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Penn State Football vs Purdue: reasons for optimism for the Nittany Lions

By Nick Kreiser

COLUMBUS, OHIO - OCTOBER 30: Sean Clifford #14 of the Penn State Nittany Lions drops back to pass during the first half of their game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on October 30, 2021 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OHIO - OCTOBER 30: Sean Clifford #14 of the Penn State Nittany Lions drops back to pass during the first half of their game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on October 30, 2021 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /
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Penn State Football looks to rebound from the past two seasons and get back to being a conference championship contender, and their first obstacle in their path is a trip to Purdue to take on the Boilermakers.

There are a couple causes for concern for the Nittany Lions as they take on Purdue, but overall, there are far more reasons to be optimistic that this team will start off the 2022 campaign with a victory.

Let’s take a look at three reasons to be optimistic that Penn State Football will defeat the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday night.

Reason for optimism #1 – the Penn State Football wide receivers

STATE COLLEGE, PA – OCTOBER 02: Parker Washington #3 of the Penn State Nittany Lions catches a pass against Marcelino McCrary-Ball #9 of the Indiana Hoosiers during the first half at Beaver Stadium on October 2, 2021 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
STATE COLLEGE, PA – OCTOBER 02: Parker Washington #3 of the Penn State Nittany Lions catches a pass against Marcelino McCrary-Ball #9 of the Indiana Hoosiers during the first half at Beaver Stadium on October 2, 2021 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

The Nittany Lions could potentially have one of the best wide receiver rooms in college football, led by the duo of Parker Washington and Mitchell Tinsley.

In our takeaways from Monday’s depth chart announcements article, we learned that Tre Wallace has exceeded expectations and has been getting some first team reps. That was already enough to raise some eyebrows at the depth in that room.

Now, it seems to once again be even better and deeper than we thought.

We knew Saunders was extremely talented, as he was one of the highest rated receivers in the class of 2022, but many did not expect him to contribute much on offense as a true freshman, simply because of the amount of talent in front of him within the unit.

Similar to Wallace, if Saunders has been able to perform well enough throughout camp to potentially get meaningful in-game snaps, even with so many outstanding receivers on the team, this unit has the potential to be scary good.

After a 2021 season where the wide receiving corps was quite top heavy and three guys shouldered most of the workload, it seems like this 2022 team could comfortably go two-deep with their wideouts as they seem to have six guys that they truly trust.

All that being said, I find it hard to believe that the Purdue secondary is going to be able to slow down this group of wideouts–Washington and Tinsley especially.

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