The Nittany Lions are landing commitments from the Sunshine State, but is the juice worth the squeeze?

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Another one bites the dust.

The timeless Queen lyric can describe any number of Penn State depth players who recently managed to slide through the closing “transfer portal window” just before it snapped shut, departing a Nittany Lions squad straining to conform to the NCAA’s (quasi-fictional) 85-scholarship roster limit.

Sadly, it also applies to yet another Florida native choosing to leave Happy Valley and seek his fortunes elsewhere: King Mack, a sophomore defensive back, who with due respect to State’s other portal entries, represents the biggest and most painful transfer casualty of the offseason so far. A former top-100 recruit in the class of 2023, Mack very much looked the part in limited snaps as a true freshman, and even with a crowded safety room heading into 2024, he figured to be a contributor this season and beyond.

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Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2024 Spring Football Coverage is brought to you by Happy Valley United – the NIL collective representing every Penn State student-athlete. CLICK HERE to join the team and pledge your support.

Saturday’s Blue-White Game was a terrific opportunity for Penn State fans watching from the stands and on television to learn about the schemes of new coordinators Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen, which will likely play a key role in the team’s level of success this autumn.

Of course, James Franklin had no intention of giving future opponents any sort of hint about those schemes, so this game, like so many spring scrimmages before it, was more of an organized workout than any sort of competition, especially considering a bulk of likely starters were out nursing injuries and, you know, you’re not allowed to touch the quarterbacks.

But even if Saturday wasn’t helpful from an Xs and Os standpoint, it was useful to see which players looked like they belonged. And the Nittany Lions had more than a few of them on both sides of the ball.

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A Digital Trip Down Ink-Stained Memory Lane Unearths Nittany Nation’s Collective Mindset During Blue-White Weekends That Preceded Unforgettable Seasons.

Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2024 Spring Football Coverage is brought to you by Happy Valley United – the NIL collective representing every Penn State student-athlete. CLICK HERE to join the team and pledge your support.

One of my favorite “Penn State holidays” – Blue-White Weekend – is nearly upon us. After a long and lonely Winter spent away from the company of your old college pals, extended tailgating family, and 108,000 friendly acquaintances, we get to squeeze in this brief, but welcome reminder of what we miss so much from five months ago and eagerly await five months hence (and if you actually end up going into the game, get a mostly useless and often confusing “preview” of future Nittany Lions you hope won’t enter the transfer portal before August). The event has grown substantially over the years, becoming a rallying point for any number of campus and local groups, alumni reunions, and student revelry (as if they need the excuse). For me, the most memorable moment at a Blue-White game came in 2007, shortly after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, when some enterprising Penn State students organized fans wearing Tech’s colors into the game, clad in t-shirts sold to raise money for the victims.

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The most impressive thing about Drew Allar in 2023 might have been the way the then-sophomore quarterback owned up for his and his team’s few failures in the post-game media room. Often emotional but always accountable, Allar showed a maturity beyond his years and earned respect from both grumpy sportswriters and, far more importantly, his teammates.

The next step in Allar’s ongoing development is having to do that less often this fall.

Look, I said a few weeks ago, and still believe, that Andy Kotelnicki is the guy who will have the largest influence on the type of season the Nittany Lions have, but close behind is the team’s QB1. At least some of the maturity Allar displayed when talking to reporters is going to have to translate to how he handles rotating safeties and blitzing linebackers and how he handles both deep shots and short throws if Penn State is going to maximize its potential.

Wow, yes, the starting quarterback playing well is a key to the season. Very astute analysis there.

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Since the end of the 2021 season, two things have been true about Penn State football.

The first is that the Nittany Lions have been steadily improving as a program. The second is that they’ve been at least a step behind the two major programs in their conference.

With several traditional Pac 12 powers rotating into the Big Ten and onto Penn State’s schedule this fall, and Michigan (at least temporarily) rotating off of it, it is worth examining whether there will be more teams standing between the Lions and a playoff during the next few seasons or if the influx of new teams could disrupt the balance of power in the conference.

