While it was all sunshine and touchdowns for Penn State head coach Matt Campbell in his coaching debut in Happy Valley, it was quite the opposite reaction from the opposing sideline. Marshall head coach Tony Gibson came away disappointed in his team’s effort following a 45-0 defeat at the hands of the Nittany Lions in Week 1. As is typically the case in the coaching world, Gibson was complimentary to Campbell and Penn State’s performance, but wanted to keep his focus on his team’s performance.
“You know, they just dictated the tempo of this football game from snap one, and we got punched in the mouth and never recovered,” Gibson said after Penn State’s 45-0 victory over Marshall on Saturday.
“Yeah, I think they did a good job, they got good players. And not to discredit them, they punched us in the mouth and we never recovered from it, but offensively we got to get some momentum,” Gibson said in his postgame press conference. “We have too many good players and we have to be better about giving ourselves a chance and we never did that today.”
Marshall managed to pick up just 147 yards of total offense against the Nittany Lions, and the Herd were limited to 44 net rushing yards in the game on 26 rushing attempts.
“We looked like we were stuck in the mud: it didn’t look like we could run, we weren’t executing; we couldn’t block them,” Gibson said.
Dual-threat quarterback Carlos Del-Rio was defended exceptionally well by Penn State’s defense and was largely ineffective throughout the first half. He finished the day with just 102 passing yards and a team-high 30 rushing yards.
“So much credit goes to [Penn State defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn] and that he puts a stop to it,” Campbell said in his postgame press conference when asked about the success of the Penn State defense. “We started to see the multiplicity that we have and what we do, and I just thought our guys were really keen in. We knew the running game is starting to be able to stop the run, and I thought we did a great job of that from the start of the game over to the end of the football game, and then have the ability to be really efficient.”
Penn State will hope to keep the defense locked in next week when it travels to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls in Week 2.
This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: What Marshall coach Tony Gibson said after Penn State’s Week 1 win
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