2025 PSU vs. FIU

Sept. 6, Noon EDT, Beaver Stadium, BTN

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#2/2 PSU 34 FIU 0

Game Flow & Summary

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Game Two

First Half

  • 1st quarter begins—PSU‘s Gabe Nwosu with opening kick of 65 yards for a touchback—FIU first possession begins at its own 25-yard line and lasts 3 plays after a 5-yard penalty on 1st down for delay of game thanks to noise from the student section—It ends with a net gain of minus -3 yards and a punt to PSU—Devonte Ross takes ball at his 28 and returns it to the PSU 34

  • PSU’s first possession would reflect some of the struggles it would face early on in the afternoon—The Lions move only 19 yards on 6 plays picking up a first down on two runs by Nick Singleton (9 yds.) and Kaytron Allen (4 yds.)—A Devonte Ross WR reception from Drew Allar of 6 yards moves the Lions to the FIU 47—But that’s followed by a no gain on a run by Kaytron Allen, and two incomplete passes from Allar to Trebor Pena WR on 3rd and 4th downs turning the ball back to FIU at virtually midfield—The 3rd down pass had Pena looking the wrong way and the pass went behind him, and the 4th down pass was disappointing in that Allar actually had Devonte Ross wide open downfield, but never saw him

  • FIU’s second possession sees the Panthers move 40 yards in 8 plays making a rare visit inside the PSU 25-yard line—The highlight for FIU was a 21-yard run by Kejon Owens who collected 78 yards rushing vs. State—Owens longest run of the game set up FIU with a 1st down at the PSU 21—But it quickly became 3rd and 12 and finally 4th and 2 at the PSU 13 where Tony Rojas LB pressured lefthanded FIU QB Keyone Jenkins into an overthrown pass and a turnover on downs back to Penn State

  • PSU’s second possession would cover 87 yards in 10 plays and would result in the first score of the game—On the first play of the drive, Drew Allar goes deep down the left side of the field to Devonte Ross which draws a DPI penalty and moves the ball to the PSU 28—The next play, Singleton delivers his longest run of the day 16 yards for another first down at the PSU 44—After an incomplete pass, Singleton strings together 3 straight runs for 13 total yards and another first at the FIU 43—Kaytron Allen then runs around the right side for 20 yards to the FIU 23 and then Allar does the rest with the tight ends—On 3rd and 7 at the 20, Drew hits Luke Reynolds TE on the left for an 11 yard gain to the 9 and a first down—Next play sees Allar pass to the right finding Khalil Dinkins TE in the endzone for a little leaping grab for the 9 yard touchdown—Allar’s 2nd TD pass of the season and 55th of his career—Dinkins 1st TD reception of 2025 and 6th in his PSU career—Ryan Barker adds the PAT and Penn State leads FIU 7-0 with 3:54 left in the first period

  • FIU’s third possession begins at its 25 after the touchback on the kickoff by Nwosu—The Panthers make their second threat to score on a drive that would carry into the second quarter and cover 53 yards on 10 plays reaching the PSU 22-yard line before ending disaster—FIU’s drive did not start well, a holding call and 3 plays left them looking at 4th and 1 at their 34 yard line—-After a timeout, FIU goes for it and Jenkins completes a gutsy pass to Kyle McNeal who takes it 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage and manages to advance it 3 yards to the 37 and out of bounds for the first down—2nd Quarter begins—Jenkins would then convert a third and 6 into a first down on a 13 yard pass to the PSU 46, and then a 22 yard pass to the PSU 22—On 1st and 10 at the 22, Jaylen Harvey DE & Dani Dennis-Sutton DE get the pressure on Jenkins and his pass is picked off by Alonzo Ford DT at the 22 (Ford disengaged his blocker and made easy two-hand catch of the errant pass) and he returns it 3 yards to the 25—This is Ford’s first career INT and 2nd INT of season by a Penn State DT which has not happened since 1990 (Frank Giannetti at Alabama & Jim Deter at #1 Notre Dame)

  • PSU’s third possession will cover 54 yards on 10 plays and result in a turnover on downs (2nd of the first half)—Drew Allar used passes to Devonte Ross (13 yds.) and Kyron Hudson (12 yds.) en route to getting the Nittany Lions to the FIU 30-yard line—But PSU bogged down managing only 9 yards on 3 runs and an incomplete pass—The final run by Kaytron Allen on 4th and 2 at the 22, was right up the middle and barely got a yard to the FIU 21 giving the Panthers the ball with just over 8 and a half minutes to go in the half

  • FIU’s fourth possession will only last a little over 2 minutes covering 33 yards on 5 plays, highlighted by a 27-yard completion to JoJo Stone from Jenkins to the PSU 43—After that, the Panthers lose 3 yards on 3 plays, thanks to a Dani Dennis-Sutton TFL on 2nd down and a QB pressure by Dennis-Sutton on 3rd, and they punt—On 4th and 13 from the PSU 46, Dom DeLuca LB blows right through and easily blocks the punt to give PSU solid field position at the FIU 45 with 6:29 left in the half—This is DeLuca’s third career punt block (his and the team’s first since 2023 vs. UMass—DeLuca’s other block was in 2022 vs. Minnesota)—The Penn State record for career blocked punts is 4 by Jack Ham (1968-70) and Andre Collins (1986-89)

