web1_berwickcoughlin2.jpg

H.S. Football: Berwick, Scranton Prep vying for D2-3A title

web1_TTL112015lehmanPreview4.jpg

H.S. Football: Lake-Lehman heads to Dunmore with different mindset for District 2 Class 2A championship game

<p>For the first time all season, it was an ugly number for Michigan.</p><p>Missing the two best run-stuffers in the middle of his line, Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh saw his team surrender 307 yards on the ground in last week&#8217;s double-overtime win over Indiana.</p><p>Not that Harbaugh was going to publicly acknowledge there was an issue when asked how his &#8220;beat up&#8221; defensive line was responding this week in practice.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not beat up. Nobody&#8217;s beat up that I know of,&#8221; Harbaugh countered. &#8220;Do you know something I don&#8217;t know? We&#8217;ve got a bounce in our step. We&#8217;re ready to go.</p><p>&#8220;I think the student-athletes have a bounce in their step and they&#8217;re ready to attack the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.&#8221;</p><p>Well all right, then.</p><p>Harbaugh isn&#8217;t alone in trying to patch some leaks in a normally solid run defense. When Michigan visits Penn State on Saturday, the Nittany Lions will be trying to rebound from a rough day against Northwestern their last time out.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s been an emphasis all week long,&#8221; Penn State coach James Franklin said. &#8220;We looked at it from every angle. We went back and studied the last five years. &#8230; It&#8217;s not like we&#8217;re seeing or facing different schemes.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s about that second level, the linebackers, and the third level of the defensive backs, making sure they get the guy on the ground and that our fits are correct.&#8221;</p><p>It will be especially important against a Michigan offense that typically uses a power run game to set up the pass, a formula that worked so well for Harbaugh in his last college stint at Stanford.</p><p>Likewise, Penn State&#8217;s offense has improved this year because of the emergence of dynamic freshman Saquon Barkley in the backfield.</p><p>Harbaugh acknowledged that limiting Barkley, whom he called &#8220;outstanding,&#8221; was key to beating the Lions. But as to how the Wolverines might do that with injuries to tackles Bryan Mone and Ryan Glasgow?</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re looking at all those ways,&#8221; Harbaugh said. &#8220;We have some ideas. But why state it up here and tell you? You&#8217;re liable to go and tell somebody else. So probably just going to keep that to ourselves. That would be the best course of action.&#8221;</p><p>The Indiana game hiked the Wolverines&#8217; rushing yards allowed above 100 yards per game, though they still rank eighth in the nation in run defense with a 103.2 average.</p><p>That&#8217;s roughly where Penn State was a year ago, just barely squeaking into triple digits at 100.5 yards allowed per game after facing run-happy Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl.</p><p>But this year the Lions are surrendering 50 yards per game more than in 2014 at 152.2, good for 47th in the country.</p><p>Though that number is slightly skewed thanks to a game against an Army West Point squad that ran it 55 times and threw just one pass, the Lions&#8217; woes go beyond that. And it&#8217;s more than struggling against the option packages and mobile quarterbacks of teams like Ohio State and Maryland.</p><p>In their last game, the Lions caught a break when athletic Northwestern quarterback Clayton Thorson was knocked out of the game in the first half with an injury.</p><p>Though the Wildcats lost a dimension to their offense when backup Zack Oliver replaced Thorson, they still managed to run for 227 yards, including big-gainers of 48 and 35 yards.</p><p>And that last bit is what bothers Franklin the most.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been too many explosive runs,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;You&#8217;re going to get a run against you for 8 yards or 12 yards &#8212; you can&#8217;t have the runs for 35 and 45. Those kill you. They obviously swing field position, they swing momentum, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re not doing a great job of.</p><p>&#8220;And that&#8217;s just as easy as a guy who&#8217;s coming up from the second level or the third level that doesn&#8217;t fit correctly. And now all of a sudden, instead of tackling the guy for a 12-yard gain, it now goes for 35.&#8221;</p><p>Part of the issue is that the Lions are young at linebacker this season, losing Mike Hull to the NFL and Nyeem Wartman-White to injury. Second-year players Jason Cabinda and Troy Reeder have taken their place with a pair of true freshmen, Jake Cooper and Manny Bowen, backing them up.</p><p>On the other side of the ball, Penn State is hoping to glean some things from the film of Michigan&#8217;s razor-thin wins over Indiana and Minnesota from the past three weeks.</p><p>&#8220;We watched those two games, games with similar formations, similar philosophies and things like that that are valuable for our guys to see,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;The Minnesota game, the thing that stood out about that game, probably differently than Indiana, they made plays. That&#8217;s what really jumped out about Minnesota. They won a bunch of those one-on-one situations and came down with the ball.</p><p>&#8220;Indiana was different because they kind of wore them down with the run game and the big backs. So two different types of games. We&#8217;re probably going to have to do a combination of both.&#8221;</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_AP_692623953759.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State and defensive tackle Anthony Zettel (left) are looking for a better showing against the run on Saturday when the Nittany Lions host Michigan. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_AP_692623953759.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State and defensive tackle Anthony Zettel (left) are looking for a better showing against the run on Saturday when the Nittany Lions host Michigan. </caption0><photoCredit0>Patrick Semansky | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Michigan at Penn State</p><p>Noon, Saturday, ABC</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

PSU, Michigan aiming to patch up run defenses