USC, which hosts Penn State on Oct. 12, lost five games with the nation’s top quarterback at the helm in 2023. UCLA, which visits Beaver Stadium on Oct. 5, fired Chip Kelly after six seasons in which the Bruins lost at least four games. Washington, which comes to State College on Nov. 9, is coming off its best season in years but lost both head coach Kalen DeBoer and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Oregon, which isn’t on the Lions’ schedule this fall, is coming off a 12-2 season, though it must replace quarterback Bo Nix.

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“Moving the sticks” is typically a colloquialism for “getting first downs.” For the Penn State football team in 2024, moving the Sticks also means that No. 11 (a metaphorical pair of sticks, for those who don’t speak LaVar-ese), Abdul Carter, is moving from linebacker to defensive end.

This could mean some nightmares for opposing offensive tackles, but it is also symbolic of a Penn State team that will be experiencing a great deal of change this year in terms of both personnel and scheme. While many of these changes, including Carter’s intriguing position switch, seem like they have a good chance of being positive, the sheer number of them will more than likely lead to some growing pains for the Nittany Lions as they enter the “Less Exclusive Playoff Invite” era of college football.

Penn State has three new coordinators. Though James Franklin intimidated recently that this might mean not that many more new plays but simply new ways of naming them, that’s still a lot of learning for, well, the entire roster to do during the remainder of the spring, preseason camp and likely at least a few games into the season.

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Though it remains cloudy whether the famous author coined the phrase, it’s a known fact that in the 1880s Mark Twain popularized the line, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.”

In other words, numbers can prove both sides of any argument, no matter how radical or preposterous…a premise like, oh I don’t know, Mike Yurcich’s 2023 offense was the most efficient of any Penn State attack in the James Franklin Era when the ball crossed opponents’ 20-yard-line.

According to our friends at teamrankings.com, last year’s Penn State squad ranked 5^th in the FBS in Red Zone Scoring Percentage (94.64%) and T-7^th in FBS in Red Zone Attempts per Game (4.7). So, while it certainly seemed like the Nittany Lions became lifeless and stagnant as the field shrank (shrunk?) – and that Yurcich’s limited list of concepts inside the 20 and repetitive use of bread-and-butter alignments (cough, T Formation, cough) were the major culprits of that perception – statistically speaking, new Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki has some Shaq-like size 22 shoes to fill in that particular department.

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A not-so-long time from now, in a college football galaxy not so far-fetched …

It’s 2032. Penn State, having dispatched Michigan, Ohio State, USC, Oregon, Boise State, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Florida State, Central Michigan, BYU, and Navy to win the Big Ten (which now includes 36 teams), clinches a 2 seed in the 16-team playoff.

Nittany Lion fans are excited for many reasons, including that it represents the program’s first conference title since 2016, and that Penn State will get to host at least one playoff game in Beaver Stadium, which now seats a cozy 85,000 thanks to a six-year renovation process that cost a mere $3.2 billion. Playoff tickets cost $450-700 apiece, which represents only a slight per-game increase from the season ticket package. Plans are underway to erect a 2,000-square foot sportsbook on the concourse, which is expected to generate an additional $2 million in revenue for the university each year.

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Sponsor: This edition of For The Blogy’s 2023-24 Sunday Column is brought to you by Happy Valley United – the NIL collective representing every Penn State student-athlete. CLICK HERE to join the team and pledge your support.

The most important person on the Penn State football team in 2024 isn’t Drew Allar.

It’s not Nick Singleton.

It’s not super-jacked linebacker-turned defensive end Abdul Carter, nor prodigal son wide receiver Julian Fleming.

It’s not James Franklin.

No, the one guy who will have the most influence on whether the Nittany Lions finally return to the national championship summit, make the elusive first playoff appearance, or have another so-so, ho-hum 10-3 campaign is Andy Kotelnicki, the new offensive coordinator.

Now, he’s going to need a lot of help, from all of the guys mentioned above, plus returning starters like Kaytron Allen and Tyler Warren and KJ Winston, and guys stepping into larger roles like Dani Dennis-Sutton and Drew Shelton and Tony Rojas, and from the other new coordinators, Tom Allen and Justin Lustig, and from strength coach Chuck Losey and his staff, and … you get it. Ultimate team sport, lots of moving parts, calories to consume and playbooks to study etc. etc.

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