The knee-jerk reaction from many fans when a player decides to pass on his final college season in favor of prepping for his potential pro career – a relatively recent phenomenon – is disappointment dressed up as approval, with a hint of sour grapes.

“Well, best of luck to him … he’ll need it.”

“I thought he could have benefited from one more college season, but I hope he does well.”

The natural next step of the early departure to the pros, of course, is saying farewell to the team not at the completion of the season but prior to the team’s bowl game, as Penn State’s Brandon Smith and Ellis Brooks did recently. (Others, including Jahan Dotson, Rasheed Walker, and Jaquan Brisker, could make the same call prior to the Nittany Lions’ New Year’s Day Outback Bowl date with Arkansas).

The fan reactions to those decisions are essentially variations of the above, but are sometimes accompanied by rhetorical questions like “Don’t they owe it to their teammates to finish the season?” or “Wouldn’t they want one more college game?”

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Nicholas Singleton, the electric running back from Governor Mifflin High School, this week became just the third player from Pennsylvania to be named the Gatorade National Player of the Year since the sports drink juggernaut created the award – whose past winners include Emmitt Smith, Payton Manning and Kyler Murray – in 1986.

And yet he wasn’t even the most heralded recruit Penn State signed on Wednesday.

That unofficial honor went to the only player ranked ahead of Singleton in a rather impressive and nearly full Penn State Class of 2022 – Drew Allar, the five-star quarterback from Medina, Ohio. The signing of either player would have been a watershed moment for a program that has recruited lots of good recruits over the last few years but few great recruits, but landing both of them as part of an already solid class gives the Nittany Lions a chance to have some dynamic offenses in the coming seasons.

That is, if Penn State can get some guys to block for them.

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After an exciting Regular Season contest, For The Blogy is once again hosting a College Football Contest presented by PlayActionPools.com.

The format is the same as the regular season contest, but features the 43 Bowl Games, including the Outback Bowl between Penn State and Arkansas and the National Championship.

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Introduction

Ah, bowl season…

…that magical time of year when we’re once again reminded that Montgomery, Alabama has a tourism bureau (for some reason), Tropical Smoothie Café exists (somewhere), and that middle-aged men shouldn’t wear bright blazers (ever).

It’s the unrivaled pageantry of your body congealing to the contours of your crumb-crusted barcalounger — brain numb, eyeballs dry and red from the lost, hollow hours spent watching mediocre football, sparse crowds, and soulless corporate mascots – wondering why you’ve never taken the wife and kids to Shreveport for a weekend? The guilt of depriving loved ones from experiencing a town with “So Much to Explore!” weighs on your conscience like a lead vest. Sips of warm, domestic beer briefly chase away the pain while Kent State’s walk-on right guard holds four fingers aloft as the third quarter expires. Inexplicably, you hold four fingers up, too.

(Stares into nothingness)

Anyway, like I said, it’s Bowl Season! 42 games! 42 excuses to put off all our adult responsibilities! 42 excuses to gamble!

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Penn State added a new defensive coordinator and an old quarterback this week.

The coming season will be a big one for James Franklin, both in terms of proving that the long-term extension he signed last month was a wise investment for a university that is in the midst of a leadership change and showing that the 10 losses in the last 14 months will not be the new norm. There is a long way to go to the starting line of the 2022 season — hell, the 2021 season isn’t even over yet — but it will have no shortage of challenges. Franklin must replace one of the best wide receivers in program history, several transfers-turned-defensive studs, and a few other key starters. And the college football coaching carousel isn’t done spinning yet, meaning it’s a possibility Brent Pry won’t be the only staff departure this winter.

In short, lots of change is coming — some of it needed, some of it unwelcome. Viewed through that lens, the return of Sean Clifford for a sixth year and the addition of Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator make a lot of sense for this coach and the current state of his program.

Clifford has been a Rorschach test for Penn State fans, particularly during the last two years. Some look at him and can’t see past the accuracy issues, the skittishness in the pocket, and are happy to lay the blame for a bevy of team offensive issues at his feet. Others see a tough, hard-working kid who made plays with his arm and his feet, played through numerous injuries and made improvement this season in an offense that didn’t have too much else going for it.

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Sponsor: Looking for the perfect stocking stuffer? Look no further! Join our 2021 FTB Donors Club – the best way for you to show your support and keep this train rolling – and receive an exclusive FTB zipper bottle Koozie as a gift! Sign up 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!

Introduction

In what might be the understatement of all understatements, Penn State’s rushing attack really struggled throughout 2021.

Like, really struggled.

Didn’t matter who carried the ball – Noah Cain, Keyvone Lee, John Lovett, Devyn Ford – or when they carried the ball for that matter – 1^st down, 3^rd down, garbage time, high-leverage situations – the Nittany Lions lack of consistency on the ground diluted the potency of Mike Yurcich’s offense as promising drive after promising drive suddenly stalled thanks to a barrage of bottlenecks at the LOS.

But, we wondered, just HOW bad was the Blue and White’s 2021 run production with respect to the rest of the FBS and Penn State’s historical averages? The masochist in us wants to know…so that’s where we’ll begin our after-season analytics investigation of the 2021 Penn State Nittany Lions.

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If only James Franklin developed offensive linemen as well as he develops head coaches.

Brent Pry, Franklin’s long-time right-hand man, became the fourth former Franklin assistant to eventually ascend to an FBS head coaching position earlier this week when he accepted the Virginia Tech job, joining Charles Huff (Marshall), Ricky Rahne (Old Dominion), and Joe Moorhead (Mississippi State and, as of Saturday, Akron). It wouldn’t be all that surprising if Josh Gattis, currently the offensive coordinator at Michigan, was added to that list in the next year or two.

So Franklin will do what he’s done pretty well during the last few years — turn to his little black book of coaching names and try to find a new assistant (if he decides not to promote from within). And while replacing the underrated Pry will be more difficult than many Penn State fans believe, it is an opportunity to both add some new life to a coaching staff that could use a spark or two and to see if the administration’s commitment to competing with the nation’s best (put a better way: its willingness to hand over a blank check) is indeed a result of Franklin’s princely contract extension.

Franklin will have to navigate the ongoing college and NFL seasons as he searches for this new hire, but it’s likely he had a few ideas in mind even before he knew Pry was leaving. He will likely want someone with a proven track record of leading a defense, who can quickly get both players and fellow coaches to learn his system and who is able to adapt his system not only to each opponent leading up to the game but, more importantly, adapt once the game is underway.

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