Blue White Illustrated

upset of the second-ranked Buckeyes. In that game, the Lions put together 13 of- fensive plays that could be defined as chunk plays. Those plays yielded 285 yards, which was more yardage than Penn State actually gained in the game; once the negative-yardage plays were subtracted, the team finished with 276 yards. The attacking mentality of first-year offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead has contrasted sharply with Penn State's life- less production the previous two sea- sons. Introducing Moorhead's new offense this season, the Nittany Lions are running about the same number of plays per game as they did in 2015 (67.0 vs. 66.7) but are much more adept at scoring. Saying that he has been "pleased but not satisfied" with the progress that has been made in the development of the offense, Moor- head has repeatedly stressed the impor- tance of explosive plays to the group's success. In doing so, he has emphasized Barkley's effect on opponents. Defenses have had to stack the box, a practice that helps them deal with Barkley but opens up avenues between McSorley and the team's talent on the perimeter. No matter who is getting the ball, the unit has been racking up big gains, and in the process proving Moorhead's con- tention that explosive plays are crucial to any offense's success. "I can't cite the statistical studies, but there has been a lot of data that suggests that one of the major components in win- ning and losing football games is explo- sive play margin and turnover margin," Moorhead said. "Generally speaking, if you can win those two areas, you're going to give yourself a tremendous amount of opportunity to win the game." Barkley, emerging into the conversation for the Heisman Trophy with his per- formances throughout the team's string of wins, has been a big component of the Nittany Lions' explosiveness. The sophomore running back has been responsible for 33 carries of 10 or more yards and has also played a significant role in the offense's success moving the ball through the air. With 10 chunk plays as a head coach. Coach Franklin's em- phasis on it, working on it on a daily basis – ball high and tight, all the things we do in our ball security circuit and then really emphasizing the quarter- back's decision making as part of the ball security process. Not just fumbling the ball and putting it on the ground, but not turning it over through the air. ON BEING AN OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR Coming back to being an offensive coor- dinator and not having to worry about the head coaching responsibilities has really allowed me to narrow my focus and concentrate specifically on, with the other assistant coaches, designing a game plan that's going to put our kids in the position to be successful, creating a culture on the offensive side of the ball – discipline, work ethic, accountability, attention to detail – because I think those things are just as important as the X's-and-O's part. ON BARKLEY'S HEISMAN TROPHY CRE- DENTIALS You look at some of the things he does on the field, either running the ball or catching it. He does things that are special. Obviously, the past few games his production has ramped up and hopefully he continues on that trend. Saquon is a unique talent, a spe- cial football player who has those kind of tools. His ceiling is extremely high. The best thing about that is that his work ethic and his character match his play- ing ability, so when you combine all of those things – tremendous athlete, great football player, great person, great work ethic – I think the sky's the limit for him. ON THE OFFENSE'S OVERALL IMPROVE- MENT THROUGHOUT THE SEASON I think it's the kids settling in and under- standing what we're doing and why it pertains to doing it in a game. Toward game four, we made a little bit more of a conscious decision, where Coach Franklin and I had this discussion about getting Trace more involved in the run game. There are times when you go through spring ball and through fall camp and you've been in another place and things have worked there and you have an idea that it might fit and work in your system. There were some things we were doing in the run game in the first four games that we were getting production out of, but not nec- essarily what we had anticipated. There are things within our offensive system that we didn't quit doing, but we emphasized other things. Once we made Trace more of a threat in the run game, I think that opened things up for Saquon. ON BACKUP QUARTERBACKS JAKE ZEM- BIEC AND TOMMY STEVENS Both of those guys are coming along nicely. Tommy has had an opportunity to get in a cou- ple of games, and he is definitely a very good athlete with a strong arm, great skill set. He gets all the reps with the [second team] and does a good job stay- ing locked in and mentally prepared. You're one play away [from getting into a game], and it's the next-man-in phi- losophy, so I have the utmost confi- dence in Tommy to go in the game and perform well. Jake works mostly down with the scout team. I get him mostly during the individual periods. I've had him up a little bit. One week he got a few reps with the non-scout team, and both of those guys bring a lot to the table. I've worked a lot more with Tommy be- cause he's up with the ones and the twos, but both of those guys have done a good job this season, especially with the mental part of it.

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