By BRAD HURLEY

bhurley@tnonline.comIf you're a hip hop fan you must know LL Cool J's number one hit track, "Mama Said Knock You Out." The song famously starts "don't call it a comeback; I've been here for years."To me, that pretty much sums up the Nittany Lions football program over the past two seasons. Penn State responded well to the sanctions that were placed on it from the NCAA and now two years later the program isn't in a state of disarray like most people prognosticated, instead the Nittany Lions are coming off back-to-back winning seasons and are presently 3-0.Penn State has also hired two high profile coaches since Joe Paterno was let go in former New England Patriots offensive coordinator and now Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien and former Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin. It's also no secret that Franklin was garnering a ton of attention from NFL teams before he took the Penn State job.So, don't call it comeback because the Nittany Lions really haven't gone anywhere. They've been just as good as any average power conference college football team and that's with a bevy of sanctions and the loss of key players due to transfers.The program itself might not need the title of comeback story of the year, but this year's Penn State football team sure has been making things interesting. The Nittany Lions have already needed two late fourth quarter drives by Christian Hackenberg and the offense to pull out "W's." "Hack" has been clutch since stepping on campus. In just 15 career games he's already engineered four fourth quarter game-tying or game-winning drives.I've been reiterating this since Penn State's game with UCF, but I want to know as I'm sure you all want to know if and when the PSU rushing attack will show up? They were unimpressive once again against Rutgers last week, coming up with just 64 yards rushing at 1.9 yards per carry. That's just really bad and you don't see many teams at 3-0 that are averaging 75 rushing yards per game and 2.5 yards per carry in Division 1 college football these days.Franklin is convinced it's a communication problem and that they just need to improve on that and get better week in and week out. That may be true, but unfortunately time is running out and I would say the run game needs to be figured out as soon as possible. Penn State heads to Michigan on October 11th and if they're still running the ball this inefficiently things won't go well in Ann Arbor.Another issue is that Hackenberg was under way too much duress last week. He was sacked five times and hit a bunch more. The thought of Hackenberg getting hurt isn't even a thought that Nittany Lions fans want to enter their mind, but if he continues to endure this amount of punishment the odds certainly go up.Up to this point, "Hack" has thrown for 1,082 yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions. In his career, Hackenberg is already 10th in passing yards at PSU with 4,037, so in order to keep the Nittany Lions signal caller healthy he must be protected better."We have to do a better job of limiting how many times he's getting hit. There's no doubt about that," said Franklin. "I think, again, being able to get the running game more involved will help with that. But that's why he's worked so hard in the off season, and he's been great. He really has been great, making plays with his feet, moving the pocket, things like that, extending plays. But there's no doubt about it. We've got to get the running game going and we've got to protect the quarterback."This could be the week that Penn State's rushing woes come to an end as the Nittany Lions host UMASS (0-3) later today (4 ET, BTN). The minutemen are giving up 218 rushing yards per game and 431.7 total yards per contest. They've also surrendered 35 points per game, which bodes well for a Nittany Lions offense that is only averaging 20 points per game.Although they've been giving up a lot of yardage UMASS has been competitive in its last two ball games against Colorado (38-41) and Vanderbilt (31-34). Those are teams from the Big 12 and SEC, so you know they were seeing some talented athletes on the other side.Penn State needs to concern themselves with wide receiver Tajae Sharp on the offensive side of the ball. Sharp has 15 catches for 246 yards (16.4) and a touchdown. Tight end Jean Sifrin could also pose some problems measuring 6-7, weighing 250 pounds. He's athletic and he'll test the linebacker and safety core of PSU. Quarterback Blake Frohnapfel is in the same boat as Hackenberg in that his running game is struggling. UMASS is only averaging 82.7 rushing yards per game. In turn, the Penn State defense has only given up 65 yards per game on the ground so far this season, so it's expected that the Minutemen will once again have issues running the football this week.There's no denying that the Nittany Lions "D" is a big reason why they're 3-0. They've given up just 273 yards of total offense per game and are surrendering just 12.3 points per game.A big reason for the defense's success has been the play of senior defensive tackle Anthony Zettel. Zettel was moved from defensive end to defensive tackle this season and he's been plaguing opposing offenses ever since. To date, he has tallied 13 tackles, seven tackles for a loss, and three sacks. He is ranked fourth in the nation at tackles for a loss per game (2.3) and first in the BIG 10."His tenacity is unbelievable. His quickness is unbelievable and he's not the biggest guy," said Franklin. "I mean, he's big enough at 285 pounds, but there's much bigger defensive tackles. I think it's a combination of his strength; he's got one of the strongest power cleans and deadlifts on our team and his quickness, which makes him so disruptive in there."This is the type of game where Penn State needs to take advantage of the obvious talent disparity between itself and the Minutemen. An explosive showing by both the offense and defense will set them up nicely for a strong week of practice, which is what it will need with Northwestern coming to Happy Valley on September 27th. This is the week the Nittany Lions could iron out a lot of their issues, but with that being said they need to take care of business and play like a team that wants to make a run at the BIG 10 Championship.Las Vegas has the line set at Penn State -27. My pick is Penn State 42, UMASS 14.