Blue White Illustrated

E ver since Joe Moorhead was named Penn State's new o;ensive coordina- tor in December, there has been ris- ing excitement about the Nittany Lions' potential to move the ball more e<- ciently than they did the past two sea- sons. That excitement was palpable when the Lions opened spring practice last month, and it will no doubt be on display when the team wraps up its o;- season drills in the Blue-White Game. Given how badly Penn State struggled on o;ense in 2014 and '15, it's easy to understand why Moorhead has been greeted so warmly by Nittany Nation. There's simply no getting around it: The Lions were abysmal on that side of the ball in those two seasons. Christian Hackenberg was sacked 83 times, and in addition to the glaring pass-protection issues, the o;ense failed to run the ball with any consistency, 9nishing 12th in the Big Ten last year with an average of only 133.9 yards per game. Those disap- pointing numbers cost John Donovan his job as coordinator, leading to Moor- head's arrival a=er four seasons as head coach at Fordham. While the Lions were :oundering, Moorhead's o;ense at Fordham was us- ing a balanced, up-tempo attack to rewrite the school record book. In 2014 the Rams 9nished seventh in the Foot- ball Championship Subdivision in yards per play and third in yards per pass. Their high-energy attack averaged more than 36 points per game in 2014 and '15. It might seem tempting to compare Moorhead's o;ensive concept to the one that Bill O'Brien brought to Penn State in 2012. During O'Brien's two seasons as head coach, the Nittany Lions frequent- ly used an up-tempo attack that O'Brien dubbed his "NASCAR" o;ense. But it would be a mistake to assume that the Lions will simply be picking up where they le= o; under their previous head coach. The only connection between the two schemes is that they both rely on setting a fast pace. In other respects, there are signi9cant di;erences. Here is how Ian Boyd of SBNation.com broke down Moorhead's o;ensive phi- losophy: "In many ways it's similar to what Alabama has been running under Lane Ki

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