The curse of the No. 10 ranking has been lifted! After losing last week to the Ohio State Buckeyes in The Horseshoe, the No. 10 Penn State Nittany Lions held on to defeat the lowly Indiana Hoosiers in Happy Valley 33-24 on Saturday afternoon. For a month prior to this game, the No. 10 seed found a way to lose. Fortunately for Penn State, the Nittany Lions did not let the Buckeyes beat them twice...
However, it was not a game to really write home about if you are a Penn State fan. Indiana may be the worst team in the Big Ten and among the worst across the entire Power Five. The Hoosiers really struggle to do much of anything offensively, but they had their moments in this one vs. Penn State. As for the Nittany Lions, they kind of look like what they have been under James Franklin for years: 10-2.
Drew Allar is certainly going through some growing pains in his first year as the starting quarteback. While Manny Diaz's defense has been sensational for the most part, Franklin has been what he has been for the better part of a decade now: A good, but highly overpaid head coach for his Penn State accomplishments. Then again, Penn State will be favored in every game left but the Michigan date.
As expected, here is how the college football world reacted to Penn State's narrow win over Indiana.
How college football world reacted to Penn State barely beating Indiana
Whether it be jokes about Franklin or Penn State's record at home vs. Indiana, social media had fun.
Others were thinking about the big Big Ten game remaining between Penn State and Michigan.
What we clearly got was a game between Franklin and Indiana's Tom Allen, who neither wanted to win.
Overall, good teams like Penn State find ways to win games in which they do not play particularly well. However, great teams are able to make adjustments rather quickly and do not let things snowball on themselves. Penn State will occasionally let that happen. For now, they are still very much alive to be in contention for a Big Ten Championship game, possibly even a trip to the College Football Playoff.
No matter how you feel about the Nittany Lions, Penn State is still a very interesting team to watch.
