SUNDAY COLUMN: Five Ways for Penn State To Do a Little Spring Cleaning

Signing Day has come and gone. Spring practice is still two weeks away. In some ways, it’s the slow season for Penn State football, but in others, there is no time of year that isn’t important. Right now, coaches and players are compiling and checking things off various lists – lists of exercises to complete in the weight room for the players, lists of practices to schedule and of recruits to woo for the coaches.

Writers, of course, love lists. And while there’s still a long way to go before we have a true semblance of a two-deep, it’s never too early to type out a list of a few areas that could be scale-tippers for a team that was all-too-often on the razor’s edge between wins and losses in 2021.

All Hands (and feet) On Deck Up Front

Arnold Ebiketie showed out at a big way at the NFL Combine this week, and while the Temple transfer’s dynamic burst from the edge, and the playmaking of DE/LB hybrid Jesse Luketa and DT Derrick Tangelo, will be tough to replace, Penn State’s defensive line could be a much-improved unit in 2022 if it has every returning player available.

Adisa Isaac, who seemed poised for a breakout in 2021 before a preseason injury, seems to be on track for a return this fall, and Hakeem Beamon, who did not see game action last season for yet-to-be-announced reasons, should be, too. And it’s easy to forget how much Penn State’s interior production dropped off after P.J. Mustipher exited the Iowa game with an injury in early October.

We haven’t even mentioned incoming freshman stud Dani Dennis-Sutton or breakout candidates like Zuriah Fisher or Smith Vilbert. But if the three veterans above are back at full strength, at least, the Nittany Lions’ front four could be a big problem for opponents.

Big Splash Playmakers

The Nittany Lions have known quantities in Parker Washington, Keyvone Lee and, yes, Sean Clifford. If they can get a breakout season from at least one offensive skill player capable of flipping the field, as Jahan Dotson, Miles Sanders, K.J. Hamler, Chris Godwin and Saquon Barkley have done in recent seasons, the offense will have a chance to put up the kind of tasty numbers Mike Yurcich was known for, as opposed to the type of nauseating numbers it put up last season.

The key candidates here are transfer wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley and freshman running back Nicholas Singleton. The former averaged 16 yards per catch and had 14 touchdowns for Western Kentucky last season (Penn State’s wide receivers not named Dotson had eight touchdown catches in 2021), and had three receptions of at least 60 yards.

Singleton, last seen hoisting the sort of weight reserved for linemen or Barkleys will likely be fed a steady diet of touches at some point in the near future. If he shows the coaches that he has a firm handle on the playbook, is proficient in pass protection and ball security and lets the game come to him, that future could be this season. Penn State hasn’t had a game-breaker in the backfield since Sanders, and one would be even more welcome if the offensive line isn’t able to make significant strides from last season. This could be an important spring for him.

Tightened Up Tight Ends

The Nittany Lions have impressive size and athleticism in the tight end room. What they didn’t have enough of in 2021 was on-field production from that group in terms of both receptions and blocking. Most of Penn State’s targets will likely flow through Washington, Tinsley, and KeAndre Lambert-Smith, but improved play from Brenton Strange, Theo Johnson and/or any newcomers will be an underrated storyline in 2022.

Tightened Up Kicking Game

Penn State’s field-goal kicking was good last season except for the handful of occasions where it truly needed to be. Jordan Stout, while outstanding as a punter and kickoff guy, was up-and-down in his only season as the primary field-goal specialist, missing seven of 23 kicks, including a pair from inside 30 yards. The Nittany Lions have invested relatively heavily in the position in recent seasons, and big-legged redshirt freshman Sander Sahaydak will look to push veteran Jake Pinegar. If one or both can be more consistent than Stout was, James Franklin might not be as, um, sporadic on fourth downs inside the red zone, which leads us to …

Fourth Down Button-Pushing

By and large, head coaches probably receive too much blame and credit for fourth-down decisions. Every call can look genius if it’s executed correctly, or idiotic if the execution falters. Franklin’s aggressive approach, no doubt influenced by Stout’s inconsistency and the utter inability of his offense to convert third-and-shorts, misfired more often than it succeeded last year, costing Penn State key scoring opportunities in numerous close losses. The Nittany Lions’ special teams units got points for creativity on some of those doomed fakes, but they’d be better served moving forward by kicking the damned field goal or sneaking the damned QB sneak.

The factors that will determine most of this team’s outcomes in 2022 remain the same – turnover margin, the level of consistency by the quarterback and the offensive line, and the ability to avoid penalties or other unforced errors. But better results in the above areas will make the margin of error wider for a team that had very little margin the last two seasons.