Penn State Football: six things I want to see against Central Michigan

Limit Lew Nichols III

For the Nittany Lions to successfully get off to a fast start and build a big lead, they’re going to have to limit running back Lew Nichols III, who is the best player on this Central Michigan squad.

Nichols led the nation last year with 1,848 rushing yards, as well as added 16 touchdowns on the ground; but so far this season, he has not had exactly the same level of success. While he has found the endzone five time through three games, his yardage numbers are not the same as he’s only accumulated 258 yards through three weeks at an average of just 3.6 yards per carry.

Penn State Football was successful in containing Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter last week at Auburn, and I’d like to see them build on that as they continue to improve their run-defense.

This is a great opportunity for the linebacking corps specially to continue to take steps in the right direction as they’re a young unit but have grown from week to week with more reps.

At most, I’d like to see this defense hold Lew Nichols III to no more than 100 rushing yards and no more than one score, though I definitely think they can hold him to less than that. They held Bigsby and Hunter to 39 and 16 yards respectively, as well as did not allow either to find the endzone as a runner, so they should be able to limit Nichols to a similar extend.