The Penn State football team will leave Thursday from Harrisburg International Airport for its game Saturday at USC.
It’s a charter flight that Nittany Lions coach James Franklin would prefer to be making from State College Regional Airport.
“We cannot fly out of State College,” Franklin said Monday. “Based on runway length, size of plane, weight of plane (and) fuel on plane, we can’t get out of here unless we would stop for fuel. With that, we have to fly out of Harrisburg.”
The Lions will ride in buses from campus to the airport in Middletown, a 98-mile drive estimated at 101 minutes. The flight to the West Coast will be approximately 5.5 hours.
“You’re talking about adding two hours to your trip on top of the flight,” Franklin said. “That’s pretty much a full day. That’s one of the big reasons for leaving Thursday.”
He then made a plea to the powers that be to expand the runway at the State College airport.
“That’s one of the things we have to discuss, increasing the size of the runway and the size of the airport for a lot of reasons,” he said. “For the university. For the community. For businesses. For the athletic department and for us now that we decided to make this move as the Big Ten.”
Franklin said Maryland and Rutgers are in the Northeast like Penn State, but that they’re close to international airports.
Penn State has a bye next week before traveling to Wisconsin. Every Big Ten team traveling to the West Coast for a game this season has a bye before or after that game, except Illinois and Indiana.
UCLA has to travel to Rutgers next week after playing last week at Penn State.
Barker impresses: Penn State redshirt freshman Ryan Barker surprised coaches when he showed up on campus last year as a walk-on. Now he’s the first-team kicker for the Lions.
He made his starting debut in a 27-11 win over UCLA and kicked field goals of 25 and 40 yards, along with three extra points.
“He’s been a guy who has been really impressive since he stepped on campus,” Franklin said. “The thing I’ve been most impressed with is just how steady and level he is. He doesn’t get too high. He doesn’t get too low. He’s got a very mature kind of way about him. He’s very, very consistent.”
The 6-2, 195-pound Barker played at Kennett High School in Chester County, where he was an all-state kicker and punter as a senior. He scored 51 points in 2022 and made six field goals, including a school-record 45-yarder. He also averaged 41.4 yards as a punter and hit 45 of his 51 kickoffs for touchbacks.
He kicked 19 field goals during his high school career.
“The thing with him is it’s almost like a machine, like a JUGS machine or something,” Franklin said. “A large percentage of his kicks are right down the middle. It’s not just the ones he’s making; it’s the accuracy of how he makes his kicks, too.”
Barker replaced Liberty High School product Sander Sahaydak, who made just 2-of-5 field goal tries in the first four games.
Allar makes cut: Penn State junior Drew Allar was named Monday as one of the 25 players still in contention for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation’s top senior or junior quarterback.
Allar was joined by five other Big Ten quarterbacks: Luke Altmyer of Illinois, Billy Edwards Jr. of Maryland, Dillon Gabriel of Oregon, Will Howard of Ohio State, who played scholastic at Downingtown West in Chester County, and Kurtis Rourke of Indiana.
Allar ranks fifth in the nation in pass efficiency, completing 70.9% of his attempts for 1,101 yards and nine touchdowns with one interception.
The winner will be announced Dec. 6 at a banquet in Baltimore.
