Apart from the fourth quarter at the TaxSlayer Bowl in January, momentum has been sliding in the wrong direction for Penn State the last five months.
The Nittany Lions lost their last four games – three of them against ranked teams, to be fair – then lost both coordinators and their offensive line coach. John Donovan was fired in November after his offense averaged only 23.2 points per game in 2015. Herb Hand struggled to make progress on the offensive line before departing for a job at Auburn. And Bob Shoop was wooed away to the SEC, where he’ll run Tennessee’s defense.