Every day’s a day closer to the start of college football season, and those three glorious non-conference games at Beaver Stadium — Nevada (Aug. 30), FIU (Sept. 6) and Villanova (Sept. 13).
Glorious? OK, maybe not. But what word would you use to describe those games?
Here are several that could or have been used.
Cupcakes. That’s often a word for soft opponents, winnable games. But cupcakes, the dessert, are almost invariably a good thing. Colorful. Enjoyable. Even fun. Maybe these first three games will be fun for someone, but not for fans paying full price for tickets.
Easy. Well, that’s certainly the case with these games — easy Ws for a second-ranked Penn State team that’ll be a multiple-touchdown favorite in every game. Easy often offers little room for challenge, development and growth, though. So, in this case, things could be too easy.
Dog. Sometimes, a non-competitive game or opponent might be referred to as “a dog,” and one person asked to offer adjectives suggested “dog water.” For me, though, all things about dogs are good. Calling these games dogs would be an insult to our canine companions.
Joke. Maybe that’s a little more cynical approach, but the games are not funny in terms of competitiveness. There will probably be plenty of time for laughter and yuks inside the stadium for Penn State fans, though.
Necessary. Every team plays nonconference games, and Penn State’s preferred approach seems to include no-questions-asked, clear results in those games. An unblemished record early in the season, especially with a full Big Ten conference schedule looming, matters more than anything else. So, these kinds of games need to be played.
Practice. Yep, pretty much. There’s just an opponent with different uniforms. Honestly, the competitive balance during a Penn State practice might provide more of a challenge if the first team played the first team than anything the Nittany Lions will see in any of the first three games.
Preseason. Yes, that’s what it amounts to, and many programs do the same thing. This season, Penn State just happens to have what may be the nation’s weakest nonconference schedule. It’ll be similar in 2026 (Marshall, at Temple, Buffalo) before Syracuse joins the lineup in 2027 and 2028. Still, only a little history/tradition makes a schedule with the Orange seem any more appealing. (And that’s not much more.)
Scrimmage. See “practice” above.
Weak. No doubt about it. Penn State fans should expect better. Yes, they certainly want W’s but one opponent that offers just a little bit of competitiveness and doubt would be nice. It seems there would be room for that in a world with a 12-team playoff but that’s just not the case in Happy Valley this season. Kudos to LSU for annually challenging itself, and to others who do the same.
After all that, the word “awful” comes to mind. It’s a boring and non-competitive lineup. Mostly it’s disrespectful to fans who buy tickets.
But when the team goes undefeated in those first three games and finds success in conference play as well, a spot in the playoff seems guaranteed. At that point, nobody will care about those first three games. Or whatever word you use to describe the games.
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