Sunday Column: Where’s The Beef? Look No Further Than Penn State’s Latest Recruiting Efforts

Two things can be true of Penn State’s offensive line in 2021:

1. The line wasn’t as bad as you thought it was. Yes, this was statistically the worst Nittany Lion offense in – squints at notes, winces – seven years, and oh yes, the line played its part, but the blame for the lack of production must be shared, from the tight ends who whiffed on blocks to the head-scratching short-yardage play calls to the open receivers Sean Clifford missed badly.
2. The line was still pretty damned bad.

The good news is that – on paper on recruiting rankings lists, anyway – help is on the way.

Saturday’s commitment from Jven Williams made the pride of Wyomissing the fourth offensive lineman prospect to join Penn State’s Class of 2023, on the heels of the four more offensive linemen the Nittany Lions added in the Class of 2022. Williams (ranked 96^th overall in 2023), Alex Birchmeier (31 in 2023), and Drew Shelton (121 in 2022) are all ranked among the top 150 overall prospects in their respective classes per the 247Composite ratings (2022 lineman JB Nelson, who enrolled last month, was the No. 2 overall junior-college prospect).

That’s a pretty good up-front haul for most major programs, but for a Penn State group that had landed six top-150 offensive lineman prospects in its eight previous recruiting cycles under James Franklin, it’s either long overdue, potentially earth-shifting and quite possibly both.

It’s not that Franklin and his ever-rotating stable of offensive line coaches haven’t been trying to recruit elite offensive linemen. And it’s not that they haven’t landed some good ones – Michal Menet (28^th overall in 2016) was a three-year starter, and Rasheed Walker (65 in 2018) will probably be a late-day pick this April after declaring early for the draft, and Caedan Wallace (81 in 2019) should start again this fall, though many still wonder if the right tackle’s best position would actually be right guard.

It’s just that, well, there have been a lot more misses than hits, both in terms of linemen the Nittany Lions were able to get in the building and in terms of what they did once there. For every Menet and Walker there was a Sterling Jenkins or a C.J. Thorpe, blue-chippers who never quite lived up to expectations. To be sure, this phenomenon is not unique to offensive linemen nor to Penn State, but, as has been mentioned in this particular corner of the internet, and many, many others, offensive line play has consistently ranged from “just OK” to “ew” throughout Franklin’s tenure and, if we’re being honest, back through the O’Brien years and many of the later Paterno years.

Penn State’s offense, and the team in general, has been carried at different junctures by elite running backs, heady quarterbacks, and electric wide receivers. But when was the last time the line – not the odd All-Big Ten second-or-third-team player but the whole line – was really the engine of the offense?

It’s rare, particularly in the era of the transfer portal and get-to-the-league-as-fast-as-possible, for a starting five-man front to all come from the same class. But if you can start stacking multiple studs – not just starter-quality players, but potential pros – in consecutive classes, then throw in a quality transfer here and there, you can start cooking with gas.

And, as has been discussed previously the Nittany Lions have – um, pardon the meat-aphor – some choice cuts coming into the backfield in the forms of Drew Allar and Nicholas Singleton. They will only grill opposing defenses to the extent that their large friends up front will allow them to.

Maybe the eight offensive linemen in these next two classes will be major parts of the Penn State o-line that finally starts to chew through the softer fronts of the Big Ten and at least holds its own against the conference’s best. Maybe they’ll at least be a bridge between that sort of line and the lines we’ve been subjected to accustomed to seeing in recent seasons. Either way, in terms of the number of linemen in the class and the numbers in their recruiting rankings, Penn State seems to be placing a greater emphasis on recruiting a position group where a greater emphasis has been most needed. Or, if it’s the same emphasis that’s been applied all along, it’s finally figured out a way to get results.

At least on “paper.”