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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Some 45 minutes after Micah Parsons finished up his first career start at Penn State, Nick Scott recalled a conversation he had with with the true freshman linebacker before the season.
“He gave me this analogy that I really liked after talking to him for a little bit,” said Scott, the senior captain of the Nittany Lions defense after Saturday’s 20-7 win at Rutgers.
“Basically, his point was, ‘Right now I’m extremely aggressive, like a killer. I’m a little bit sloppy. I want to be aggressive, I want to make the play, but I may leave the scene a mess by how I got there.’ Then he said, ‘By the time I get out of here, I want to be a trained assassin. I want to get the job done, I want it to be extremely clean, I don’t want there to be any messes or things I need to clean up. I just want the job to be done.’ ”
Well, that’s one way to put it.
“I respected that, and thought that was a great way to look at it,” Scott said. “I don’t think that should be taken negatively at all. Obviously, he’s not that kind of a guy. But I thought that was a great analogy. And I can see his growth, from starting to be a killer and wanting to just go get the ball and maybe leaving his gap to do that, to now just trusting his eyes and his rules and everything like that, and still making the play.
“I was really impressed. Whoever gave him that insight — it’s obviously been working for him. It’s affected the way he’s approached his game. He’s very eager to learn so he can be a trained assassin on this defense.”
On Saturday, Parsons finished with seven tackles (two for loss) to maintain the team lead and also picked up the first solo sack of his career, curling a blitz through the left side of the Rutgers line to hit quarterback Artur Sitkowski and force a fumble.
The start came because junior Cam Brown was suspended for the first half for disciplinary reasons.
“We had a small violation of team rules,” Lions coach James Franklin said, noting that the “minor issue” came Friday morning. Brown returned for the first defensive possession of the third quarter, though Parsons still played frequently in the second half.
It was the first time the season that there was a change to the starting linebackers as Brown and Koa Farmer had flanked Jan Johnson for the previous 10 games.
Infirmary report
• Right guard Connor McGovern injured his right arm in the third quarter. The Lake-Lehman grad grabbed it in pain after Penn State completed a pass from its own end zone. He stayed in for one more play before subbing out for Mike Miranda.
When Rutgers got the ball back, McGovern spent time on the sideline getting the arm wrapped by an athletic trainer. He then repeatedly flexed the arm while squeezing his hand into a fist.
The junior went back out for another drive and played well as the Lions capped it off with a fourth-quarter touchdown to go up 20-0. McGovern was still in obvious discomfort coming off the field after the score, however, with his right arm hanging low against his side.
With the game in hand, McGovern did not return for precautionary reasons. Likewise, Ryan Bates — who again started on the right side with Will Fries at left tackle — was shaken up late in the game and sat out the rest of the way.
Penn State closed the game with Fries, Steven Gonzalez, Michal Menet, Miranda and Chasz Wright up front, from left to right.
• Juwan Johnson wasn’t going to skip a trip back home to New Jersey, but the junior still wasn’t back in uniform on Saturday.
The starting receiver missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury and has sat out for large stretches of the last five in total.
Johnson was initially hurt back on Oct. 20 against Indiana. He missed the second half against the Hoosiers and attempted to return the following week against Iowa but was only on the field for a handful of plays.
He was not on the travel roster two weeks ago at Michigan and did not dress last week against Wisconsin.
“It’d be great to get Juwan back, who’s close,” Franklin said after the game.
• For the second straight game, fellow junior wideout Brandon Polk suited up but did not play.
Franklin said earlier in the week that Brandon Polk was in a “similar” situation to Johnson but would not say if he was injured or not.
Polk has drilled with the third-team wideouts each of the last two weeks.
With Johnson and Polk out, the Lions continued to rotate their starting receiver unit.
This time it was Cam Sullivan-Brown’s turn to make his first career start, making for an all-freshman starting unit with KJ Hamler and Jahan Dotson. Sullivan-Brown replaced senior DeAndre Thompkins from last week’s lineup.
Thompkins did not see the field at all in the first quarter but returned for the first drive of the second quarter.
In all, the Lions have had seven different starting receivers in 2018 — Johnson, Thompkins, Polk, Hamler, Dotson, Sullivan-Brown and Mac Hippenhammer.
• Defensive tackle Ellison Jordan (knee) again did not travel with the team and has missed every game in Big Ten play.