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UNIVERSITY PARK -- In one of the most comical sideline scenes in Beaver Stadium history, James Franklin could be seen doing 15 pushups after being flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first half Saturday.
Except he wasn't laughing.
Franklin's momentary loss of poise was about the only thing that went wrong during the Nittany Lions' 30-0 rout of Maryland.
"I was embarrassed by it," he said afterward, adding it's his first unsportsmanlike penalty in 12 years as a head coach. "So I did my pushups. Everybody's held accountable around here."
Franklin clarified that he wasn't criticizing the officiating crew.
"I think they were thought I was yelling at the officials," he said. "I wasn't. I was yelling at our players."
Sean Clifford admitted a play he didn't make aggravated his coach.
"I was the cause of that," Clifford, who was across the field when it happened, said. "I heard him yelling at me."
Nonetheless, kicker Jake Pinegar said Franklin "cranked them out," adding the team has a policy "if you curse or something else happens, you have to do them to own up for it."
Tight end Brenton Strange said the team has seen Franklin do pushups in practice.
"We have competitive periods for the offense and defense, and he does them," he said. "Good for his biceps."
Strange said the team would use its opportunity to playfully "mess" with Franklin before moving onto Rutgers.
Such is the mood around here with the Nittany Lions, riding their second straight blowout, now sitting at 8-2 and well in the hunt for an attractive bowl date and opponent.
The Lions absolutely overpowered the Terps, who were as outmatched at the line of scrimmage as Penn State was at Michigan.
Midway through the third quarter, the Lions had rolled up 351 yards to the Terps' 31. Penn State's ground game was once again in high gear as the Nits outrushed Maryland 249-60.
Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen are both bullish, young stars. The two combined for 200 yards of total offense for the second straight week.
"We've really turned the running game around this year, and it's very impressive to watch," Clifford said.
"Our O-line is playing their tails off," Franklin said.
Two key plays came on fourth-and-1 situations in the first half, and both times, the Lions moved to the line of scrimmage with purpose and handed the ball off to Singleton.
Both times he scored, from 45 and 27 yards, to trigger the rout.
"We have really done a good job of committing to short-yardage situations and getting better at it," Franklin said. "That's something we haven't done here recently so that's been a real positive for us this year."
The outcome actually should have been worse. Aside from breaking Penn State's career record for passing yardage, previously held by the great Trace McSorley, Clifford did not have a good game, missing receivers deep and keeping the fans eager to see more of Drew Allar.
And yet, it wasn't until a 30-0 lead late in the third quarter did Franklin ration Allar two series before Christian Veilleux cleaned up.
"It's how soon can we get him in the game when we feel the lead is enough that we're comfortable doing it," Franklin said of Allar. "The other challenge, though, is when we get Drew in the game, we have a bunch of other guys we want to get out of the game because of our depth. It's not an ideal situation. I wish we were in a different place with injuries and our depth situation."
Despite being down two starters on the offensive line (Olu Fashanu, Landon Tengwall) and two of the team's top defenders, (Joey Porter Jr., Curtis Jacobs), Penn State still dominated the Terps, who seem to get discouraged when they fall behind the Lions.
Maryland has lost 38-14, 66-3, 38-3, 59-0, 31-14 and now 30-0 in the last seven matchups to offset a win in the Covid year.
As was the case last week at Indiana, the Lions' defensive front was so disruptive that Maryland never had a chance.
"I feel like it's everybody trusting each other — not trying to do somebody else's job, everybody doing their own job and everything falls into line after that," defensive end Adisa Issac said. "The goal is to hold an opponent to the least amount of points as possible, and you can't get better than zero."
Heading into next week's game at Rutgers - where the Lions will likely be a 20-plus point favorite - the shutout underscored the wide gap between the upper echelon of the league - which the Lions haven't been able to beat consistently - and the bottom feeders.
Clearly, the Nits are closer to Ohio State and Michigan than Indiana, Maryland and we'll see about Rutgers are to them.
So the pushoffs are paying off.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com