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We caught up with Bob Flounders of Pennlive.com to get his thoughts on the Nittany Lions. Here is a transcript of the interview.

GoldandBlack.com: What are some of the things that have impressed you early on for the Nittany Lions?

Flounders: This is James Franklin’s (head coach) sixth year and this is clearly his deepest, fastest team. It took him awhile when we took over in 2014 to get the depth where he wanted it to be.

He came to Penn State viewed as an elite recruiter. He did some good things at Vanderbilt and that’s not easy to do. He needed to go toe to toe with Ohio State and Michigan. He needed to get the depth where they could put their second or third team out on the field if need be and not lose anything. He couldn’t do that in 2014 and 2015, even in the 2016 year when they won the Big Ten title, they were a good team but I wouldn’t say they were a deep team. They had some transcendent players in Saquon Barkley (RB), Mike Gesiki (TE), Chris Godwin (WR), who is now emerging as a star in the NFL. Trace McSorley (QB), he was a three star recruit that was going to Vanderbilt and he flipped him.

He had enough of those kinds of players and it was reflected in the game that they could score points, but they also gave up a lot of points. As he continued to recruit well, the defense started to get a little bit better and a little bit better.

Now it’s to the point where our defense in their first four games, when they have been open and they haven’t made mistakes, they have really overwhelmed teams. They haven’t played any really good teams (yet), but you could see in stretches that the athleticism is just too much for opponents to deal with. Against Maryland, they jumped on them right away and you could tell they were ready to go coming off the bye week. Over the years, Maryland has a history of surprising teams. They almost beat Ohio State last year, they put it on Syracuse this year. They jumped on them. Against Penn State, that just hasn’t been the case for the last four years.

GoldandBlack.com: What do you have to do to score points against Penn State’s defense?

Flounders: That’s been the trick. They’ve only given up 30 points in four games and they’ve given up one rushing touchdown. They’re so fast at all three levels -- at defensive line and at linebacker, and in the secondary. It is very hard to score with them.

They are very good in the red zone as well. The teams have had eight red zone possessions and they’ve only scored three touchdowns. They’ve had a pretty memorable goal line stand against Pittsburgh two games ago. They’re just too fast (for most opponents). They have an NFL caliber defensive end in Yetur Gross-Matos but they also have some other players in that front that are very good.

They have these two (very skilled) linebackers outside named Micah Parsons and Cam Brown. They look like they came straight out of a lab. They are just big, they’re fast, and they’re very disruptive. It is very hard to fool them. When you fool Penn State, the defense still has the ability to recover.

I’m not saying that they’re quite Ohio State yet, but w this team looks and plays different than any Franklin team has played since he’s been here. The fact that their second team guys are almost as good as their first team guys is very frustrating for offenses.

GoldandBlack.com: Talk about quarterback Sean Clifford.

Tommy Stevens was supposed to was supposed to be the quarterback this year but they really like Sean Clifford who had a strong spring when Tommy was rehabbing a foot injury. At the end of the Spring, Franklin made it pretty clear that it was going to have to be an open competition instead of just giving Tommy the job.

Stevens ended up transferring and going to Mississippi State, but Clifford has done some things in these first four games that have justified what the coaches saw in him. He’s been a very good player, who has only made four starts. You can see the talent is there. It’s just a very tough team to deal with for 60 minute. When they play 60 minutes it can get really ugly for the other team.

GoldandBlack.com: What are two or three keys for Penn State to win this game?

Flounders: I know that Purdue is a little bit beat up. The one problem Penn State had going into the Maryland game is that they weren’t very good on third downs. They made that a priority on the bye week (before playing Maryland).

Against Maryland, they started 6-for-6 on third down and then they ended up 9 for 13.. They have the speed and the depth at running back, tight end, and receiver. They’re going to generate explosive plays.

But you can slow them down if you can get them into third and long because they like to take shots on first and second down. They were tripping up with themselves on third down (early in the season). With that change against Maryland, they made it a priority. If Penn State is going to convert 40 percent on third down, they’re going to be really tough to beat.

The other thing that has been a little bit of an issue is games like four running backs (and not deciding on just one). It’s a curse and a blessing because they are all talented, but none of them really have a chance to get into a rhythm because they rotate them so much. You can see that it is paying off (for now) because all of them look comfortable, and all can make tough yards. They really lean on their depth. They kind of just wear teams out in the second half.

They’ve been pretty good at protecting the football. That’s what they need against Purdue. I know Purdue is a little bit beat up in the defense, (and the unit) isn't quite there yet.

It could be a long afternoon for the Boilermakers. They have to thread the needle to stay in the game. A lot is going to have to go right.

The other thing that has changed for Penn State is its kicking game. It is now a strength in the team. They got a kickoff guy named Jordan Stout, a grad transfer from Virginia Tech. He has only had two kicks returned all year.

The defense is never on a short field. Blake Gillikin, the punter, is finally putting it all together. They don’t give up any yards in the return game and that makes the defense better. So there really isn’t a lot of weaknesses on the team. Having watched Penn State for awhile, I think this team isn’t even where they are going to be. They haven’t put it all together yet. So I do think the fact that they play Ohio State later in the year, I think Ohio State is going to be the best version of Penn State.

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