Sunday Column: Lack of Studs at Two Important Spots Holding Penn State Back

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.

 Look down that list, and you’ll see six defensive linemen (most likely eight when Jayson Oweh and Shaka Toney go off the board in a few months). You’ll see a pair of tight ends and what will be a triplet of them after Pat Freiermuth is picked. You’ll see seven defensive backs, and even a pair of quarterbacks.

What’s missing? Only the positions that defined the program’s most successful eras.

 Since 2015, Penn State has seen just ONE linebacker (Cam Brown) and TWO offensive linemen (Donovan Smith and Connor McGovern) selected in the draft. Smith, the 34th overall selection in 2015, was recruited by Joe Paterno’s staff and has enjoyed a solid if unspectacular six-year career with Tampa Bay. McGovern, a third-round pick by Dallas as a center in 2019, has started six games at guard on the Cowboys’ injury-ravaged line after missing the bulk of his rookie season with an injury of his own. Brown has eight tackles and a forced fumble in 13 games as a reserve for the New York Giants, who made him a sixth-round pick in April.

What most hampered Penn State during the 0-5 start this fall was inconsistent-to-disastrous quarterback play and a rash of injuries to its most dynamic players, not to mention the decision of the next Penn State linebacker who will be drafted, Micah Parsons, to opt out of what would have been his final college season anyway.

What has kept and is threatening to keep the Nittany Lions from making the next step on a perennial basis, though, is the lack of elite players along the offensive line and at what was once the program’s signature position, and the proof is in the draft pudding.

Smith and Stefen Wisniewski are the only Penn State offensive linemen to go in the first two rounds in the last decade. Levi Brown is the last to go in the first round – in 2007. By comparison, Alabama and Notre Dame have both had four offensive linemen picked in the first two rounds in the last five years alone, and Georgia’s had three.

The 2020 Penn State offensive line, under the direction of a new position coach in Phil Trautwein, ranked fairly low on the team’s lengthy list of issues during the early part of the season and was playing arguably its best football by year’s end. Michal Menet will likely hear his name called at some point during this spring’s draft, and young linemen Caedan Wallace and Juice Scruggs had quietly impressive campaigns. But the strength of the next few offensive lines will have to be in its ability to play as a unit; there is not and has not been a dominant player in that group for some time. Is 2021 four-star signee Landon Tengwall the man to change that?

Linebacker is a little trickier, since an increase in high-octane passing offenses has, to an extent, limited the role of the position in both numbers and importance to a defense over the years. And it should be noted that Parsons was not only the best player on Penn State’s defense the last time he took the field but one of the best at any position in the country. That said, the Nittany Lions’ overall inability to either recruit or develop talent at linebacker has been somewhat baffling. Current youngsters Brandon Smith, Lance Dixon and Curtis Jacobs could have something to say about that during the next few years, but all three need seasoning.

 Adding more firepower along the line and at linebacker – and developing it — will aid the Nittany Lions in recruiting future linemen and linebackers, but it is also the key to competing against the current rulers of the Big Ten. Ohio State’s defensive line typically makes what were presumably strong Penn State lines look porous, and its ability to wear down defenses with its equally talented offensive line, as seen in the conference title game against Northwestern, makes the Buckeyes dangerous even without a quarterback of Justin Fields’ caliber. Improving the offensive line gives Penn State’s offense a better chance against Larry Johnson’s group; adding more elite talent in the linebacking unit gives the defense a chance to make more of the game-changing, momentum-swinging plays that, even with Parsons in the fold, have largely been missing during the last few years.

It could be argued, not without merit, that five steady offensive linemen would serve the Nittany Lions, or any team, better than one or two elite linemen next to three mediocre teammates. The same goes for the linebacking crew. But when you put stars alongside steady players, the game changes. The holes get larger for the running backs. The quarterback has an extra second to throw. The opposing quarterback has to throw it a second earlier. Coaches have to adjust the way they call the game. These things didn’t happen for Penn State this year, even during the winning streak.

Penn State has had stars at several positions the last few seasons, and several young players hinted, even during this lost season, that they could become stars. Should a few of those stars start once again populating the two position groups that can make life easier for everyone else, the impact won’t only be noticeable at draft time.