  • PSU’s fourth possession will last less than a minute—After a 3-yard gain to the FIU 42, Allar’s pass to Singleton on the right flank sails over his head forcing PSU to punt—Gabe Nwosu then finally makes his debut as the starting punter for Penn State as the Lions punt for the very first time in 2 games—And Nwosu drops a beautiful punt inside the 5 yard line with Audavion Collins killing the ball at the 2 with 5:32 to go in the first half and FIU backed up against its own endzone

  • FIU’s fifth possession will net 5 yards on 3 plays and result in a punt from its 7-yard line—Devonte Ross takes the punt at the PSU 46 and returns it 17 yards to the FIU 37-yard line (Ross’ longest return of the game & season)

  • PSU’s fifth possession will net only 13 yards on 8 plays, but will result in a score—Key play in the drive was on 4th and 3 at the FIU 30, when Allar hit Luke Reynolds for a 9-yard gain to the 21 for a first down—But the next two plays gained 2 yards, and on 3rd and 8 from the 19, Allar is sacked for a loss of 5—Ryan Barker connects from 41 yards for the field goal and Penn State leads 10-0 with 50 seconds left in the half

  • FIU’s sixth possession begins at its 25 and is highlighted by PSU burning its 3 timeouts to preserve some clock—It pays off for the Lions as the Panthers manage only 8 yards on 3 plays (thanks to a Chaz Coleman stop on 3rd down and 3) and the punt is only a 32-yarder giving State the ball at its 35 with 26 seconds left in the half

  • PSU’s sixth possession will be its fourth disappointment of the half—PSU will move 29 yards in 5 plays to give itself a shot at a second field goal—Allar completes 3 straight pass to move to the FIU 36, 2 of them to Luke Reynolds including the 14-yard gain into long field goal range—On 1st and 10 from the 36, Allar’s pass to Kyron Hudson inside the 5 is no good stopping the clock with 5 seconds to go—PSU opts for the field goal at this point, but Ryan Barker’s 53-yard try is blocked by Jessiah McGrew and flies forward to the FIU 16 where Long Snapper Tyler Duzansky recovers to end the second quarter—At the half, PSU leads FIU, 10-0

  • PSU had 6 first half possessions inside FIU territory and only managed 10 points which continued the week one theme of not “completing drives”—Drew Allar’s first half stats were a pedestrian 12 of 21 for 97 yards, 1 TD pass and 190 total yards in offense

Second Half

  • 3rd Quarter begins—PSU gets the opening kick of the half—King Mack takes the ball at the 6 and returns it 18 yards to the 24-yard line

  • PSU’s seventh possession will 60 yards in 12 plays and end in a score—Kaytron Allen got things rolling with a 16-yard run to the 40—PSU then moved in short yardage runs and passes to the FIU 16-yard line—The drive stalled on 3rd and 4 at the 16 when Allar’s pass to Trebor Pena was broken up—Ryan Barker then connects from 34 yards out on his last field goal attempt of the game, and Penn State extends its lead to 13-0 with 9:56 to go in third

  • FIU’s seventh possession of the game and first of the third period covers 28 yards on 6 plays and showcases the touchdown-saving talent of Zakee Wheatley S—On 3rd and 1 at the 34, Kejon Owens breaks right through the middle of the PSU line and looks like he could go the distance, but Wheatley makes a clutch tackle at the 50 to hold Owens to a 16 yard gain for the first down—It’s a play that could have easily changed the flow of this game in an instant—Antoine Belgrave-Shorter S who was farther from the runner may have had an angle on Owens to prevent the TD, and maybe not, but Wheatley was partially screened-off the play by the Umpire and still managed to keep Owens from crossing midfield with a great open-field tackle—On the very next play, FIU QB Keyone Jenkins tries to beat Penn State deep, looking for Kyle McNeal with the bomb down the left side—But, Zakee Wheatley is there again, diving and stripping the receiver with his left hand just short of the 5 yard line—Back-to-back potential touchdown-saving plays by Wheatley will set the table for another FIU punt

  • PSU’s eighth possession will begin at the 12-yard line and cover 88 yards in 5 plays and deliver the day’s 2nd TD—State finally gets a big play from Trebor Pena who takes the 2nd and 8 pass from Allar, slips a helmet-high tackle attempt and picks up 30 yards out to the 44—Singleton then rushes for 4 yards and then 10 more yards to the FIU 42 (It wasn’t noted at that moment, but on the 10-yard run, Singleton crossed 3-thousand career rushing yards—the 11th to do it in PSU history)—On the very next play, off the play action fake to Kaytron Allen, Drew Allar goes deep to Devonte Ross in the left side of the endzone for a fabulous 42-yard TD catch—Ross was being mugged on the play, and DPI was called, but Ross somehow twisted, turned and made a right arm-only grab for 6—Ross’ first TD catch at PSU & 15th in his career including Troy Univ.—For the second time this season, PSU seems to unnecessarily go for 2—And, Allar hits eligible tackle Drew Shelton on the left flank and rumbles into the endzone, but the play fails due to a ticky-tack holding penalty on center Nick Dawkins moving the ball back 10 yards to the FIU 13—Ryan Barker then attempts the 30-yard PAT kick from placement at the 20, and it’s good; Penn State leads FIU 20-0 with 4:44 to go in the third quarter and it’s time for the “Sweet Caroline sing-along”

