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Introduction

Finally, the season is upon us! Bring on the first college football Saturday Thursday!

Much like last year, the Big Ten schedule makers left Penn State no room for non-conference creampuff foreplay as the Nittany Lions are forced to go in raw against another winning Big Ten West foe to get things started. And much like last year, one of the largest preseason questions marks looming over Penn State’s 2022 fortunes is the potential potency of the offense.

Rightly or wrongly, for better or worse, most of the uncertainty falls on the shoulders of QB1 Sean Clifford.

Clifford’s QB counterpart in the season opener is Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell – an unheralded walk-on and one time 8^th string QB on the Boilermakers depth chart (seriously, that isn’t a joke. He was.) who somehow morphed into an All-Big Ten thrower. Statistically speaking, O’Connell ranked 2^nd or 3^rd in most major passing categories last year, only trailing behind Ohio State QB/G Wagon driver CJ Stroud, a Heisman finalist.

Now that we’ve set both QBs up, let’s compared the two, shall we?

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Once a Promising Young Runner Brimming with Upside, the Nittany Lions Presumed Starter to Start the Year Has to Sharpen Several Aspects of his Game to STAY the Starter at the End of the Year

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Seems like several lifetimes ago by now, but remember that Keyvone Lee earned PFF grades of 75+ in both rushing and receiving in 2020. Purdue’s Zander Horvath is the only other B1G RB who can make that same boast; he’s playing for the Chargers now.

Both players averaged 4.9 yards/carry that year.

In 2021, Lee averaged…4.9 yards/carry. Not a step back, but not the step forward expected after what he did in his first season in blue and white.

Suddenly there are a couple of talented freshmen (Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen) ready to do to Lee what he did to Noah Cain. The good news – for Keyvone – is he 100% has the tools to headline a RB room and ward off four- and five-star teammates from snatching away carries.

Let’s break down what he has to do to avoid transferring and fading from our collective memory while exhausting his eligibility at some forgettable C-USA or Sun Belt football “farm upstate.”

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Same deal as yesterday’s offense article. For those diligent FTB readers, no need to explain the format or premise of this blog post. You know the drill. Gold star for you. For those who didn’t bother reading Monday’s ‘End-of-Season Starting Lineup: Offense’ well, I hope you have a doctor’s note or some other valid excuse for your absence.

DE: Adisa Isaac

Isaac was anointed a future first-round pick by a former Nittany Lion before last year’s medical redshirt depreciated his NFL stock a bit. Five-star freshman Dani Dennis-Sutton is nipping at his heels and by the end of this sentence you won’t be able to say I didn’t mention Smith Vilbert’s name. Adisa’s a man on a mission, though; he’ll come by this spot honestly.

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Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2022 preseason coverage is sponsored by FANATICS. Spare the embarrassment of showing up to Beaver Stadium in LAST year’s sweat- & alcohol-stained gear. Grab something fresh from our collection of Penn State jerseys, T-shirts, and more right HERE.

Warning: The superstitious should skip this article.

The reason? Well, because in the next dozen or so paragraphs we’re going to tempt fate and gaze in the future to predict the Nittany Lions’ starting lineup for the FINAL game of 2022. Yes, you read that correctly – the FINAL game of 2022, presumably a bowl game that (fingers crossed) will be played in 2023.

Around this time every preseason, several publications – be they physical or digital – print out their thoughts regarding Penn State’s Week 1 projected starters. To us, that seems kind of boring, especially since the lone up-in-the-air position battle on offense is whether Sal Wormley or Hunter Nourzad will line up at right guard four Thursdays from now. Instead, we’re projecting four months from now – Who opts-out? Which young player beats out a veteran early-season starter? That sort of thing.

For context, last year only 4 Penn State offensive players that started Week 1 at Wisconsin started in the same spot on January 1 vs. Arkansas…so there’s something to this exercise. One thing we’re not doing, though, is predicting injuries. Not putting that negative energy out in the universe.

So find some salt, spill it, then throw it over your left shoulder … Ok, ready? Let’s tuck in.

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Don’t call last year a disappointment. The Nittany Lions didn’t lose a game by more than four points – if you overlook the scoop-and-score from the OSU game and consider the Opt-out Bowl an outlier. Twelve student-athletes graduated to NFL rosters, eight by way of the draft. Most importantly: 15 current and former Penn State players received diplomas this past May.

Is it possible to lose half your defense to the NFL one year and have a better team the season after? Ok, that’s a loaded question; I’ll scrape off some of the sour cream and bacon bits. I’ve graded and ranked each position group of Penn State’s 2022 roster. After doing so, one thing is clear: James Franklin’s team will have a very different identity come the first of September.

Scale: F – Unacceptable, D – Below-the-line, C – Average, B – Good, A – Great

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