Sunday Column: Nittany Lions Show More Glimpses of Improvement, Reminders of Why They’ve Needed to Improve

Alabama played Florida for the SEC championship on Saturday night. Earlier, Ohio State battled Northwestern for the Big Ten crown and Clemson faced Notre Dame for the ACC title.

Penn State also played Saturday, but the Nittany Lions’ “Champions Week” matchup against a severely undermanned Illinois team was ironic, to say the least.

In one sense, the afternoon was a reminder of what went wrong for the Nittany Lions in this whirlwind season – a team that had entered 2020 with a lot of stars and a lot of promise finishing its season against another five-loss team in a game that, unlike the other three mentioned above, had no playoff implications but had the (checks notes) Duke’s Mayo Bowl Twitter account humming.

In another sense, it was a great opportunity to assess just how far away Penn State might be from playing on this particular Saturday, in a meaningful way, a year from now.

Yes, the Nittany Lions once again filled the stat sheet against the Illini, as they had for much of the season but especially during the recent three-game winning streak. Yes, they made explosive plays in all three phases, and controlled both lines of scrimmage. Yes, some of the younger players who had flashed earlier in the season (Brenton Strange, Brandon Smith, Keaton Ellis) showed continued progress, while veteran Jahan Dotson added to his ever-expanding highlight reel. It was hard to find too much fault in any of the three phases.

The opponent, as always, must be considered. The Fighting Illini came to State College without their head coach, who was fired on Sunday and, as their new coach (who hadn’t even been formally announced yet) watched from the sideline, took the field missing more than a dozen starters and with only 51 scholarship players. And this was a unit that, at full strength, had won two of seven games and lost the other five by an average of nearly 21 points.

Even considering all of the injuries that have befallen Penn State this season, the talent disparity was significant. The Nittany Lions should have dominated, and they did. It was also a performance far more consistent with that of the last three weeks as opposed to the first five. 

Which leads us back to two interrelated and uncomfortable questions: 

1. Where was this sort of football earlier in the season?
2. Is it the type of football that could have worked – or might someday soon work – on a true championship stage?

The first question can simply be answered, “The Nittany Lions weren’t ready to play in October.” Chalk some of that up to injuries, some to the tricky combination of new assistant coaches and a pandemic-ravaged practice schedule and a whole bunch to a brutal turnover ratio. Whatever the reason, Penn State was clearly not its best self from the Indiana game through the Iowa game. Whether or not we saw the absolute best after that is up for debate, but it was far more in line with those lofty preseason expectations.

The answer to the second question is … “No.” But it’s a qualified no. The skill positions, even with all the injuries, are stocked with rapidly developing talent. The offensive line, which has responded nicely after an inconsistent start, is developing young depth. The defense has allowed 17 points per game during the winning streak after allowing 36 points per game during the five-game losing streak, and has young talent at every level and every position.

However, the most important position on the field, quarterback, is still a major issue. Though Sean Clifford and Will Levis have both been solid during the last month – and have taken far better care of the football – they aren’t close to the level of the quarterbacks on the nation’s best teams and are keeping this offense from finding its next gear. As much as the defenders have flown to the ball, the tackling has been brutal pretty much all year. And the clock management issues that have plagued James Franklin since he arrived at Penn State were on display again on Saturday, even though they had no bearing on the outcome.

On Saturday night, Alabama simply imposed its offensive will against Florida and hung on for dear life at the defensive end. Earlier in the day, Clemson crushed the Irish in a rematch game and, with its NFL-bound quarterback battling a thumb injury, Ohio State shifted to the ground game and pulled out a win in its worst performance of the year. The best teams either make a way or find a way. Penn State spent far too much of this season simply trying to get out of its own way. Do the Nittany Lions deserve credit for ending this disaster year on a higher note, especially with how many times they had to go with the “next man up?” Of course. A month ago, it didn’t seem like things could have gotten worse, but they absolutely could have, and they didn’t.

But when you consider the talent and the resources this program has, the lofty expectations the players and coaches set for themselves, and then you see, during these last few weeks, the way this team was capable of playing, even with a relatively shorthanded roster, you realize that 0-5 should have never happened. And the fact that it did makes it a lot harder to look at what should be a stronger Penn State team next season and predict that, even with major improvement at quarterback and another offseason for the players and the new assistants to get in synch, the Nittany Lions will be ready to take that next step.

As this season went on, Penn State was able to quiet most of its self-destructive tendencies. That’s a big part of getting where it wants to be, or even back to where it should have been. But, even on a day when the outcome was rarely in doubt, a quick glance around the country revealed that a lot more work remains.