Penn State Football needs these players to step up vs. Ball State

Penn State Football will host the Ball State Cardinals on Saturday, and the Nittany Lions are favored heavily in that matchup.

There are plenty of reasons to suspect a possible upset this weekend, even though Penn State Football is the far more talented team.

Even after knocking off Wisconsin, on the road, there are some things that the Nittany Lions will have to clean up from their first game, and if they can do that, they should have no problems winning by multiple possessions.

These are some players that Penn State Football needs to step up this weekend to avoid an upset scare in the home opener:

Penn State Football Linebacker/Defensive End – Jesse Luketa

Ellis Brooks played great at middle linebacker for this Penn State Football team in week 1 against Wisconsin. However, he will miss the first half of the Ball State matchup due to a targeting ejection in the fourth quarter.

Jesse Luketa will be expected to step up in place of him this week while he is on the sideline, so Luketa will need to step up and make some plays. As a team, Ball State rushed for 216 yards last week, so Luketa will need to do a good job stopping the run from the middle linebacker position.

The Cardinals do not seem to be a team that has a great passing game, which should take some pressure off Luketa in pass coverage, which is something Brooks did a good job of in week 1.

Jesse Luketa will need to play well for the first 30 minutes, then hand it off to Ellis Brooks in the second half, and let him finish the job.