Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1472993
1 8 A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Seeking a return to Big Ten title contention this fall, Penn State wants to move the sticks with more frequency than it did in 2021 W hen James Franklin was asked following the Blue-White Game in late April to name his biggest concern heading into the last four months of the offseason, the first point he raised was that Penn State still needed to find a punter. "After losing maybe the best special- ist in the country, that's a big question," said the Nittany Lions' ninth-year head coach. Well, sure. Jordan Stout was Big Ten Punter of the Year and one of only four punters to be selected in the NFL Draft, going in the fourth round to the Balti- more Ravens. He will be missed. Still, no matter who replaces Stout, whether it's true freshman Alex Bac- chetta or one of the returning walk-on contenders, an even more pressing con- cern heading into the 2022 season is to keep that person a little less busy than Stout was a year ago. While the Nittany Lions prepare for their 2022 season, the most urgent item on their to-do list is to improve an of- fense that finished ninth in the Big Ten in scoring with an average of 25 points per game. To do that, they must improve a running game that ranked among the worst in the country, averaging 107.8 yards per game to finish 13th in the con- ference and 118th in the FBS. Franklin has acknowledged those dif- ficulties throughout the offseason. The offensive line hasn't fulfilled his pre- season hopes the past few years. In his news conference after the spring game, he wondered aloud whether this year will be different. "Can we take a step where, when you guys ask about the offensive line, I say something and then we back it up?" Franklin asked. "That's been a question." There's plenty of urgency this season because Penn State is coming off a two- year stretch in which it went 11-11. There were mitigating factors in both of those seasons, factors like the stringent CO- VID protocols that PSU put in place in 2020 that disrupted the team's practice routines, and the injury to starting quar- terback Sean Clifford last year that tor- pedoed the Nittany Lions' Big Ten title hopes at midseason. But college football is a results-ori- ented business, and a .500 record over a two-year span isn't going to sit well with anyone in the Penn State com- munity, inside or outside of the Lasch Building. The Lions are putting together the kind of recruiting classes that can change the program's trajectory in time. The re- cently arrived 2022 class finished No. 7 in the On3 Consensus Team Rankings, and the 2023 class was ranked eighth as of early July. But while some of those players are all but certain to make an early impact — we're looking at you, running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen — the immediate challenge is for a group con- sisting mostly of returnees to change the narrative this fall. For Penn State, the future is now. ■ Getting set for his ninth season as Penn State's head coach, James Franklin has compiled a 67-34 record with the Nittany Lions and a 42-28 mark in Big Ten play. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M CHAIN REACTION