Blue White Illustrated

F or the :rst two years of James Franklin's tenure at Penn State, the Nittany Lions' balance of power did- n't change much. The Lions were strong on defense and underpowered on of- fense and needed to play low-scoring slugfests in order to rack up wins. But coming out of the team's most re- cent spring practice sessions, that dy- namic appears to be changing. On o;ense, Penn State was looking to revamp a unit that continued to struggle badly in 2015. Even with veteran quarter- back Christian Hackenberg joined by standout freshman running back Saquon Barkley and two of the top wideouts in the Big Ten in Chris Godwin and Dae- Sean Hamilton, Penn State ranked last in the conference with averages of only 348.4 yards and 23.2 points per game. Those numbers made change in- evitable. At the start of the o;-season, the Lions welcomed a new o;ensive co- ordinator in Joe Moorhead and a new of- fensive line coach in Matt Limegrover. Their task was to help reshape the of- fense using the no-huddle spread sys- tem that Moorhead had masterminded as head coach at Fordham. During the two seasons that predated their arrival, the talent didn't :t the o;ensive system Penn State was forced to run. The NCAA sanctions had eroded the Lions' depth, particularly on the o;ensive line, to the point that not even Hackenberg, Barkley and an array of promising young skill players could li< the team out of its dol- drums. But those problems are beginning to abate as the impact of the sanctions fades. Although the o;ensive line is still a work in progress, there is competition at every position, and to help speed the unit's de- velopment, Limegrover has instituted a much simpler zone blocking o;ensive scheme. "We have base [blocking] rules for plays and, no matter what the defense does, we're not going to change the rules for that play," senior right tackle Paris Palmer said. "Last year we had a lot of checks. If this happens, then we have to change it to this and this and that. Now it's such a fast pace that there is not really a lot of thinking that needs to be done at the line of scrimmage." Scheme really is almost as important as talent. The scheme has to match the players' abilities. I believe Moorhead's o;ense will do just that by blending West Coast passing concepts with a power running game, and I fully expect to see improved o;ensive productivity this fall. While I'm not going to predict that Moorhead will transform the Nittany Li- ons overnight, I am convinced we will see a dramatic improvement at the line of scrimmage, and I've also come to real- ize that Penn State has some of the most talented skill players in the Big Ten. The situation on defense is di;erent. Considering that Penn State has had :ve defensive coordinators since 2011, most analysts would likely tell you that this unit has surpassed expectations in re- cent years. For the most part, it's been remarkable how e;ectively Penn State has weathered the tumult, especially given the limitations it's been under due to the lingering e;ects of the sanctions. This coming fall, Penn State will have close to its full complement of 85 schol- arship players, but new defensive coordi- nator Brent Pry might be facing a bigger rebuilding job than anything his imme- diate predecessor, Bob Shoop, confront- ed in his two seasons in University Park. Not only must the coaching sta; :nd re- placements for standout defensive line- men Austin Johnson, Anthony Zettel and Carl Nassib, it must also deal with major depth concerns at linebacker, where sen- iors Nyeem Wartman-White and Bran- don Bell are both coming o; injuries that kept them out of spring practice. The only area on defense where Penn State enters the upcoming season with a combination of depth and experience is the secondary. Safeties Marcus Allen and Malik Golden and cornerbacks Grant Ha- ley and John Reid all have starting experi- ence. In addition, backups Troy Apke, Christian Campbell, Amani Oruwariye and Koa Farmer have seen playing time, and talented redshirt freshmen Garrett Taylor and Ayron Monroe are getting set to make their debuts. Let's check out the storylines that emerged on o;ense and defense during spring practice: QUARTERBACK SPRING STORYLINE For me, the biggest story here is how quickly Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens picked up Moorhead's o;ensive system. Even when you take into account that the Blue-White Game is an inherent mis- match, with prospective :rst-teamers taking on second-teamers, McSorley's numbers were very impressive. He com- pleted 18 of 19 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns in the :rst half alone and :nished the game with 23 comple- tions in 27 attempts for 281 yards and four TDs, with just one interception. That performance had to excite both Moorhead and Franklin. In addition, Stevens looked good when he had the opportunity to run the :rst- team o;ense in the fourth quarter, com- pleting all three of his pass attempts for 52 yards in leading the Blue squad on a :ve-play, 84-yard touchdown drive. Both McSorley and Stevens have the Breaking down the major storylines of Penn State's busy off-season PHIL'S CORNER

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