.
"Having a strong wife is really important and helpful. Living in a college town, I think, is really helpful, because my wife and kids being able to stop over to the office. You guys come out to practice usually in the beginning of practice, but at the end of practice there are a ton of kids there, ton of wives there and families, and lettermen. I do believe being in a college town, it helps. It really does from a family perspective."
Franklin also gave some humorous insight into how his wife sees him as a communicator.
"My wife says I'm an over-clarifier, and she hates it," he said. "With someone that I don't need to clarify. She usually knows what I'm saying soon as I say it, but I have a tendency to say it three more times. She doesn't like it."
