So I’m just going to be totally honest here in this space, and you guys can do what you want with it.
We’re at a very, very special time of year. Preseason practice in in full swing, a scrimmage is in the books, and we’re now talking about a matter of weeks before the first game and the start of the 2015 season. All reasons for extra excitement all around.
All are also reasons for extra levels of precaution around the Penn State football program. Point blank, the fewer specifics are out there, the better this staff feels about any and every element of surprise it can bring to the opener. The same was true last year, and I expect it to be the same in the coming years. In other words, compiling play-by-play reports of the first preseason scrimmage is essentially impossible, by design.
That said, I have a few things I can say with some level of confidence that they are accurate from Saturday's "uneventful" scrimmage. I can also say with the same level of confidence that details beyond these, for the time being, are going to be tough to find.
1) I think what's important for people to note here though is that preseason scrimmages - especially the first one - are not really anything like a Blue-White Game or a full game-like opportunity of ones vs. twos and so on. They manipulate everything. And from my understanding, Saturday was pretty uneventful. Again, as it pertains to the interests of Penn State football, no news is good news. No significant injury news that I know of, but again, injury information is something this staff is just extremely cautious about, and I don't blame them for it. It's understandably a competitive disadvantage to have that type of info out there.
2) As I understand it, the offense is taking some baby steps while the defense appears to have not missed much of a step since last season. In other words, the defense is ahead of the offense at the moment. This is not a big deal and has probably been true since the dawn of time in college football. It's the way it works in the preseason, and the same is true right now. Learning an offense is more complicated, it takes more synchronization, and right now is when those kinks get worked out and an offense starts to take shape. Everyone can just take a breather because it will likely get better - how good, I don't know.
3) Special teams appear to be taking a step forward. Penn State has some real assets in the return game, and so to see those starting to come to fruition shouldn't be a surprise.
When more information presents itself and I feel comfortable putting it out there, I will. But I am sincerely asking for some patience and understanding to the fact that, largely, what happens in scrimmages is mostly irrelevant to the larger trends of preseason camp. That is the actual valuable information, and is something I hope you are seeing in our other weekly reports that we have already had and will continue to have in the coming weeks.
We’re at a very, very special time of year. Preseason practice in in full swing, a scrimmage is in the books, and we’re now talking about a matter of weeks before the first game and the start of the 2015 season. All reasons for extra excitement all around.
All are also reasons for extra levels of precaution around the Penn State football program. Point blank, the fewer specifics are out there, the better this staff feels about any and every element of surprise it can bring to the opener. The same was true last year, and I expect it to be the same in the coming years. In other words, compiling play-by-play reports of the first preseason scrimmage is essentially impossible, by design.
That said, I have a few things I can say with some level of confidence that they are accurate from Saturday's "uneventful" scrimmage. I can also say with the same level of confidence that details beyond these, for the time being, are going to be tough to find.
1) I think what's important for people to note here though is that preseason scrimmages - especially the first one - are not really anything like a Blue-White Game or a full game-like opportunity of ones vs. twos and so on. They manipulate everything. And from my understanding, Saturday was pretty uneventful. Again, as it pertains to the interests of Penn State football, no news is good news. No significant injury news that I know of, but again, injury information is something this staff is just extremely cautious about, and I don't blame them for it. It's understandably a competitive disadvantage to have that type of info out there.
2) As I understand it, the offense is taking some baby steps while the defense appears to have not missed much of a step since last season. In other words, the defense is ahead of the offense at the moment. This is not a big deal and has probably been true since the dawn of time in college football. It's the way it works in the preseason, and the same is true right now. Learning an offense is more complicated, it takes more synchronization, and right now is when those kinks get worked out and an offense starts to take shape. Everyone can just take a breather because it will likely get better - how good, I don't know.
3) Special teams appear to be taking a step forward. Penn State has some real assets in the return game, and so to see those starting to come to fruition shouldn't be a surprise.
When more information presents itself and I feel comfortable putting it out there, I will. But I am sincerely asking for some patience and understanding to the fact that, largely, what happens in scrimmages is mostly irrelevant to the larger trends of preseason camp. That is the actual valuable information, and is something I hope you are seeing in our other weekly reports that we have already had and will continue to have in the coming weeks.
