In college football, as is the case with many things in life, the more work you put in, the better the result usually – but not always – turns out to be.

In this sport, though, you need to be patient to see those results.

Penn State is hosting an important recruiting weekend for its Class of 2023 … but it will likely be no earlier than 2025 until those prospects (if of course they wind up at Penn State) will play significant roles on the field. The flip side of that, of course, is that the players who will likely shoulder the heaviest part of the load for the Nittany Lions in 2022 will come from the classes of 2019 and 2020.

And that leads us to what has been a not-so-minor issue for the Nittany Lions during these last two seasons of football purgatory; Penn State is putting together solid-to-strong recruiting classes on the front end, but not getting enough out of those classes by the time the players leave.

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Exit No. 5 – Enter No. 5 as Strength, Speed and Sure Hands Arrives in One Package with Penn State’s Newest Roster Addition.

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Apparently this is gonna be a thing.

Twelve months after he absolutely electrified Penn State’s hesitant-to-change fanbase by simply catching up to speed with the rest of the sport, James Franklin has once again stepped foot in Transfer Portal – College Football’s bargain bin – and already crossed ‘WR1’ from his off-season shopping list.

Like most of Franklin’s 2020-2021 portal rescues, former Western Kentucky stat gobbler Mitchell Tinsley fits a certain profile. Recruiting stars deficient (Derrick Tangelo). Limited college offers out of high school (Eric Wilson). Late bloomer physically who outgrew his Outlet Mall irregular measurables from high school, sprouted into an impact overachiever at the college level, and is now eager to see if he can shine just as bright on a bigger stage (Arnold Ebiketie).

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The word “optimism” has almost always meant something a little different when the topic turns to Penn State men’s basketball.

If you’re not an optimistic person by nature, you probably aren’t investing much emotional capital into the Nittany Lions, they of the three* NCAA tournament appearances in their entire Big Ten history, each winter. And if you are, in most years you’re clinging to little more than optimism as March approaches and Penn State’s resume seems to be a win or two or five short (*-yes, it would be four if not for COVID-19 … but that’s still not a great number).

But after a bumpy start this fall, and during a time of year when the Nittany Lions’ football counterparts have done very little to inspire optimism of their own, Micah Shrewsberry and his first Penn State team are, without a lot of fanfare or flash, rewarding that loyal-to-a-fault section of the fanbase with some reasons to be optimistic about the near future – and maybe even the present, too.

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Introduction

Cue Sarah McLachlan singing, “I Will Remember You” as we watch Brent Pry walk out the door towards Blacksburg. An Altoona man with an Alabama accent, Pry orchestrated steady, reliable and occasionally dominant defensive units throughout his six-season reign as DC in Happy Valley. That level of consistency on defense was the Yin to the offense’s erratic Yang – explosive in 2017, plodding in 2020, one-dimensional in 2021. For his final act wearing blue and white, Pry and his talent-rich defense compiled one of the best statistical defensive performances in recent history…which we’re about to explore.

Our format for this Penn State Defense Year-in-Review will mirror what we did earlier this week with the offense: basic stats first, more complicated advanced stats second. Unlike the offense blog post from Monday, however, the stats/numbers in this defense article won’t need a NSFW warning. In fact, you might gain a newfound appreciation for Pry after reading this one.

As always – all data herein is only against FBS competition (sorry Villanova) unless otherwise noted.

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Introduction

Same deal as last year: we put the much-hyped (in the preseason, anyway) 2021 Penn State offense under the microscope and examined every data point available. It’s funny, because in the Jan. 2021 edition of this blog post we spent close to a dozen paragraphs whining and complaining about how Kirk Ciarrocca’s offense underperformed versus expectation. Twelve months later, man, what I wouldn’t give for some ho-hum 2020 offensive output.

Penn State obviously took a step or two back this year (to be polite). You don’t need us or the numbers we’re about to present to tell you that. But what these basic and advanced stats DO reveal is a clearer picture of how and why Mike Yurcich’s Happy Valley debut was a bit of a flop. So with out further ado let’s all hold our breath, pinch our noses, dive face-first in this mess and analyze Penn State in various offensive metrics compared to the rest of FBS and Penn State squads from the recent past.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that James Franklin bemoaned the difference between good and great and elite.

For those who don’t know what I’m referencing, a quick refresher:

In a passionate post-game speech following Penn State’s 27-26 loss to Ohio State on Sept. 29, 2018, Franklin vented frustration with a program that was “comfortable with being great” — too comfortable for the coach’s liking — and vowed to help push it to that next and final level, the land of milk and honey where only the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and, yes, Ohio State, could call home.

“It’s the little things that are going to matter,” he said.

The Nittany Lions are 27-16 since that moment, including 1-2 in bowl games, and have as many wins (11) in their last two seasons combined as they had amassed in three of the previous four seasons. After going from average to good to great, Penn State has somehow, but assuredly, slipped back to the “average” rung of the ladder, with “elite” barely in sight.

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Introduction

Coincidentally, Penn State’s 60-minute trajectory in the 2022 Outback Bowl mirrored most every red-blooded eater’s typical experience at game’s title sponsor.

Much like the Nittany Lions did in the first half, you roar into the place looking to devour every calorically-dense morsel in sight. Then, about halfway through (like the start of the second half) you slow down and eventually hit a wall. Finally, when the waiter comes and asks if you’ve saved any room for dessert (late stages of 4th Quarter) you puke all over yourself.

Arkansas completely dominated Penn State in the 2^nd half, outscoring the Lions 17-0 and lapping them in total yards. Following an initially sweet turned super sour 2021 campaign, we go into the off-season with a lot of uncertainty on both sides of the ball. We will have lots to write about in the off-season, but before we get there, we have one last very exciting and not at all grueling (cough), postgame wrap-up.

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You’re never quite sure what to expect in a bowl game. A team and a coaching staff gets a month-plus to scout and gameplan and practice, sure, but that also means a month that the team is out of action. Players have time to recover from major and minor injuries, but they also have time to decide that maybe a bowl game isn’t in their best interest.

Sometimes a bowl game can be a pleasant surprise, a chance for redemption after a season that didn’t go quite as expected. Sometimes a team that has been consistently good will show up and look entirely discombobulated.

Sometimes, a team can show in only a few plays the recurring themes of the entire season, as was the case for Penn State late in the first half of Saturday’s deflating loss to Arkansas in the Outback Bowl.

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