Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> GREAT EXPECTATIONS T H E O F F E N S E Even after last year's scoring binge, Joe Moorhead sees the potential for growth A fter two low-scoring seasons, Penn State fielded one of the most en- tertaining offenses in the country last year, riding the spectacular play of Trace McSorley, Saquon Barkley, Mike Gesicki and company to a Big Ten title. A lot of people were surprised by the Nit- tany Lions' sudden potency, but first- year offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead was not among them. In his four seasons as head coach at Fordham, his offense had consistently been one of the best in the Football Championship Subdivision, and he knew that he would have to maintain his high standards if he was going to get the most out of the Lions. "The old saying is, 'No one rises to low expectations,'" Moorhead said. "I cer- tainly had lofty goals for the team and for the offense heading into the season." Penn State went a long way toward ac- complishing those goals, improving its scoring average by 14.4 points per game over the 2015 season. But for all their suc- cess, the Lions also left room for im- provement, finishing the season ranked 21st in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring average (37.6 points per game) and 49th in total offense (432.6 yards per game). They've since lost their leading re- ceiver, Chris Godwin, as well as the only offensive lineman to start all 14 games at the same position, Brian Gaia. But a host of playmakers return, McSorley, Barkley and Gesicki among them, along with the bulk of a steadily improving line. Moorhead recently took the time to speak with Blue White Illustrated web editor Nate Bauer about last season and the one to come. Here's what he had to say: BWI What are your primary takeaways from the 2016 season in terms of how well the offense implemented what you had installed? MOORHEAD I wouldn't say we started off rocky, but it wasn't as clean or as ef- ficient as I would have hoped or antici- pated early on, even though we were over 30 points in three of the first four games. It just wasn't super clean. But I think from the Maryland game on, we kind of hit our stride. Over the last six or seven, I think we were up over 40 points a game. So from an offensive standpoint, I was pleased with how we progressed throughout the season and was glad that our performance gave the team a chance to be successful and helped us reach our goals. BWI Do you worry about anything other than points? MOORHEAD The three things that we focus on offensively are points per game, explosive plays and turnover margin. Now, there are some secondary or terti- ary things or statistics that can help make those things better. But those are definitely the top three, the ones that we think play the biggest role in us winning or losing games. BWI The team improved by 14 points per game from the previous season. Does that happen a lot? MOORHEAD From a historical context, I'm not certain. Entering fall camp, we did the research, and Penn State teams that average 30 or more points a game have winning records and bowl games, so that was our benchmark, because it showed how much team success we could have if the offense played well. Now, to be the fifth-highest-scoring of- fense in Penn State history, or whatever it was, certainly I would imagine caught some people by surprise. BWI Is there still room to grow? MOORHEAD Absolutely. Yes. BWI How do you go about doing that? MOORHEAD I think we did a very good job as a staff at the end of the season going through our cut-ups in the run game and pass game, tweaking the things that we did well, eliminating the things that we didn't do well relative to our personnel – our ability to teach it and their ability to execute it. And then we just got done doing the same thing from spring ball. The old adage says, "When the defense thinks they have the answer, we want to change the question." If it's a virus and they have the vaccination, we want the strain to mutate a little bit. So we're not chang- ing anything wholesale, but there are going to be little variations and things that we research within our own scheme that we can find a way to do a little bit better. BWI By game 13 or 14 of any given sea- son, have opponents pretty much fig- ured out what you're doing? MOORHEAD At Fordham, it was termed sophisticated simplicity. I think that's part of what allows our offense to be ef- fective. We're not trying to trick any- body. We're not trying to create a new offense every week and align in multiple personnel groupings and formations and shifts and motions. We have the founda- tion of what we do, and then there are a bunch of different variables within that base that we can change up and tweak based on what the defense is presenting. Our kids understand what we're doing and why, and there's enough variation in the scheme that week by week, we can do something that looks completely dif- ferent to a defense, but to our kids it's something they've been practicing for a very long time. BWI Is "pick your poison" the best way to describe it? MOORHEAD Relative to the run game vs. the pass game? I would say that's fair in the sense that there were games last year where teams committed to ab-