PSU coaches, players ready for Iowa test
No question it gets harder from here for Penn State. The first test of the second half of the schedule comes Saturday at Iowa.
While the Hawkeyes are not top 10 material, they are a decent team, and showed last week at Michigan State they could win a close one. Coach Kirk Ferentz has always been pretty good at that against Penn State.
But, it sounds like both Coach Bill O’Brien and the Lions’ players are ready for this road test.
O’Brien talked about practicing with simulated crowd noise, and preparing his guys as best he can for the atmosphere of a conference road game between two teams that are 4-2 overall, and 2-0 in the league.
At the same time, linebacker Glenn Carson says the new coaching staff has built a lot of trust with the players. Carson says that kind of trust is important going into this type of game. Players need to know coaches trust them to make plays in big spots.
O’Brien also talked about the players needing to trust each other, and communicate well in a hostile environment. He says he will continue to use the up tempo offense which worked in the comeback win over Northwestern. This will be the first test of that on the road, and that calls for the trust factor between coaches and players, and among players, to be high.
You never know what will happen once the ball is kicked off, but it seems like O’Brien and his staff have the team as ready as they can be for this week, and the rest of this season.
