Blue White Illustrated

challenges to overcome as he looks to lay the foundation – challenges that will likely be on view in the Blue-White Game. This is a team that lost its most electrifying playmaker, its leading tack- ler, its best defensive lineman and four members of its starting offensive line. It will have to find replacements for those players from a talent pool that has been eroded by the NCAA sanctions. At a number of key positions, its personnel situation is as tenuous as it's been at any point since the NCAA imposed its sanc- tions in 2012. The scholarship reduc- tions that were put in place that year have resulted in significant scholarship losses the past two recruiting cycles, and while the revised consent decree brought some welcome relief when it was put in place last September, the damage to Penn State's depth chart has already been done. Bill O'Brien didn't like to talk about the impact of the scholarship reductions during his two seasons at Penn State, preferring instead to steer the conversa- tion in a more positive direction. But he was also a realist. He may not have pointed to the NCAA when the on-field results were bad, but that was because it would have been unseemly for him to make excuses publicly. Behind the scenes, no one knew better than he did just how badly the sanctions had hurt the program. O'Brien's predecessor had the opposite problem. More often than not, Joe Pa- terno's Nittany Lions were assumed to be championship contenders going into the season, and he felt that his job was to tamp down runaway expectations. He was very good at doing that. Franklin's approach has been to accen- tuate the positive, just as O'Brien did. But he's a much more effusive guy than O'Brien was, so even when he touches on a major concern, like the ominous lack of depth on this year's offensive line, it tends to seem like a footnote in a broader, more upbeat narrative. It's easy to find yourself seduced by that kind of ambitious talk, in part be- cause most of the news Penn State has been making lately has been positive. Even on the weekend that it was learned that fifth-year senior guard Miles Dief- fenbach would most likely miss the sea- son with a torn ACL – a devastating blow for a line that was much too thin even before he went down – the Nittany Lions got some very good news with the commitments of Steven Gonzalez and Josh Barajas. The former is a four-star offensive lineman, the latter a four-star linebacker. This is a trend the Lions could get used to. But that recruiting success doesn't help Penn State in the near term. Fol- lowing Dieffenbach's injury, the Nittany Lions' outlook is cloudy. Can this team still produce a winning season? You'd like to think so. It opens against a UCF squad that must replace its two biggest stars, quarterback Blake Bortles and running back Storm Johnson. Its re- maining nonconference games are against Akron, Massachusetts and Tem- ple, all at home. Its first two Big Ten games are against Rutgers and North- western, and whatever its personnel shortcomings, it at least has a shot at defeating Maryland at home and Illinois on the road. But Michigan is a different kind of challenge, and it's probably un- wise to dwell on what Ohio State and Michigan State could do when they visit Beaver Stadium. Given all the personnel issues he's dealing with, a winning season would be a huge success for Franklin, just as it was for O'Brien last year. The Lions are look- ing shaky in some critical areas, and for all his relentless positivity, Franklin ac- knowledged that reality when he spoke briefly to the media following the team's March 29 practice. He talked about depth problems, about offensive con- cerns, about having to play true fresh- men right away at key positions. It was a sobering moment, and there will no doubt be more to come once the season gets under way. But this is not a quick fix. It's a long- term project. And if things keep going the way they've been going in recent months, there will come a time when no one is going to want a piece of this pro- gram. ■ www.AmericanAleHouse.net 821 Cricklewood Drive, Toftrees State College n£{°ÓÎn°£{äÈÊUÊÜÜÜ°Ìi«ÞÀÃÌ°V £££Ê°Ê i>ÛiÀÊÛiÕiÊUÊ-Ì>ÌiÊ i}i]Ê* Now in 2 Locations Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê

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