Despite Earning High Honors From Several Reputable Sources, Penn State’s Returning Safety Must Find More Ways to Change Games and Make Plays in 2021

Close your eyes. 

No, seriously close them. Promise we’re not going to do any weird stuff. Trust us, we outgrew the Sharpie-on-the-face/fingers-in-warm-water sophomoric prank phase months ago…alright, fine, weeks ago. Point is we outgrew it.  

Just close your eyes. OK, are they closed? You sure? Liar. You can’t read with closed eyes. Our bad, though. Hmmm, guess we didn’t really think this exercise through.

Anyway, what we tried (and failed) to get you to do was envision certain Penn State players’ signature moments from 2020. Like, if we said Jahan Dotson, many would probably replay his sweet one-handed grab/stab over Ohio State’s Shaun Wade…or perhaps you’d pick his punt return TD vs. Sparty…or maybe the two short tosses Dotson turned into 6 points in the season finale.  

Penn State defensive end Shaka Toney had his man-possessed two-sack flurry on what SHOULD have been Indiana’s final drive. That’s his moment. Redshirt freshman tight end Brenton Strange pulled off that cool Superman/grass in the facemask TD. Sean Clifford has a healthy mix of moments – good and bad.  

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Probably the Most ‘NFL Ready’ Among Those Who Pushed Going Pro Back a Year, the Penn State Junior OT Could Have the Chance to Shake the Commissioner’s Hand in April 2022 

For Rasheed Walker, it’s 1st Round or Bust.

Not “Bust” in the sense that if he doesn’t hear Roger Goodell call his name on Day 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft he’s a bum or something, but rather “Bust” in the context that of the 4 Penn State returnees, Walker is the player with a clearly-defined financial objective this fall. So anything less than coming off the board in the first 32 picks would be a disappointment. 

Because, really, Walker was the ONLY Penn State draft-eligible player posed with a truly difficult stay-or-go decision – bail early and likely get selected in the 3rd Round (maaaaybe late 2nd), or press pause on the pros and chase the very REAL possibility of being the first Nittany Lions O-lineman to go in the 1st Round since 2007?

Not an easy choice…which explains why Walker waited so long to announce his intentions. 

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“Control freak” isn’t the nicest term to describe college football coaches, partly because half of that term is the word “freak” and partly because it paints the picture of a person who simply cannot have enough control, as if it is a commodity rather than a hard-to-define, relative construct, particularly as it pertains to several dozen giant young men beating the hell out of each other for three hours on 12-14 Saturdays each year.

So let us, then, refer to them instead as “organizational enthusiasts,” which is basically the same idea but suggests that the coaches are more about keeping order and consistency and less about being tyrants.

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Oh look! It’s a Duke Defender Capable of Shutting Down Offenses Without Slapping The Floor First. How Refreshing.

As your phonetics/pronunciation Blog of Record, let’s clear up any confusion: it’s Tangelo like Michelangelo – say it fast, don’t pause –not Tangelo as in Pauly D’s favorite pastime/goopy dessert.

For those of you who are better auditory learners vs. visual learners, go to Duke’s official 2020 roster, scroll down, and click the little ear icon. Got it? Cool.

So now that we’ve moved beyond how to properly say his name, why don’t we figure out what to make of this under-the-radar high school recruit turned productive Power 5 starting defensive tackle. To do that, we scouted the 2020 Duke-Syracuse game (Tangelo’s best game according to PFF) and the 2020 Duke-Notre Dame opener (Tangelo’s lowest-graded game according to PFF).

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Early January is usually a time of breath-holding for college football coaches and fans, as they wait to learn whether some of their top players are going to return or leave school early to pursue NFL dreams. This month was no different for Penn State coaches and fans, but resulted mostly in long, satisfied exhales.

Four Nittany Lions who are likely to play significant roles in 2021 — Jahan Dotson, Rasheed Walker, Tariq Castro-Fields, Jaquan Brisker – recently announced their decisions to return, which was not only likely wise for each of those respective players but, in each case, will also make things easier for their other returning teammates during what will be a pivotal year in State College.

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With TCF Sticking Around, Cornerback Isn’t a Position of Need for the Nittany Lions, but the South Carolina Transfer Possesses Traits That Can’t Be Ignored

John(ny) Dixon – I’ve seen fluctuating accounts of what he likes to be called, John or Johnny, so he’ll forever be John(ny) on this blog – is the answer to a question we no longer have to ask.

Who’s going to take over/provide depth when Tariq Castro-Fields leaves for the NFL?

Dixon, the sophomore corner from Tampa, entered the Transfer Portal two days before Christmas – part of the mass exodus of Gamecocks after the 2020 season mercifully ended – and picked Penn State (a program that recruited him out of high school) presumably expecting TCF’s departure would free up an opportunity for immediate playing time. 

But that didn’t happen.

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In a move that was more shocking than The Red Wedding, Penn State has another new Offensive Coordinator. Today, we analyze what to expect from Mike Yurcich who (like yours truly) has been privileged with significant PSAC experience in his days.

Introduction

By now, you’ve probably watched the excellent video breakdown on fortheblogy.com on what to expect schematically from Coach Yurcich’s offense. If not, click back to the main page, scroll down and check it out. We’ll wait…

…OK, welcome back. Coach Nick does an amazing job with X’s and O’s, but when it comes to ABC’s we focus on numbers, statistical trends, and results. Today, while we’re all still in the honeymoon phase of this hire, let’s dig into what Yurcich did as an offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State and Texas – and compare those tenures to what Penn State’s previous OC’s accomplished.

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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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