Penn State Football: reasons for optimism for the White Out against Minnesota

As Penn State Football searches for a bounce back win, the Minnesota Golden Gophers come to town in hopes of spoiling the White Out.

Minnesota is a good football team that–despite the talent disparity between the two teams–matches up very well with the Nittany Lions. We discussed a few reasons why in our causes for concern vs Minnesota article.

However, there’s still plenty of reasons for optimism for Penn State Football fans heading into this one, so let’s take a look at a few of them.

Reason for optimism #1 – the secondary

Penn State still has one of the better defensive backfields in the country, and it can allow them to sell out to stop Mohamed Ibrahim and the Minnesota rushing attack this week. They can feel comfortable loading up the box, all while trusting their corners to make plays in coverage.

Plus, with the status of Minnesota’s starting quarterback–Tanner Morgan–questionable at the moment, there’s a chance we see backup Athan Kaliakmanis, who is only a freshman.

Of course, we hope Morgan is healthy and good to go this week, but if he’s not, the Gopher offense will be totally one dimensional with a freshman backup throwing against one of the better secondaries in the sport.

Even if Morgan is cleared to play, it’s helpful to have someone like Joey Porter Jr. to go one-on-one on the outside as the defense sells out to stop Mohamed Ibrahim and the run.

Finally, a great secondary always increases the likelihood of an interception or two, which are great things as is, but add in the type of momentum shift they can have in the White Out atmosphere, and interceptions are even more impactful than normal.