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First Posted: 9/18/2014 As far as nicknames go, it&#8217;s not a bad one.
Bob Shoop was a popular topic of conversation around Penn State this week, as the architect of a Nittany Lions defense that ranks No. 11 in the country after three weeks.
&#8220;His gameplans are phenomenal,&#8221; Valley View&#8217;s Nyeem Wartman said. &#8220;He&#8217;s like a mad scientist.&#8221;
Fellow linebacker Brandon Bell laughed when he heard it.
&#8220;I think Nyeem said it earlier,&#8221; Bell said. &#8220;Nyeem said he was kind of like a mad scientist, and I think that hit it right in the head. This is a guy that knows what he&#8217;s talking about, and with that confidence, it&#8217;s instilled in us and we&#8217;re just ready to play behind him.&#8221;
Heading into today&#8217;s game against UMass, for all of the attention given to Christian Hackenberg, it&#8217;s Shoop&#8217;s defense that has made the biggest impact on a 3-0 start.
If there had been a complaint headed into last week&#8217;s game against Rutgers, it was that the Lions had only forced one turnover.
They came up with five interceptions to beat the Scarlet Knights. And the defensive coordinator apparently called it.
&#8220;He predicted we&#8217;d have five turnovers and wouldn&#8217;t give up more than 14 points,&#8221; Wartman said.
Penn State won 13-10.
More impressive, his fellow coaches say, are Shoop&#8217;s predictive powers during the game.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been on the headset with the defense where Bob&#8217;s called out 75 percent of the plays before they&#8217;ve been run,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s called out, &#8216;We&#8217;re going to get an interception here,&#8217; and things like that. It&#8217;s pretty impressive at times, it really is.
&#8220;And I think that confidence that he has coming into the game, because of the amount of time he&#8217;s put in, spills over to our players, and I think the same thing with our staff.&#8221;
THREE AND OUT
Quite the coincidence
Though the Minutemen may be the weakest opponent on the schedule, under new coach Mark Whipple they&#8217;ve put a scare into both Colorado and Franklin&#8217;s former outfit, Vanderbilt.
In fact, Franklin and his staff faced off against UMass in each of the last two seasons while with the Commodores, winning 24-7 and 49-7. But Franklin said because of the Minutemen&#8217;s coaching staff overhaul, they actually were able to glean more from last week&#8217;s three-point Vanderbilt win.
&#8220;You can&#8217;t go back to last year, because they have a completely different mentality,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We know some of their personnel, but even there, they&#8217;ve signed some junior college guys, gotten some transfers.
&#8220;I would say the fact they played our previous institution last week is most helpful because we know those kids and how they match up.&#8221;
Familiar faces
As it so happens, two of those transfers played for Penn State last year.
One of them &#8212; former walk-on quarterback Austin Whipple, who is Mark&#8217;s son &#8212; won&#8217;t see the field. But fifth-year scholarship wideout Alex Kenney certainly will.
Kenney, a former highly regarded recruit because of his track speed, played at State College High School and signed with the Lions, but didn&#8217;t play much the last two years in Bill O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s offense.
Though his snaps have increased with the Minutemen &#8212; Kenney has started two of three games and is expected to do so again today &#8212; he has just one catch so far for 14 yards.
In the line of fire
The Lions will be looking for some sort of progress from the beleaguered offensive line, both in the running game and in protecting Hackenberg.
UMass has one of the lowest-ranked run defenses in the country, allowing 218 yards per game on the ground. Another sub-par rushing day would be cause for major concern.
&#8220;We absolutely have to establish a running game at some point,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;If we keep dropping back every single down, we&#8217;re going to become one-dimensional. We have to mix in the run.&#8221;
That&#8217;s also key in keeping Hackenberg in one piece for the whole season.
&#8220;I got up in front of the team this week and said, &#8216;Guys, enough is enough,&#8217; &#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;No one is touching our quarterback any more.&#8221;
Whipple, who was at one time Ben Roethlisberger&#8217;s quarterbacks coach in the NFL, said the key for UMass will be to get to Hackenberg, whom the coach lavished with praise.
&#8220;He&#8217;s going to be the first player picked,&#8221; Whipple said, referring to the NFL draft. &#8220;If he could come out this year, he&#8217;d be the first player picked. He&#8217;s the truest sense of a quarterback, and he&#8217;s a little more athletic than you think. He reminds me of the guy I had with the Pittsburgh Steelers.&#8221;

Nittany Lions’ strong start powered by defense