Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541276
3 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M again, before the team started its pivot to a new plan — the Nittany Lions averaged 5.5 yards per carry on offense with no option tags. Considering that their rushing totals were compiled mainly against Nevada, Florida International and Villanova, that's not as impressive as it may look. The upshot is that Penn State's offen- sive line "regressed" due to the fact that its read-option advantage was dimin- ished. When you add in the injury that sidelined redshirt sophomore lineman Anthony Donkoh and the lack of progress from redshirt senior tackle Nolan Rucci, the Nittany Lions' output worsened over time. It's also important to note that Penn State's run game is the foundation of its passing game, which has had its own problems. Passing Concepts Regress Penn State's usage of vertical routes and downfield passing accounted for roughly 25 percent of Allar's dropbacks last sea- son — by far the largest chunk. That ap- proach changed this season. Before Allar suffered a season-ending injury against Northwestern on Oct. 11, downfield pass- ing was accounting for roughly 18 percent of his attempts. What's more, the results changed dra- matically. Allar completed just 45 percent of his attempts in the team's core offen- sive play calls. Those passing plays ac- counted for 387 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Compare that to his 64 percent com- pletion rate, 10.0-yard average per pass and 14 touchdowns on the same play-call family a year ago. The results are stagger- ingly bad. What led to this fall? Last year, Penn State targeted a tight end — almost al- ways Warren — on 31 isolation routes downfield. Those plays accounted for 364 yards and a whopping 11.7 yards per catch. This year? Penn State had 1 com- pletion for 11 yards and a pass breakup on 2 attempts. Allar had 245 yards and 12.3 yards per catch when targeting a tight end on the "all go," or "four verts," concept in 2024. This year, he completed only 4 of 8 for 77 yards. Penn State Has Been Playing Offense On Hard Mode The Penn State offense has had a major problem for most of the 2025 season. The Nittany Lions cannot stretch the field and take the pressure off their running game with the pass. The team tried in the nonconference season to put on film that it was serious about throw- ing deep to senior transfers Devonte Ross and Kyron Hudson. But it ended up doing just the opposite, confirming to opposing defensive coordinators that its downfield passing attack wasn't anything to worry about. There are many reasons why the Nittany Lions are struggling, but the inability to build an efficient, explosive offense around former starting quarterback Drew Allar is the primary culprit. Without a deep ball to back teams off, defenders have been free to flood underneath zones and attack the run game with extra bodies. In fact, Allar's season-ending injury can be traced directly to the Lions' inability to throw the football; he was injured on a third-and-2 scramble against Northwestern. Because Penn State lacks elite wide receivers, it needs to find a way to manufacture big plays. Interim head coach Terry Smith noted that "you can do it off of play action. You've got to get your run game going, but play action can work. Crossing routes, deep crossing routes, some of your track posts where you [run] play action like you're going to stalk-block, and then you run a post route in there. There are some creative ways. Obviously, you can get into your bag of tricks." Even as he was delivering it, Smith understood that his list lacked real solutions, play ac- tion notwithstanding. After rattling off all the ways to create passing yards through guile, he added a caveat. "That's a tough way to live," he said. A better way to live is to amass the kind of personnel who can run a more conventional passing attack that doesn't require so much trickery. "You really want to be able to have three receivers in the game and run great pass con- cepts," Smith said. This simple but highly effective truth is what Penn State has needed. There's just no sub- stitute for great passing concepts that get players open in the intermediate zones, allowing them to catch and run. Getting three receivers into the pass pattern isn't an aside, either. Adding more threats allows for better spacing and puts stress on zones. It won't be easy, but if Penn State is going to improve its passing attack in the season's final games, it will have to manage some version of this fix. — Thomas Frank Carr Interim coach Terry Smith has talked about finding creative ways to generate more passing yards, but he acknowledged that trickery only gets you so far. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL