Morning Cup of Joe: On to the next one

Welcome to the Morning Cup of Joe, a daily round-up of Penn State football news and nuggets from around the Internet.

Coming off an exciting season opening win in Dublin, Penn State kicker Sam Ficken and wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton were recognized by the Big Ten in the first batch of weekly awards. Ficken was named the Big Ten’s special teams player of the week after successfully kicking all four of his field goal attempts against UCF, setting a career high. Hamilton shared the Big Ten freshman of the week honors with Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett.

For a bit deeper analysis of Penn State’s victory over UCF, Black Shoe Diaries offers a film room breakdown of the game. Anthony Zettel also took home MVP honors for his performance against the Knights.

Sights now turn to Akron, coming off a commanding performance against Howard. Sure, it was just an FCS program but it was also a reminder of why this Akron team was picked to finish second in the MAC East this fall. As pointed out by Victory Bell Rings, the Nittany Lions are a double-digit favorite for the home opener. I expected that kind of margin, but I would think long and hard about taking Akron with the points.

Two-Minute Drill: Terry Bowden talks about challenges of facing Penn State’s defense and Christian Hackenberg (Audrey Snyder, PennLive)… How will Penn State’s pass rush fare against Kyle Pohl (Bob Flounders, PennLive)… The editorial staff at The Student Section breaks down the biggest stories from the opening weekend of college football… Also on The Student Section, Matt Zemek offers some thoughts from his notebook… Oregon’s Marcus Mariota preparing for Michigan State (MLive.com)… Tom Dienhart of Big Ten Network updated his power rankings, and possibly slept in late Saturday morning (Big Ten Network)… Brady Hoke will continue to use starters on special teams (MLive.com)… Beloved Al Golden opened his season last night with a loss at Louisville (College Football Talk)

This Week on Nittany Lions Den: The Nittany Minute starts on the regular schedule tomorrow. New podcast coming this week. A look at the rapid changes at Akron. A look back at the 1994 season gets started this week.