Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/703041
is communicating to them. For everyone else, it's from a signal. So there aren't a ton of run plays, there aren't a tremendous number of pass concepts, but I think there are enough variations in those things we do to make it seem like we're doing more than we actually are. Window dressing is a lot of what people refer to it as. BWI Is it fair to say the broader con- cept is a simplification and that's why it moves as quickly as it does? MOORHEAD Yeah, I believe so. At Akron and at UConn we ran a version of this system, but the true foundation of what you're seeing here we ran at Ford- ham and we were very judicious in our approach. We said, "This is what we want to do, this is how we want to do it, this is how we want to use the wording." I think it allows the kids to play fast and play physical and it allows them to play with confidence. You do those three things and you'll give them the opportu- nity to do something special. BWI And as the months go by, it just expands into a system… MOORHEAD Actually, it's funny. As we sit down and meet with the players, you always have to take a step back and remember that you're judging them off of their first spring in the system as op- posed to year five, like we were at Ford- ham. You think back to that first spring at Fordham and you say, "Where were these guys at from a learning and execu- tion standpoint? What's the next step in their progression?" The things we were doing in year four there we won't neces- sarily do here, but you've got to give these coaches credit and these kids credit for doing a phenomenal job of picking it up. They really hit the ground running throughout spring. There weren't many days we took a step back, and there were a lot of steps forward. BWI Does it require a little patience on your part? MOORHEAD I'm patient by nature, but I would say patience to a point. The big things we don't want to see are error repeaters. You can understand it the first time, you can tolerate it the second time, but the third, fourth or fifth time, if it gets to that, then it's either a problem with the teaching of it or a problem with their understanding of it and you've to got to find out where the disconnect is and work to fix it. BWI What's the Barkley effect? MOORHEAD Hopefully the same as the [Chase] Edmonds effect. You can go back to Jordan Todman, Andre Dixon, Dennis Kennedy – we've had great suc- cess with running backs in the system. Saquon is a unique talent obviously in size, speed, power, elusiveness, the abil- ity to tackle and pass protect, eagerness to improve himself physically and from an understanding standpoint. He's a phenomenal talent. He's a guy who I think can really flourish in our offense. BWI The offensive line has had some challenges. Will Barkley and the wide- outs be able to alleviate some of those difficulties? It seemed like all the of- fense could do for James Franklin's first year was pass the ball, and Christian Hackenberg got murdered for it. MOORHEAD Nothing that we're doing in our approach is designed to alleviate the pressure or take stress off of our of- fensive line. We're going to view the of- fensive line as the strength of our unit. On the great offenses that I've been around, the mentality has been dictated by the offensive line. So we're not look- ing for any of our skill positions to do anything to take the pressure off of our offensive line, because the offense is go- ing to run through them – through their abilities, through Coach Limegrover. He does a heck of a job of teaching them the fundamentals of technique, and our scheme has the ability to keep them suc- cessful. That's why I'm very excited about all the positions and the growth 2 0 1 6 P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L LETTERMEN RETURNING 15 C Brian Gaia, Wendy Laurent G Derek Dowrey, Brendan Mahon T Noah Beh, Andrew Nelson, Paris Palmer TE Mike Gesicki RB Mark Allen, Saquon Barkley WR Saeed Blacknall, Chris Godwin, DaeSean Hamilton, Brandon Polk, DeAndre Thompkins LETTERMEN LOST 10 G Kevin Reihner C Angelo Mangiro T Albert Hall QB Christian Hackenberg TE Kyle Carter, Brent Wilkerson RB Brandon Johnson, Akeel Lynch WR Geno Lewis, Matt Zanellato STARTERS RETURNING 8 >> Paris Palmer (11 starts in 2015), Brendan Mahon (11), Brian Gaia (13), Andrew Nelson (8), Mike Gesicki (8), Saquon Barkley (6), Chris Godwin (11), DaeSean Hamilton (12) OTHERS WITH STARTING EXPERIENCE 5 >> Derek Dowrey (6 career starts), Saeed Blacknall (4), Wendy Laurent (3), Brandon Polk (3), Mark Allen (1) STARTERS LOST 3 >> Angelo Mangiro (12), Christian Hackenberg (13), Brent Wilkerson (7) 2015 STATISTICS POINTS/GAME 23.2 (11th Big Ten; 101st FBS) YDS/GAME 348.4 (13th; 105th) RUSHING YDS/GAME 133.9 (12th; 105th) PASSING YDS/GAME 214.5 (9th; 74th) PASS-EFFICIENCY 124.6 (8th; 78th) FIRST DOWNS/GAME 16.5 (14th; 113th) 3RD-DOWN CONVERSION PCT. 27.6 (14th; 125th) >>