Penn State Opens the Week As Surprising Favorites Over Minnesota

Vegas absolutely loves the Penn State Nittany Lions. For yet another week, Penn State opens as a big favorite in a Big Ten matchup against a really tough and nasty Minnesota team.

At the beginning of the week, Penn State is a 7-point favorite against the Golden Gophers, who are in a little bit of a slide right now.

Penn State, on the contrary, has finally turned the corner and is playing some really solid football over the past two weeks. It started at home against the Purdue Boilermakers in a game that was a tug-of-war to start but turned into a runaway for the Nittany Lions in the second half of the football game.

Then, that momentum continued into the first half against the Washington Huskies. Penn State used a 21-point second quarter to build up a really nice lead that proved to be just enough. 

For Minnesota, they are on a little bit different of a trend. One month ago, the same Purdue Boilermakers absolutely demolished the Golden Gophers by a score of 41-13, which turned out to be rock bottom for PJ Fleck's bunch.

They responded with a victory over the then-ranked No. 19 Iowa Hawkeyes, a crazy loss to Indiana, where they needed a 60-yard field goal to tie the game as the clock expired, and then a two-score loss to UCLA last week.

It hasn't been good, but the losses that Minnesota has been suffering have been more than competitive each and every week. Beyond that, they have the culture of their head coach that they are going to fight till there are zero seconds left on the clock. 

For the Nittany Lions, they have a three-game stretch to end this season that they should be approaching with an incredible amount of urgency. Yes, they are out of the College Football Playoff, and yes, they are not going to be a team that will be a part of any award conversations, but they are laying the foundation of this program.

The start is already in motion. What they have done over the last couple of weeks has been incredibly impressive. They could have absolutely folded up and punted on the season, but they fought and fought hard each and every week.

The habits that they build right now will carry over to next season for the players that come back. It is critical, as Matt Campbell continues to establish his culture, that they put out a couple of really solid performances to end the year. 

It will be good to start with this one this weekend against Minnesota.