Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/399784
some things like [make changes]," he said. "I don't think it's any di;erent than what we talked about before – just sticking with it. It's the footwork, it's the technique, it's hand placement, it's :n- ishing blocks. It's things like that." Given the team's personnel shortcom- ings, Franklin and o;ensive line coach Herb Hand don't have a lot of options available to them. The way their roster is constructed, their hands are tied. "We've got one scholarship o;ensive tackle in the senior, junior and sopho- more classes," Franklin said. "That's it. So you look up on the scholarship board – senior, junior, sophomore – there's one scholarship player, then the rest are freshmen. We've been able to stay healthy for the most part. We've just got to continue getting better and growing, but there's no doubt about it, that's kin- da where we're at." It's easy to :xate on the scholarship limits that the NCAA put in place in July 2012, citing them as the reason for Penn State's current struggles. They did in- deed have a devastating e;ect, and they impacted the o;ensive line harder than probably any other position group on the team. But that's not the whole story. Some of the Lions' current problems predate the NCAA's decision to impose massive scholarship penalties. In fact, they can be traced back to the last few years of the Paterno era. Penn State sim- ply did a poor job of identifying, recruit- ing, retaining and developing o;ensive linemen in the classes of 2010, '11 and '12. Of the o;ensive linemen the Nittany Lions recruited those three years, eight are no longer part of the program. The list includes guard Luke Graham, guard/tackle Khamrone Kolb, tackle Tom Ricketts, center Alex Mateas, tackle Anthony Stanko, guard Ryan Nowicki, guard/tackle Anthony Alosi and guard Tanner Hartman. When the NCAA levied its sanctions a little over two years ago, Penn State was limited in the number of linemen it could bring in. In its classes of 2012 and '13, it could recruit at most three line- men. That's why you see Nelson and Mahon forced into starting roles as red- shirt freshmen and why Gaia and Dowrey have been called upon to start games even though they only recently moved from defense to o;ense. The loss of so many o;ensive linemen from the past four recruiting classes, coupled with injuries to Die;enbach in the spring and Dowrey in preseason practice, and the move of Mangiro from his natural right guard position to cen- ter, has produced a shi=ing o;ensive line made up of inexperienced players, some of whom are playing out of posi- tion. Given those circumstances, it's not hard to understand why Penn State's running game has generated so little yardage this season. The big question now is whether the line can dramatically improve its per- formance in the second half of the sea- son, during which Penn State will face Ohio State (Oct. 25), Maryland (Nov. 1), Indiana (Nov. 8), Temple (Nov. 15), Illi- nois (Nov. 22) and Michigan State (Nov. 29). Will the Lions :eld a more formida- ble o;ensive front against those oppo- nents, or is this a long-term problem