Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482664
1 2 N O V E M B E R 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 The Lions' Most Glaring Need Is In The Middle Of Their Defensive Front RYAN SNYDER: I think most fans would point to the offensive line after the past couple of years, and I understand that argument. However, my rebuttal is that I genuinely believe they're doing that. True freshman Drew Shelton has earned strong praise since getting on campus, and when you add in the talent that is set to arrive in the Lions' next recruiting class — Alex Birchmeier and Jven Williams have both received four stars in the On3 Consensus — I genuinely believe that issue is being corrected. You'll see that position group improve in the coming years. To me, the bigger issue remains the de- fensive line, specifically the interior. Since James Franklin's first season in 2014, 44 players have been drafted into the NFL from Penn State. Of those players, only four of them played defensive tackle. When you dig deeper, three of those play- ers — DaQuan Jones, Anthony Zettel and Austin Johnson — were all recruited by former defensive line coach Larry John- son. Robert Windsor, who was a sixth- round selection in 2020, is the only inte- rior defensive line prospect to get drafted since. That says a lot. Elite defensive tackles aren't easy to land. There are only so many 6-foot- 5, 300-pound players who are athletic enough to make an impact at college foot- ball's highest level. What makes it even more difficult is that they're all going to the same schools nowadays: Georgia, Al- abama, Ohio State, you can name the rest. But the stats don't lie. In the five games Penn State lost last season, it allowed an average of 261 yards rushing. We all just watched the game against Michigan a few weeks ago. That problem hasn't been fixed. The entire front seven is at fault for that, but until Penn State adds some of the nation's most-coveted defensive tackle prospects, this will remain a key issue. The Offensive Line Holds The Key To Penn State's Future MATT HERB: I guess I'm one of those people who would point to the offen- sive line. It was the team's Achilles' heel when James Franklin arrived at Penn State, and it has continued to struggle intermittently even though the scholar- ship reductions that hindered the unit back in those early days are now a distant memory. When he was asked this past August whether he felt as though his offensive front had turned a corner, Franklin, wary after having oversold the line's progress in previous years, said that he would let PSU's performance speak for itself this fall. "I'm not going to sit here and pound the table about how this is the year," he said. "I'm going to take a more measured approach and let us prove that to you." This was a wise decision. While cer- tainly improved, Penn State hasn't made the kind of strides that many were hop- ing for. In their first three Big Ten games, the Nittany Lions averaged 143 rushing yards. Their longest carry by a running back against Purdue, Northwestern and Michigan was a 19-yarder by freshman Nicholas Singleton. The dynamism that Penn State dis- played against Ohio and Auburn was most welcome, but without the ability to generate big plays against the opponents that PSU must beat in order to realize its conference ambitions, it's only a partial step forward. That's not enough. As long as Ohio State exists, there's going to be at least one game on the Lions' schedule every year in which they will probably need to score in the 30s to have a chance at victory. A championship-level offensive line would go a long way toward assuring that PSU will have that capability. What's more, it would help solve prob- lems elsewhere on the field. The best way to camouflage any deficiencies in your defense is to keep it on the sideline. Point – Counterpoint Coach James Franklin's Nittany Lions struggled in the trenches at Michigan, rushing for 111 yards while surren- dering 418 yards on the ground to the Wolverines. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN At Which Position Group Does Penn State Most Need To Improve To Compete At A Championship Level?