Giger

Parents know it’s OK to let your kids eat one cupcake on occasion. No big whoop from a calorie standpoint.

But forcing them to gobble down two cupcakes can be irresponsible. So, you blame the overindulgent parents — not the kid — for the ensuing bellyache.

All of which is to say that, no, I don’t have a big issue with how Penn State has played through two games, because the adults in the room decided it was a good idea to give the players so many early cupcakes.

It’s not at all surprising to me that the Lions sleepwalked through their week-two victory over FIU. No matter how much James Franklin wants to preach about how every game is a big game — at least he doesn’t refer to each week as the Super Bowl anymore — the reality is that a lot of college kids are going to have a tough time getting fully jazzed up for back-to-back awful opponents.

The Nevada game was the season opener, so that naturally came with a high level of energy and excitement. Penn State played well in a 46-11 win that was 46-3 before the backups allowed a late TD.

Penn State did not play well in the 34-0 win over FIU, which was only 20-0 and would have looked really bad before two late touchdowns made it seem more like a blowout.

Sure, I can give you football stuff that’s concerning, particularly Drew Allar’s pedestrian performance or that Nicholas Singleton looked like he’s regressed.

But, as all of you know, I always try to keep things overly positive with my Penn State coverage — wink wink! — so I’ll just say that I’m not getting worked up over the lethargic performance in week two.

In fact, I think it actually could have been a great thing for this team.

The Lions won, but played so uninspired that you just know Franklin and the coaches have been lighting them up in practice this week to make sure everyone is in fact motivated.

That’s going to mean big trouble, I predict, for Villanova on Saturday. This is an FCS opponent, and you just know PSU’s players will be locked in on fine tuning things — focus and execution — in the wake of last week’s snoozer.

I will not go back on what I wrote last week about how the terrible non-conference schedule isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Penn State. Instead, I’ll just say that the school put the players in a position where it was going to be difficult for them to ball out to the best of their ability in all three of these lousy games.

Motivation matters.

And no matter what has or will come out of these three games, when the lights come on for the whiteout against Oregon in two weeks, I have the utmost confidence that this team will be fully motivated.

Cory Giger hosts the new Blue & White Wrapup show following each Penn State game this season on 96.9 and 100.7 FM.