Love was in the air for the Nittany Lions in their home opener against Ohio, in the form of a feathery 32-yard touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Drew Allar to rookie receiver Omari Evans, and it was on the ground, in the form of 179 yards and two big-play tuddies from freshman Nick Singleton. A dozen true freshmen saw the field for the home team in a mostly clean, well-rounded 46-10 pounding of an overmatched MAC squad, but Allar and Singleton were the darlings of the crowd, and they underscored what has been an inescapable theme of the season:

Now that Penn State has found love, what are they gonna do with it?

This was the game plan James Franklin had talked about executing all week, and it didn’t involve scheme or audibles. Rather, Franklin had emphasized the importance of developing depth, of getting some of these young and exciting players live reps when it counted, especially during one of the few weeks on the schedule that wasn’t supposed to be a four-quarter rock fight.

Continue reading

Ever procrastinate? Sure you have. You’ve put stuff off that probably should have been done today, and sometimes, you get a lucky break along the way—the boss decides he doesn’t need that presentation from you for another week, or your wife decides she wants to get a different tile for that bathroom renovation you’ve been putting off. So you feel justified in procrastinating. But you’re really not.

For the first, oh, 56 minutes of Penn State’s opener at Purdue, a disaster scenario was shaping up for the Nittany Lions. Sean Clifford was playing like, well, Sean Clifford, lifting the Nittany Lions to a healthy lead early then helping the Boilers get right back in it with a flurry of wildly inaccurate passing in the second half. The disaster part is that, when Clifford missed a series while getting an IV, Drew Allar came in the game and, in just four passes, stole the hearts of every Penn State fan and gave us an oh-so-brief but oh-so-tantalizing glimpse of what could be. Those four passes resulted in two completions, a drop, and a wobbly (but fast-moving) duck that had no chance, but damn it, the kid looked the part. Never mind the accuracy and the velocity, but he showed a true pocket presence—eyes downfield, feet moving but never retreating—that a certain other quarterback has shown for only slivers of a six-year career.

Continue reading

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to be patient with Penn State’s dynamic young running backs, that true freshmen need to cook slowly, more like a brisket than a burger, and that James Franklin, not unlike many coaches, has shown a consistent tendency to be more comfortable with veterans than upstart rookies.

In other words, tell you to get excited about Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, but not too excited.

Well, considering the way Penn State’s running game looked last season, you should take any reasons to be excited you can get.

We all know the numbers were bad (118^th of 130 FBS teams in rushing yards per game), the optics were bad (how many times did the Nittany Lions turn a 2^nd-and-feet into a punt or turnover on downs?) and the harmony was bad (when the line blocked, the backs didn’t hit the holes hard; when they ran with purpose, the blocking broke down). But when you go back and look at what frequently cost the Nittany Lions in their six losses last season, it was the effect the running game—or lack of running game—had on the rest of the team that made for so many disappointing Saturday evenings.

Continue reading

The casual Nittany Lion fan will be forgiven if he has to reach for the team roster more often than usual this September to match jersey numbers with names along Penn State’s defensive line.

If the Nittany Lions are lucky, at least a couple of those numbers will become quite familiar to opposing coaches who have to scout the Penn State defense.

Just about every position group is breaking in one or two new faces this fall, as is commonplace in this transfer-happy era of college football, but defensive line coach John Scott’s collection of ends and tackles takes the turnover to another level.

Gone are Arnold Ebiketie, Derrick Tangelo and sometimes-linebacker Jesse Luketa. Back from injury are Adisa Isaac and P.J. Mustipher. Back from some other form of exile is Hakeem Beamon. In from the Maryland Terrapins is Chop Robinson, and in from the high school ranks are Dani Dennis Sutton, Zane Durant and Kaleb Artis (alas, Ken Talley, we knew thee not that well). And then there are returnees like Nick Tarburton, Smith Vilbert, Coziah Izzard and Dvon Ellies.

Continue reading

Media Days have come and gone. The NFL preseason is underway. Real, honest-to-goodness football is oh so close, and so is a big year for James Franklin and Penn State.

The Nittany Lions have one of the most experienced quarterbacks in college football history, some explosive young athletes in the backfield, a reshuffled offensive line that will probably be the subject of only four or five of these columns this fall, an intriguing collection of both returning and new talent along the defensive line, and what could be one of the best secondaries they’ve ever had.

They should also have a collective chip on their shoulders the size of Landon Tengwall after consecutive seasons of five or more losses. How and why Penn State came up so curiously and consistently short has already been written to death. Today, we will examine how Franklin and his team can end that surprising and sobering stretch of mediocrity.

