At 0-4, Penn State defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher seeks accountability

Penn State’s football team had a strong second half at Nebraska this past Saturday.

Nebraska gained a mere 95 yards of offense during the final two quarters.

Then again, games are usually played with two halves. And Penn State wasn’t nearly as stiff defensively during the first half as it allowed Nebraska to rack up 203 yards of offense.

That discrepancy led Nebraska to a 30-23 win, dropping Penn State to 0-4.

“Came out for the second half with a plan,” Penn State junior defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher said during a video conference with media Wednesday. “Came out for the second half with much better energy than we started the game with. But that’s how we’ve got to start games. It can’t be a question of what changed in the second half, what did you guys do better in the second half. It has to be from the get go.”

Slow starts have been a common theme throughout this season for Penn State.

“I can’t put my finger on it,” Mustipher said. “All I can do is just concentrate throughout the week. And not just myself. All the coming out in practice, coming out with attention, coming out with energy with a focus on what we have to do at the beginning for practice so it translates to the games. I can’t put my finger on anything, but I know what we have to do in order to give us the best chance possible to start faster this week against Iowa.”

Third in the Big Ten conference with a total of 733 yards rushing, Iowa’s offense presents a fairly blunt, but hardly surprising, challenge to Mustipher.

“They want to establish the run. They want to establish it early,” Mustipher said. “Iowa doesn’t do the pretty things you see a lot of these spread offenses do around the country. They want to get downhill. They want to use play action. They’ve got a couple of studs out at receiver. They want to get them the ball. But they’re not going to do too much flashy stuff.

“We’ve got to be prepared for that. It’s going to be a hard-fought game in the trenches. On the outside, too. Iowa is not trying to do too much. They’re not going to sugarcoat their offense.”

Despite a lack of success this season, Mustipher professes he and his teammates remain resolute.

“The confidence level hasn’t changed,” Mustipher said. “It’s very high. And it’s going to continue to be high. We all know we’re tremendous football players in what we’re capable of doing. We’ve just got to do it on Saturdays.”

Even as Penn State’s fifth-leading tackler (21 total), Mustipher suggests there is more he can offer.

“It’s all about holding myself accountable,” Mustipher said. “I can’t hold anybody else accountable unless I’m looking at myself in the mirror first. I’ve got to look at everything I’m doing … off the field and on the field and see if it correlates to winning football.”