  • FIU gets a little break to start its eighth possession when Gabe Nwosu’s kickoff goes out of bounds giving the Panthers the ball at the 35—But the drive will on last 7 plays and net 5 yards although they did manage to make a first down—FIU gambled again on 4th and 4 at their own 41 yard line—Jenkins completes another pass to his left and somehow the receiver Anthony Carrie comes up with 5 yards for the first down at the 46—From there, it was a holding penalty and effectively a 3 and out—FIU punts

  • PSU’s ninth possession (3rd of the half) will carry into the 4th quarter covering a net minus -1 yards on 3 plays—It ended on the second play of the 4th quarter, on a 3rd down sack of Allar (his 2nd of the game) which lost 6 yards back to the 16—Frankly, the best play of this so-called drive was the punt—Gabe Nwosu, with his back to the endzone, boomed a monster punt with insane hangtime that drove the FIU returner backwards to his own 17 yard line where he grabbed it and immediately hit the ground to avoid being nailed by the 3 PSU players that were waiting for him to make the catch—The punt was a 67-yarder right when Penn State needed something like that

  • FIU’s ninth possession goes the wrong way—A Chaz Coleman TFL and a sack by Enai White shove the Panthers back 12 yards to their 5-yard line—It’s 3 and out and punt to PSU

  • PSU’s tenth possession was not much better—It covered 0 yards on 3 plays—Three Allar incomplete passes (2 to Singleton & 1 to Reynolds that required a replay review to correctly determine no catch) brought back the punting show of Gabe Nwosu—Nwosu put his foot into another punt and boomed it 53 yards to the FIU 7—A return of 10 yards set up the Panthers at their 17

  • FIU’s tenth possession would be their last visit to Penn State territory—Their drive covered 50 yards in 13 plays and ate up nearly 7 minutes of game clock—The Panthers would reach the PSU 33 converting a 4th and 1 at their own 26 & a 3rd and 3 at the 50—Their final play of the drive, a 4th and 4 at the PSU 33 was a pass over the middle broken up by King Mack at the 27 to turn the ball over on downs

  • PSU’s 11th possession lasted exactly 11 seconds on 1 play thanks to Kaytron Allen—On 1st and 10 from the PSU 33, Allen swept wide left and turned the corner and broke free down the sideline for 67 yards behind a solid blocking escort with Kyron Hudson leading the way to the endzone—It was Allen’s 2nd rushing TD of the season and the 26th of his career—It was also his longest TD run for PSU and it made Kaytron the 12th player in PSU history to rush for over 3-thousand yards in his career (both he and Singleton accomplished the 3K crossing in this game)—Ryan Barker added the PAT and Penn State extended its lead to 27-0 over FIU with 3:39 to go in the game

  • FIU’s eleventh possession would also get a start from the 35 thanks to Nwosu’s second kickoff out of bounds in the half—The Panthers would manage a first down, but the drive only lasted 5 plays and collected 9 total yards—It all came apart on 2nd and 8 at the FIU 49, Panthers’ back-up QB Joe Pesansky is strip-sacked from behind at the 44 by DE Chaz Coleman DE who grabs the loose ball and returns it 39 yards to the FIU 5-yard line—A huge play by the True freshman who has turned some heads in a very short period of time with the Nittany Lions

  • PSU’s 12th and final possession is another 1-play wonder lasting 3 seconds—Ethan Grunkemeyer checks in at QB in place of Allar, and all he has to do is give it to Nick Singleton who takes it 5 yards up the middle for the TD—Singleton’s 3rd rushing TD of the season and 35th of his career—Ryan Barker added the PAT and Penn State leads FIU 34-0 with 1:19 to go in the game

  • Ryan Barker replaces Nwosu on this kickoff possibly due to the 2 out of bounds kicks this half—After the touchback, FIU will burn out the clock with its backups against the PSU backups—Penn State wins 34-0 to go to 2-0 on the season—PSU is now 2-0 all-time against FIU and has won both games by shutout—This is PSU’s first shutout since a week 3 win over Kent State in 2024 (56-0)—Penn State fails to cover a 6-TD spread for the second week in a row

  • Penn State had a second straight game where drive completion was an issue—The Lions first 10 possessions of this game yielded only 2 TDs and 2 FGs—Had it not been for two late “explosive” plays by Kaytron Allen and Chaz Coleman, the final score would not have been as impressive