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Wilkes-Barre Penguins conditioned for grind of busy schedule

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Drugs, knife and cash among items seized at DUI checkpoint in Courtdale

<p>It&#8217;s not as though there&#8217;s a sign in the locker room and the offensive line meeting room. There isn&#8217;t some big scoreboard installed anywhere that ticks up every time Penn State allows a sack.</p><p>That number, incidentally, is now at 37 for the season and 103 over the last three years. Christian Hackenberg has hit the deck an astounding 101 times while little-used backups Tyler Ferguson (2013) and Trace McSorley (2015) have gone down once apiece.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t have any discussion about it,&#8221; sophomore tackle Andrew Nelson said. &#8220;The media likes to take that sack number and make it like it&#8217;s this extremely important thing that we all look at. Like we&#8217;re counting sacks every game. That&#8217;s not the way it is.</p><p>&#8220;The thing we care about is winning football games and giving the offense a chance to win. It&#8217;s not like we&#8217;re writing down the sacks like, &#8216;Uh oh, the media thinks we have 37 sacks now.&#8217; We&#8217;re gonna look at film and that&#8217;s how we look at things.&#8221;</p><p>There&#8217;s something to be said about not dwelling on the number specifically. But the Nittany Lions know full well that the performance must improve up front this week if they have any shot at knocking off No. 5 Michigan State on Saturday.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t pretty last week against Michigan.</p><p>Even beyond the four sacks on Hackenberg, the Wolverines simply bullied the Lions in the trenches despite missing two talented defensive tackles to injury.</p><p>Tailback Saquon Barkley ripped off a 56-yard gain on his first carry and then had a net gain of 11 yards on his final 14 attempts.</p><p>&#8220;I think of the things that jumped out to me &#8212; and probably to everybody else &#8212; we need to be much more physical on the O-line and at tight end,&#8221; Lions coach James Franklin said. &#8220;There was times where we did not win those matchups. Too many times that we were getting knocked back in the backfield and made it difficult to consistently run the ball for positive yardage.&#8221;</p><p>As it is, the Lions&#8217; options at this point are limited.</p><p>The coaches already moved senior Angelo Mangiro from center to left guard, inserting Wendy Laurent into the middle of the line.</p><p>Left tackle Paris Palmer&#8217;s struggles against Michigan were bad enough that he was pulled later on in the second half with Nelson switching over from the right side and Brendan Mahon checking back in at right tackle.</p><p>&#8220;We were rotating some things around,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had some challenges on the O-line. I wouldn&#8217;t say it necessarily was just Paris, but just trying to move some parts around to try to get the best guys on the field and create better matchups.</p><p>&#8220;Sometimes it&#8217;s not necessarily about one specific guy or some team, but it may be about a matchup and moving a different part around or a different portion of our offensive line around to try to create a better matchup.&#8221;</p><p>Palmer has been on an expedited schedule since arriving at Penn State last December after playing two years of junior college ball at Lackawanna College in Scranton.</p><p>Strength coach Dwight Galt had to first take off nearly 20 pounds of bad weight before building him back up in time to play left tackle in the Big Ten.</p><p>As it is, Palmer is manning the position at just under 300 pounds. On a much more normal schedule this offseason, Franklin figures Palmer should be able to play at around 315 next fall.</p><p>&#8220;Size isn&#8217;t everything. Experience isn&#8217;t everything,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;But those two things together help. They help.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Turkey time</strong></p><p>Penn State&#8217;s holiday began at 6:15 a.m. with practice and meetings, followed by a full team meal at an on-campus dining hall for the players, coaches and some of their families.</p><p>&#8220;One thing we did differently was that a bunch of guys that were sick or hurt or not traveling (to Michigan State), we let them go home,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;It didn&#8217;t make sense for them to be up here and away from their families if they didn&#8217;t have to be.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin said he had no idea how many turkeys a Big Ten team could take down. But he took his players out for a bowling night on Monday and said they went through &#8220;1,800 wings and 65 pizzas.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s Christian Hackenberg (14) was sacked four times against Michigan and has gone down 36 times in 11 games behind an inconsistent offensive line. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_hack-sack.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State&#8217;s Christian Hackenberg (14) was sacked four times against Michigan and has gone down 36 times in 11 games behind an inconsistent offensive line. </caption0><photoCredit0>Gene J. Puskar | 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 style="text-align: center;"><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Penn State at Michigan State</p><p>3:30 p.m., Saturday, ESPN</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State’s offensive line not dwelling on sack total