James Franklin has been recruiting at a high level this winter – not just with players (Penn State currently has the third-ranked Class of 2022 in the country according to the 247Sports Composite) but with his swift and surprising addition of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich.

The recruitment of the latter could play a big role in helping Franklin land an even more important piece of the Nittany Lions’ 2021 puzzle.

It isn’t hard to see why Franklin pounced when Texas parted ways with Yurcich’s former boss, Tom Herman. The 45-year-old Yurcich’s career resume reads a lot like that of Franklin’s; he was a Division II quarterback at California University of Pennsylvania (Franklin played quarterback at another PSAC school, East Stroudsburg) and, like his new boss, earned a degree in psychology. Franklin had coached for nine different college or professional teams before getting his first job as a head coach in 2011; Yurcich, who has never been a head coach, is now at his eighth stop after making his third move since New Year’s Day 2019.

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FTB’s Rapid Reaction/Stream of Consciousness Following Penn State’s Bombshell Friday News Dump

• It’s pronounced YER-sitch…Sitch like situation. Here’s a 2014 video of the guy saying his own name. Hurry up and learn how to say it correctly…because with James Franklin’s newfound Queen of Hearts disposition, who knows how long YER-sitch sticks around Happy Valley.

• I’ll be honest…not a huge fan of the move. Not in the short term…and not in the long term, either, because I don’t think there is a “long term” when it comes to Yurcich. He’ll be a head coach in one, two or three years. The tenures of Joe Moorhead and Ricky Rahne proved the Penn State OC is a King Maker role, as both guys got D1 head coaching jobs after two years at the helm. Ciarrocca wasn’t leaving. He offered stability. But back to the short term. Can Penn State really compete for a Big Ten title in 2021 if it has to install a brand new offense AGAIN? The Year 1 to Year 2 progression in Ciarrocca’s offensive production at Western Michigan and Minnesota was substantial…and progress at PSU was noticeable in the final two games of the season – explosive elements of the offense finally emerged in the Michigan State and Illinois season enders.  

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Introduction

Now, it’s the defense’s turn. Same general premise as yesterday. As we turn the page to 2021, let’s take one last look back on what was the 2020 Penn State Nittany Lions – specifically defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s unit. We’ll explore what trended well, and explore what needs to be fixed in the offseason. And how are we going to do that, you ask? Same way we did weekly during the season – using a mix of basic and advanced stats within the broader context of the James Franklin era at PSU. 

Basic Statistics Summary

You’ve watched all the games but it’s worth reposting the basic stats summaries. Let’s start with yards allowed. In the graph below we have the passing yards (blue), rush yards (orange), and total yards (red) surrendered in each game.

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Introduction

Before we turn the page to 2021, let’s take one last look back on the 2020 Penn State Nittany Lions. What trended well? What were the consistent strong/weak points? And, finally, what needs to be fixed in the offseason. Today, it’s the offense’s turn under the microscope. As we always do, this season-ending summary will be a thorough mix of basic and advanced stats within the broader context of the James Franklin era at PSU. 

Basic Statistics Summary

Our first graph shows the yards generated in each game. Passing yards (blue), rush yards (orange), and total yards (red) .

With the exceptions of Indiana and Nebraska, Penn State really struggled to run the ball early in the season and relied heavily on the pass game to generate yards against Ohio State, Maryland, and Iowa which were (probably not) coincidentally the three biggest losses. Penn State’s lack of a rushing attack against good defenses like the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes –two teams that typically have strong, opportunistic defensive lines – left the Lions offense vulnerable to sacks and turnovers. If we look at passing yards as the % of total yards generated (Pass Share) in the graph below, you can see how much the offense skewed towards passing, especially early on.

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Thanks Temple for Spending Four Years Developing an Unwanted Recruit Into an All-Conference Pass Rusher…We’ll Take It From Here

We’re Portal People, now.  Embrace it.

While the rest of college football was on IG Live squawking about how they kicked dudes in the face and duct-taping squeeze bottles atop trophy stands, Penn State spent the dying breaths of 2020 putzing around the Transfer Portal – College Football’s Monster.com. And wouldn’t you know, while traversing this strange, foreign place, four players 99.9 percent of us have never seen play one snap of football decided to continue their careers in Happy Valley.

Sweet.

The latest (as of this keystroke) and most intriguing newbie is former Temple Defensive End Arnold Ebiketie, a 2nd Team All-AAC Grad Transfer with two years of eligibility left to finish tapping a deep reservoir of talent/potential. By now, you’ve seen his 2020 stats: 42 tackles, 8.5 TFL, 4 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and one defensive touchdown – a gift score that might have been his LEAST impressive highlight all season.

