Penn State Football vs Ohio State: 3 players who need career nights for the Nittany Lions to pull off upset

STATE COLLEGE, PA - NOVEMBER 30: Mike Miranda #73 of the Penn State Nittany Lions prepares to snap the ball during the second half of the game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Beaver Stadium on November 30, 2019 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

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Coziah Izzard #99 of the Penn State Nittany Lions (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

Penn State Football DT – Coziah Izzard

The Nittany Lions defensive front has gotten pushed around for much of the year so far, including last week against Illinois.

While some of that falls on the coaching for not matching Illinois’ personnel and loading up the box last week, allowing the defensive front to get double-teamed, that won’t be the case this week.

The Buckeyes have a great quarterback and a plethora of talent on the outside, and they will not have to run 12 and 13 personnel packages against the Nittany Lions. Instead, they will spread out the field and instead of a numbers game in the box, it will turn into a matchup game in the trenches.

Advantage…Ohio State.

Well, the Nittany Lions’ defensive front will need to try to win as many of those 1-on-1 matchups as possible and try not to get blown off the line of scrimmage by an excellent Buckeye offensive line.

Their success in doing so will start with Coziah Izzard, who is starting in place of PJ Mustipher at defensive tackle. If the redshirt freshman and former 4-star recruit can have a breakout game for Penn State, it would be a good start in containing the Buckeyes’ explosive offense.

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