Build-A-Blocker: Penn State Offensive Line

Sponsor: FTB’s Donors Club – the most direct way to support our efforts – is back for another year! (sad Sarah McLachlan music plays) For $9.99 you can feed a starving blogger…and get a cool FTB bottle koozie in return! JOIN HERE.

*Please remember to click the ‘Share My Address With For The Blogy’ box when checking out so we know where to mail your gift!

Lights dim.

A dull murmur that has been percolating throughout the theater for the past 10 minutes turns to silence within seconds.

The booming dialogue of Epic Movie Trailer Voiceover Guy (Sorry, I don’t know his name. You know, the ‘IN A WORLD…’ guy) begins:

“Leveraging two-and-a-half semesters of med school, a bottomless piggy bank of family money and an undiagnosed narcissistic personality disorder, one man is cobbling together genetic material from the best football players of our time to literally engineer perfect athletes.

On this leg of the journey, Dr. John Hammond swings by Happy Valley to collect samples for the perfect offensive lineman. Any missing/damaged sequences in the genetic code he plugs with Velociraptor DNA; what could possibly go wrong?”

Anyway, with officially one month left until the start of the season and a handful of days until we’re fed more cliché-soaked tripe at Penn State Football Media Day, we’re finally joining the herd of offseason content lemmings by publishing a pair of blog posts that are fun, irrelevant, trivial, fun, forced, pointless, and fun. For this exercise, we’re constructing the PERFECT Penn State player at various positions by selectively plucking the best attributes (both physical and cerebral) from current Nittany Lions. Tomorrow, we’ll Dr. Frankenstien (verb) the ultimate Penn State running back. Today, we’re Voltroning (verb) together the ideal offensive lineman – a task that suddenly has become much more difficult and interesting thanks to Penn State’s recruiting resurgence along the trenches in the past three cycles.

 So let’s get to it:

Brain: Olu Fashanu

For a player that didn’t grow up entrenched in the sport and only began playing as a high school freshman, All-American candidate Olu Fashanu possesses an advanced Football IQ. When he steps on the field he knows his opponent(s), how they’re going to attack him and how to counter those attacks…which is even more impressive when you consider he’s only started 9 games in college.

Even stunts and twists rarely fool him:

Olu’s as obsessive in the classroom as he is in the film room. He knows those Academic All-American designations will pay dividends after he hangs up his cleats. He deletes Twitter and Instagram from his phone to get through especially rigorous work weeks. He just gets it. And lastly, his decision to delay an eight-figure, first-round payday for another 12 months could very well pay off exponentially in the long run. While the guaranteed money Fashanu would have received this summer (and will receive next summer) is undoubtedly life-changing, the second contracts NFL franchises are handing out to cornerstone left tackles (see NYG LT Andrew Thomas’ freshly-signed 5-year $117 million deal, $68 million guaranteed) can change a family’s fortunes for multiple generations. Perhaps, Fashanu and his family reasoned he’ll have a better chance at securing that second, bigger bag if he entered the league at 21 years old, rather than 20?

Upper Body: Fashanu

Promise Olu isn’t gonna win every category, so don’t click off.

If you’re reading this I’m sure you’re aware than Penn State football players – including Olu and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton – have worked with MMA professional Bruce Lombard to hone their hand-fighting technique. As Lombard describes: “Boxing is not just about learning how to hit a target accurately; it’s teaching them how to miss…if they need multiple punches or strikes and still maintaining balance [so] if they miss they’re still right there in the game and then get the next shot.”

What’s the one metric highlighted when there’s a big-ticket heavyweight bout coming up? Reach. The ability to take the fight into your opponent’s kitchen is an immeasurable advantage in the trenches. If you get to his chest before he gets to yours you can control his center of gravity. Olu’s elite arm length and hand strength consistently let him latch on to rushers and stall their engine.

Core: JB Nelson

Truthfully, I could have picked JB for his hands or his arm length but I like the big guy’s flexibility, the back-bending (rather, the lack thereof) and the leverage he’s able to create despite his rather large stature. As a JUCO recruit, JB was a tad disproportionate despite possessing ideal Power 5 height and weight. More specifically, JB was top-heavy; reportedly he dropped 30 pounds of bad weight since he got here and put it back on as muscle.

Nelson looked like a bully at Lackawanna and his talent has translated to the D1 level. He only allowed two QB pressures in 2022, fewer than any Penn State offensive lineman who played at least 100 snaps. He has a case to be made for a starting guard spot in 2023, with Landon Tengwall’s injuries and Sal Wormley leading the team in pressures allowed (25) last year.

Size: Vega Ioane

No-brainer choice.

An interior lineman’s job is to set the depth of the pocket; he can give some ground but he needs to drop anchor and leave the QB room to step up. If Penn State has designs at making and advancing through the College Football Playoff in the final year of the four-team format, the Lions need guys inside who can stand up to the D-Line freaks they produce down in the SEC: the Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter types. Checking in at a fit 352 pounds, Ioane is the biggest dude on Penn State’s roster by a good 10 pounds.

I like to talk about length for trench players; this kid isn’t wanting for width, either. As I famously wrote (“famously” may be a strong assessment) about mammoth former Ohio State offensive tackle Dawand Jones: you can’t go through him you have to go around, and you better grab a snack and use the restroom before that trip.

Base: Sal Wormley

To borrow a phrase from future Poet Laureate 2 Chainz: All I want for my birthday is a big booty O…lineman, that is. I’m secure enough in my masculinity to look another man in the pants and tell him I like what I see. Sal has the raw power to drive opponents off the line and clear out lanes for those stellar running backs.

While he does need to make strides as a pass blocker, Wormley has great bend in his knees and ankles. That keeps his center of gravity low and over his base, as opposed to waist-benders who expose themselves to being pulled off-balance by rip moves. Try to forklift Sal and he’ll just bury you.

Feet: Hunter Nourzad

Nourzad hit 19 mph on the treadmill last summer, according to his former teammate Juice Scruggs. Mobility like that simply isn’t found in a guy this size. Get him out in space, up to the second level and he’s an absolute wrecking ball.

With Scruggs’ departure Nourzad figures to step into the starting center role in 2023. From there he won’t be as involved in the power run game but OC Mike Yurcich will still be able to leverage his mobility with zone runs.