Sunday Column: Reinforcements at Key Positions Should Help Nittany Lions Level the Playing Field Against Their Chief Rivals

Recruiting is not fantasy football, where a coach can look at his roster, see which areas are lacking, and acquire new players who will be immediate upgrades at those specific positions. They have to recruit the best players in the class regardless of position, and while that doesn’t mean signing 12 scholarship linemen and six running backs in the same class, for example, rather than a group spread more evenly over several positions, it doesn’t mean they’re going to fill the positions of need in every cycle, either.

Sometimes, though, the best players wind up being the players a program needs the most, and a glance at the top of Penn State’s Class of 2023 hints that the Nittany Lions could very well have gotten much better at a few positions at which they’ve struggled for several years.

The two highest-ranked players in the class, both top 60 players nationally according to the On3 consensus rankings, are offensive linemen Jven Williams and Alex Birchmeier. Two of the next seven highest-ranked signees are linebackers Tony Rojas and Ta’Mere Robinson.

Neither position group has lived up to its respective expectations in recent years at Penn State. Linebacker U did have Micah Parsons terrorizing Big Ten backfields for a couple of seasons, but prior to Parsons being named to the all-conference first team in 2019, the last Penn State linebacker to make that list was Mike Hull in 2014. (Rising sophomore Abdul Carter might have something to say about that this autumn.)

Left tackle Olu Fashanu, whose decision to return for another season and turn down a potential first-round selection could have massive ramifications for the entire squad, could possibly end the offensive line’s first-team all-Big Ten drought, which goes back to 2013, when John Urschel made the squad.

Now, one elite offensive tackle does not an offensive line make, nor can one stud linebacker carry an entire defense (though Parsons came close), and Penn State has had quality starters at both position groups in recent years. But the point is that the Nittany Lions could use true difference-makers just behind their usually stout defensive lines, especially given the way Manny Diaz likes to send pressure, and would love to have a few maulers emerge alongside Fashanu or in 2024 and 2025, especially given the talent in their offensive backfield.

(If Drew Allar is able to break an even longer drought and become the first Penn State quarterback to make the all-Big Ten first team since Daryll Clark in 2009, the offense could be downright scary even with an average line.)

Outstanding offensive linemen and linebackers are desired by every college program, of course, but improved play at those spots could be particularly important for a Penn State team that, under James Franklin, has been damned good just about everywhere else. Terry Smith and Anthony Poindexter, using both homegrown talent and the transfer pool, have elevated the level of play in the secondary, while John Scott has been able to develop quality pass rushers at about the same impressive rate as predecessors Sean Spencer and Larry Johnson.

On offense, the wide receivers have seen a tremendous amount of turnover but also turned in a considerable amount of production during the last few seasons, and new position coach Marques Hagans has a track record of squeezing more out of his wideouts than their talent might suggest. The running back room is loaded, and the tight end group should be able to handle the loss of Brenton Strange fairly well, as the Nittany Lions have recruited the position as well as any team in the nation during the Franklin era.

That leaves quarterback, which is of course a story for another day (or five), but imagine Sean Clifford/Will Levis/anyone sitting in cleaner pockets against Michigan or Ohio State the last few seasons, and it’s not hard to envision the storylines of those games changing a bit.

The difference between the teams who end the season with trophies and those who end the season in a solid bowl game but counting the ‘what ifs’ in a couple of close losses is usually about a handful of plays. The teams with the best players wind up with the fewest ‘what ifs’ and, at the highest levels, the teams with the best players at the most positions, those with the fewest relative weaknesses, wind up with the fewest ‘what ifs’.

Penn State has been collecting elite talent for a while now—if the recruiting rankings aren’t evidence enough, the NFL Draft usually is. What the Nittany Lions haven’t been able to do is spread that talent evenly over the entire starting lineup and into their two-deep. Continued results on the recruiting trail and the transfer portal like they got in this cycle—plus the continued development that’s sent so many Penn Staters to the pros—will help Franklin and his team continue to eliminate the weaknesses that have separated the Nittany Lions from the programs they’ve been chasing.