With apologies to the famed 21^st century philosopher William Martin Joel, it’s a matter of trust.

Continue reading

David Joyner had to deal with unprecedented NCAA sanctions.

Sandy Barbour guided the athletic department through a pandemic.

Patrick Kraft has a tougher job than either of them.

Penn State introduced its new athletic director on Friday, and it was pretty much what you’d expect to see at these sorts of things. Kraft, sitting next to incoming university president Neeli Bendapudi, hit on the big points – winning, and doing things the right way, and … well, you’ve heard it all before. Kraft perhaps delivered his opening salvo with more enthusiasm than any of his recent predecessors – a relatively low bar set in that regard by Barbour, Joyner and Tim Curley – but it was essentially the same old intro, a combination of praise for the new program and promise to build on its reputation, success with honor and so on.

Continue reading

The Blue-White Game is easy to take for granted. It has some of the perks of a game that counts – tailgating, a chance to yell at players (or coaches … or officials), a look at incredible athletes making plays mortals could only dream about, and uh, tailgating – without the possibility of a crushing defeat. Everybody plays, no one gets (actually) sacked, LaVar stops by to chat. It’s a great time for all ages.

At the same time, Penn State’s annual spring game, back in Beaver Stadium for the first time in three years on Saturday, is also the very definition of empty calories. That’s partially because no coach in his right mind wants to give any future opponent any hint of a playbook wrinkle, or risk anyone on his two-deep to injury, and partially because there are no bowl ramifications (at least not any that I’m aware of).

And yet, there are some things to watch for that can provide clues about the type of team the Nittany Lions have in any given year. You want to see proficiency. Guys don’t need to pancake a linebacker or making a diving interception, but you want to see them in the right spots and playing sound, fundamental football. You want to see the returning starters be a little bigger, stronger and more decisive than they were the previous November, sure, but you also want the likely backups to show that they’re capable of handling shotgun snaps filling in for an injured starter and not have the air go out of the entire unit.

Continue reading

Any quarterback worth his salt knows how to see the whole field. So it should not have been much of a surprise that Penn State’s Sean Clifford – who has been reading defenses for nearly 40 games over the past four years – has been keeping his eye on perhaps the most significant development in collegiate athletics. Clifford recently announced a company he formed, Limitless NIL, that will help his fellow student athletes navigate the still-being-charted waters of name, image, and likeness.

In addition to providing each of its clients with sound financial advice from partner agency Beacon Pointe, the Limitless team also says on its website that it will work with athletes to pair them “with companies that align with (their) brand.” One such example is that of Penn State safety Ji’Ayir “Tig” Brown, who will have his own “Tig Pie” at State College’s Snap Custom Pizza.

That got us thinking about a few hypothetical (but not entirely unrealistic) athlete-sponsor fits that would simply be too good to pass up. You’re welcome, Nittany Lions.

Continue reading

There will be a lot of Penn State players on the field and coaches on the sideline with a lot to prove this fall.

Perhaps none more than Mike Yurcich.

A year ago, just as many Penn State fans (if not several more) worried that State College would be a mere pit stop for Yurcich en route to a major head coaching job as those who worried that he might not be able to tighten up what had been a talented but inconsistent Nittany Lion offense in 2020. After an encouraging start to the season during which Penn State was carried most often by its defense, the wheels wobbled and spun off, the team dropping six of its final eight contests. Coaches and players from offense, defense and special teams shared responsibility for that, but the offense was undoubtedly the biggest disappointment, with some ugly stats that matched the failed eye test.

Penn State finished 80th or worse in the nation in rushing offense (118th), total offense (82nd), red-zone offense (97th) and scoring offense (90th) last season, stats that harkened back to the early sanction days.

Continue reading

Wherever his long and eventful coaching career may take him, James Franklin owes Bill O’Brien a debt of gratitude.

Not for deciding on New Year’s Eve 2013 to leave Penn State for the Houston Texans. Not for leaving the program in pretty damn good stead, all things considered, after the punitive measures the NCAA had laid on it 17 months before that.

No, Franklin should thank O’Brien for the simple fact that no one wants to be the guy AFTER The Guy, and that O’Brien’s brief but memorable tenure allowed Franklin to avoid having to directly follow the winningest Division I-A coach of all time.

Even if O’Brien couldn’t quite help him escape the inevitable comparisons to Joe Paterno altogether.

Continue reading