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Cipriani visits W-B Area CTC on “Jobs that Pay” tour

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Pa. State Police at Wyoming installs drop box for unused, expired medication

<p>For Penn State, a one-point loss is the difference between being in the driver&#8217;s seat for a College Football Playoff berth and being at the mercy of several other teams.</p><p>Not that Tuesday&#8217;s first CFP top 25 was all bad news for the Nittany Lions. By debuting at No. 7, they slot in ahead of two undefeated teams in No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 10 Miami, meaning the selection committee likes the Lions&#8217; resume enough that one loss won&#8217;t sink them outright.</p><p>But Saturday&#8217;s 39-38 loss at Ohio State certainly means Penn State will need some help to finish in the top four come December.</p><p>To win the Big Ten East and reach the conference championship game for a second straight year would require the No. 6 Buckeyes to lose twice in November &#8212; they play at Iowa Saturday then host Michigan State and Illinois before closing out against rival Michigan in the Big House.</p><p>Another path for the Lions would likely involve the committee putting two Big Ten teams into the Playoff. That would require one of the two unbeatens atop the rankings &#8212; No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Alabama &#8212; to lose in the regular season and then again in the SEC championship.</p><p>Committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said things were &#8220;very close&#8221; between the one-loss teams ranked No. 3 through No. 7 &#8212; Notre Dame, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State and the Lions. It was implied there was a dropoff between the No. 7 Lions and the rest of the top 10 &#8212; TCU (7-1), Wisconsin and Miami.</p><p>&#8220;Penn State has been and continues to be an impressive team,&#8221; Hocutt said. &#8220;The selection committee has talked about how impressed we&#8217;ve been with them, especially at the running back and the quarterback position.</p><p>&#8220;(We&#8217;re) very well aware of how that (Penn State-Ohio State) game transpired, how both teams competed, and that will continue to be a component of their resume as the season moves along.&#8221;</p><p>So what can the Lions do to help their cause in the meantime? ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who was in the booth for Penn State&#8217;s wins over Iowa and Michigan, had some advice.</p><p>&#8220;The best thing Penn State can do is blow people out,&#8221; Herbstreit said on ESPN after the initial rankings were unveiled.</p><p>Penn State&#8217;s biggest issue is that its non-conference schedule of Akron, Pitt and Georgia State won&#8217;t be of much help if there are multiple 11-1 teams in contention for a spot at the end of the season.</p><p>&#8220;If you go by the numbers and you look at the different comparisons, they will lose almost all of those arguments,&#8221; Herbstreit said. &#8220;So, the best thing that they can do is blow people out by 40 or 50 points if they can &#8230; so the committee has to look and just say, &#8216;Penn State is one of the best four. The resume doesn&#8217;t say it, but they&#8217;re one of the best four.&#8217; Penn State, in my mind, that&#8217;s really their only hope at this point.&#8221;</p><p>That makes Saturday&#8217;s game at No. 24 Michigan State all the more important, as it could easily be the Lions&#8217; last game against a well-regarded opponent this season.</p><p>Unsurprisingly, James Franklin made no mention of the Playoff earlier in the day at his weekly news conference &#8212; the word never came up.</p><p>Instead, the Lions coach opened his remarks by closing the door on the loss in Columbus.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve gotta finish. We have to develop a finisher&#8217;s mentality,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;That&#8217;s coaches, that&#8217;s players, that&#8217;s everybody. We&#8217;ve got to learn from these situations. Painful lesson to learn for all of us.&#8221;</p><p>As he did after Saturday&#8217;s loss, Franklin talked about the Lions needing to improve up front on both sides of the ball &#8212; blocking for Trace McSorley and Saquon Barkley &#8212; and generating a pass rush of their own, which was nonexistent down the stretch against the Buckeyes.</p><p>Franklin also discussed the defense not handle &#8220;sudden change&#8221; well enough &#8212; such as Ohio State scoring in just two plays after blocking a punt in the fourth quarter.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s issues that need to be addressed,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I promise you they are being addressed and worked on. But we&#8217;re not going to hit panic mode because we lost on the road to the sixth ranked team in the country &#8212; on the road &#8212; by one point.</p><p>&#8220;Do we need to finish better? Yes. Do I take responsibility? No doubt. Do I have tough conversations with my staff about the things that we need to get better about? Yes. Do I challenge the players to take a hard look at themselves and grow as a program? Yeah. But I am going to stay positive.&#8221;</p><p><strong>More honors for Barkley</strong></p><p>The Buckeyes may have swarmed Barkley in the second half on Saturday, but it didn&#8217;t stop the laurels from coming in this week.</p><p>Barkley was named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award &#8212; a national player of the year honor &#8212; and also won his fifth Big Ten honor of the season by being named special teams player of the week thanks to his kickoff return touchdown to open the game.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State and running back Saquon Barkley will need some help in November to reach the College Football Playoff. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_AP17302170911717.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State and running back Saquon Barkley will need some help in November to reach the College Football Playoff. </caption0><photoCredit0>Jay LaPrete | 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>Penn State at Michigan State</p><p>Noon, Saturday, FOX</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Penn State debuts at No. 7 in first College Football Playoff rankings