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There is a simple path for Penn State to return to football glory after a weird, wild and abbreviated 2020 season the Nittany Lions and their fans can only hope was an aberration:

Get in the damn end zone. As many times as possible.

If you watched Penn State’s strange and maddening autumn odyssey, from the stunner in Bloomington to the beatdown of Illinois, you saw both dysfunction and gradual improvement from the Nittany Lions in all three phases. You might have heard James Franklin profess one or two or 40 times over the years the importance of “complementary football,” and, yes, a stout defense and at least average special teams play are crucial for any team to have a chance to win at this level.

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As The Usual Suspects Once Again Play For All The Tostitos, We Present an Alternative Postseason Plan and Answer All Naysayers Before They Can Open Their Mouths

Sure, we’ll take a stab at this…

Format: 8 Teams. Single-elimination tournament. The existing College Football Playoff Committee will seed the teams…1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc.  

Who’s In?: Conference Champions from the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12. One Group of 5/Independent representative – chosen by the committee. Two At-Large bids – chosen by the committee. At-Large teams CANNOT be seeded higher than No. 5.  

When: Entire college football calendar gets moved back one week. Conference championship games take place the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Playoff quarterfinals begin two weeks later — second Saturday of December. Semis and National Championship remain Jan. 1 and the second Monday of January. 

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An occasional glance through recent NFL Drafts can serve as a cautionary tale to football-crazed high school prospects or even major-college players. Even those who wind up signing million-dollar contracts are likely to be out of the league in three years. Pro Bowlers can come from Round 1 or Round 5, and for every player who left school early, became an early-round pick and then faded into oblivion, there are a dozen other players who left school early and never had their names called at all.

 Those same glances, though, can also tell you a lot about college programs – which are producing the most talent, which are producing wins without a lot of talent or producing a lot of talent without a lot of wins. There is a lot more to sustained success than how many players a program sends to the NFL, but it sure doesn’t hurt, and it sure doesn’t hurt your recruiting, either.

Penn State has sent a more-than-respectable number of players to the NFL ranks during James Franklin’s seven-year tenure. In the last six drafts, 26 Nittany Lions have been selected, all but nine of those recruited by Franklin and his staff. That list includes two of the league’s best running backs (Saquon Barkley and Miles Sanders) and a Pro Bowl wide receiver (Chris Godwin). Perhaps more impressively, all but three of those 26 players are currently on an NFL roster.

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Why What Seems Like a Foregone Conclusion Isn’t Necessarily a No-Brainer Decision

General consensus is Penn State Defensive End Jayson Oweh is a goner.

In fact, there’s a high probability that by the time you actually read this Oweh will have Notes App’d his goodbye to Penn State using standard Early Declaration Bingo Card buzz-phrases like “difficult decision”, “after praying on it”, “thank my coaches”, and “Nittany Nation.”

Therefore, we’re not predicting whether or not Oweh WILL take his talents to Sundays and play for a paycheck next September, rather we’re analyzing if he SHOULD. 

A genetic lottery winner blessed with unique length and uncanny speed for a 250-pounder, Oweh entered the abbreviated 2020 season with zero career starts and a ton of questions to answer…namely, are we sure he can play football?

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Once Again, Brent Pry’s Bunch Showed Up Fashionably Late on Saturday, but When They Did Finally Arrive the Party Ended Quickly for the Fighting Illini. 

FTB CHARTING – BOX SCORE  

Saying the 2020 Penn State Defense is susceptible to “Slow Starts” is the equivalent of saying Santa Claus is susceptible to early onset diabetes. 

Technically, both statements are accurate…but grossly understated. 

As Joe Juliano of The Philadelphia Inquirer noted in his Monday Season-Wrap story 166 of the 241 points the Nittany Lions allowed this season were surrendered in the first half.  That’s 69 percent! 

Niiic…wait, that’s not nice. That’s pathetic! 

The Illinois game perfectly exemplified Penn State’s 2020 early-game ineptitude. In the first 18 plays, what was left of the Fighting Illini compiled 198 yards on offense, scored 3 touchdowns and pulled off a hyper-sexualized end zone dance Robert Smith couldn’t stop referencing. But over the course of the next 42 plays, Penn State held Illinois to 75 total yards, forced seven 3-and-Outs, never let the Lovie-less lads run a play inside The Nits’ 30, and most importantly didn’t get SERVED, yo!  

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