Penn State's Defense Flattens Iowa With 2021 on Its Mind

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. | Among the pregame videos Penn State coach James Franklin showed his team last week was a fragrant reminder of Penn State-Iowa in 2021. The clips included an Iowa assistant coach feigning a flop during the game, suggesting that Penn State's players were flopping with phantom injuries. One particularly acute moment occurred when Iowa special teams coach LeVar Woods appeared to mock Lions defensive end Arnold Ebiketie, who got up slowly after a play.

Current Penn State defensive end Chop Robinson knows Ebiketie well. Ebiketie advised Robinson about his transfer from Maryland to Penn State and about playing end for the Lions. Robinson also was mentored by former Penn State defensive tackle PJ Mustipher, who sustained a season-ending injury that night against Iowa. So the video Franklin showed the team gave Robinson an idea.

"I don't know if you saw that but, once I got the strip sack [in the second half, I flopped twice," Robinson said after the Lions' 31-0 shutout of the Hawkeyes at Beaver Stadium. He later added, "I’d say it came to my mind when coach Franklin showed [the video] in the team meeting. Once I saw that, I was like, I'm going to do that once I make a big play."

And so it went Saturday night, when Penn State's defense released a fury that had been building for two years. Penn State held Iowa to an unfathomable night of offensive misery. The Hawkeyes made four first downs, rushed for 20 yards, converted one third down and ran just 33 offensive plays. They gained 38 offensive yards on two of those plays, and just 38 more on the rest. Penn State became the first team to shut out Iowa since 2000, a span of 286 games. And Penn State wasn't leaving the White Out without a shutout.

Though the Lions and Franklin avoided discussing the 2021 Penn-State Iowa game last week, and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said it wouldn't be a factor, clearly the memory lingered. And for those who didn't play at Iowa in 2021, Franklin offered a refresher course.

Five Penn State players were injured in that Penn State-Iowa game, including Mustipher and current defensive tackle Dvon Ellies. Lions defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton went to the same high school (Maryland's McDonogh School) as Mustipher and Ellies. He watched that game as a Penn State commit and took their injuries particularly hard. "It hurt me," he said late Saturday. Following the game, Dennis-Sutton and Ellies did a quick FaceTime chat with Mustipher.

"PJ was excited," Dennis-Sutton said with a smile.

Mustipher also loved the new third-down package Penn State unveiled against Iowa, one that tormented the Hawkeyes and quarterback Cade McNamara all night. Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz lined his top three defensive ends together (Robinson, Dennis-Sutton and Adisa Isaac) on passing downs, giving Iowa's line constant tension. Robinson caused straight havoc rushing through the interior of Iowa's overwhelmed line. He also sent McNamara to the sideline for good in the third quarter with his strip sack that prompted his celebration.

Robinson barrelled around right tackle, sacking McNamara and swatting the ball loose. Isaac recovered it. Robinson then flopped twice, a low-key nod to 2021 that perhaps not many people at Beaver Stadium noticed. But the players knew.

"When Chop did his little flop, that was for what the [Iowa] special teams coordinator did down on the sideline [in 2021]," Dennis-Sutton said.