Penn State Nittany Lions

PSU OL coach sees progress, preaches patience for Nittany Lions

Published Sep. 18, 2015 2:22 p.m. ET

foxsports

Penn State offensive line coach Herb Hand uses more than just numbers to gauge improvement for his group.

So while going from allowing 10 sacks of quarterback Christian Hackenberg against Temple in week one to zero last week against Buffalo was nice, he described differently how he made his evaluations.

"We obviously improved in that I think we did a great job of managing the game, establishing the run and obviously protecting Christian, keeping him clean," Hand told reporters during a Thursday press conference in State College. "He took a couple hits during the game, but nothing major. It was a great improvement in that regard."

But the coach stressed evaluating any team or unit off of one or even two games can be problematic.

"Some people think you can just roll your helmets out on the field and win: It doesn't work that way," he said. "Winning is difficult. I don't care if you are on the road or at home. It doesn't matter if it's an in conference game or out of conference game. It is a week-to-week deal. It's a challenge every week."

That goes for facing a team like Buffalo from the MAC or this week's opponent, Big Ten partner Rutgers.

"On paper, it may look like one team is better than the other, but you still have to go out each week and do it when the lights are on and the stadium is full," Hand said. "You have to go out and execute. We were able to do that at a higher percentage in the second week than we did in the first week. But none of that is going to matter this week. So that's why our sole focus is on what we need to do to have success against Rutgers."