This upcoming weekend, the fourth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions will travel to Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis searching for their 10th win of the season and third straight.
On the other sideline, Minnesota is fresh off their second bye week and will be hungry for a signature victory after a tough loss in Piscataway to Rutgers two weeks ago, snapping a four-game winning streak.
If the Golden Gophers are going to pull off the upset as a current double-digit underdog, they'll have to be ready to stop star Nittany Lions tight end Tyler Warren and a unique Penn State offense, something few teams have been able to do in 2024.
On Monday during his weekly press conference, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck talked extensively about the Nittany Lions' starting tight end and offense as a whole.
"Really, really good player," Fleck said about Warren on Monday during his weekly press conference. "We got our hands full," he added.
"I think when we talk about consistency is the truest measure of performance, I think that's what you see every single week," Fleck said about Warren's performance in 2024. "It's the versatility to do so many things."
Throughout the season, Warren has shown the ability to lineup at tight end, in the slot, or the backfield as a wildcat. He's also thrown a handful of passes while proving to be a quality blocker.
Few players in the country have impacted their team the way that Penn State star tight end Tyler Warren has this season. The senior who almost last offseason for the NFL has made the most of his final year as a Nittany Lion.
Warren has proven to be one of the most versatile players in the country and is among the finalists for the Paul Hornung Award which is given to the country's most versatile player.
Through 10 games, the likely John Mackey Award winner, the award for the nation's top tight end, has been spectacular. In 10 games played, he has 67 receptions for 808 yards and five touchdowns to go with 16 carries for 157 yards and four touchdowns.
This past weekend against Purdue, Warren was dominant, recording eight receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown. He also had a trio of carries for 63 yards and a touchdown including a season-long carry of 48 yards.
That being said, Fleck also knows that his defense will have to be ready for the unique challenges posed by Penn State's offense as a whole and not just focus on slowing down the talented Warren.
"I think that's when you're looking at Penn State, Penn State has the ability to do a lot of different things and they do it very consistently," Fleck said. " It's a new wrinkle every single week too. So whether it's three different quarterbacks, whether it's unique formations. They're going to give you things you've never seen before and you're going to have to stop it, and you have to be really disciplined with your eyes," he explained. "You have to be really good at tackling in space. You've got to play really good up front."
While Warren is the star of the Penn State offense, the Nittany Lions do present multiple weapons including running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen as well as wide receiver Harrison Wallace III.
"They have weapons everywhere," Fleck told the Minnesota media. "But that's why you're the fourth-ranked team in the country and you're good and you got people everywhere that can make plays, and what makes them whole, like, really difficult to defend," Fleck said. "It's the consistency of how they play. It's the creativity that they play with. But then it's the ability to give you things you've never seen before and make you do in-game adjustments more than probably any other team."
While Warren, Singleton, Allen, and Wallace have all been pivotal to Penn State's success, the engine driving the Nittany Lions offense this season has been junior quarterback Drew Allar. Through 10 games played in 2024, Allar has completed 71.9% of his passes for 2,253 yards and 16 touchdowns against five interceptions.
In his second year as the starting quarterback, Allar has seen his game take a major leap, something that Fleck has also seen on tape.
"I think it's just his growth over the years," Fleck said about what stands out on Allar. "He's really, really poised in the pocket. He's big, strong, got a good arm, understands the system. He can run," he added.
"He's really accurate. He's big, he's strong, he's physical. I think he processes at a higher level than he ever has. I think that a critical characteristic of being an elite quarterback is how you process, how you get through your reads, how you get to the decisions, how quickly you do that," Fleck elaborated.
The Gophers head coach even compared Allar's decision-making to that of Los Angeles Chargers' quarterback Justin Herbert, one of the top signal-callers in the NFL.
"If you were watching some of that game, and how fast things were happening, meaning he's open the balls on him, the distance between somebody being open, the ball being to him that that's a measure of quarterback knowing what he's doing and I think that he (Drew Allar) has that trait," Fleck said. "You could tell he's coachable and the team rallies around him.
Led by the likes of Allar, Warren, Singleton, Allen, and Wallace, the Nittany Lions offense this season has averaged 33.0 points and 454.1 yards per game.
While their 33.0 points per game ranks just outside the top 30 nationally, their 454.1 yards per game ranks 14th in the country. The Nittany Lions' dangerous offense should present an intriguing matchup against a Golden Gophers defense that has been outstanding in 2024, allowing just 17.7 points and 269.4 yards per game, both statistics ranking top-12 in the country.
Saturday's matchup, set for 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET promises to be an exciting one in Minneapolis as the Gophers look for a signature win while Penn State hopes to maintain its pace in the 2024 College Football Playoff race while keeping their outside shot at a Big Ten Championship alive.
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